President Barack Obama

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

Fredspriset till Barack Obama

USA:s president Barack Obama får Nobels fredspris. Det var det mycket överraskande beskedet från den norska Nobelkommittén vid tillkännagivandet i Oslo klockan 11 i dag.

Den amerikanska presidentens namn fanns visserligen med i förhandsspekulationerna. Men beslutet från fredspriskommittén kom ändå som en stor överraskning. De flesta hade trott på en mer "klassisk" fredskämpe, som Colombias Piedad Córdoba eller Afghanistans Sima Samar.

En förvånat sus gick genom det församlade pressubbbådet när den norska Nobelkommitténs [1] ordförande, förra norska statsministern Thorbjørn Jagland, tillkännagav att årets pristagare är Barack Obama [2].
Annons:

Kommittén har funnit att Barack Obama har tänt ett framtidshopp med sina ansträngningar för ett bättre samarbetsklimat [3]i världen. Särskilt uppmärksammas Obamas uttalade önskan att åstadkomma en kärnvapenfri värld.

- Nobelkommittén har genom sitt 108-åriga arbete hela tiden stått för samma värderingar som den nuvarande amerikanska presidenten står för, sade Jagland.

- Det här kommer att uppskattas av många ledare runt om I världen.

Jagland möttes av en del skeptiska frågor. Obama har knappast åstadkommit något konkret ännu, riskerar inte kommittén att anklagas för att vara politisk? Hur ska man se på det faktum att USA för ett krig i Afghanistan [4]?

- Vi har inte gett priset för vad som ska komma, utan för vad som har skett det senaste året, svarade Jagland.

- Vi hoppas det ska inspirera andra ledare att reagera på ett positivt sätt på det Obama försöker göra.

Thorbjørn Jagland påpekade att Nobelkommittén historiskt vid flera tillfällen försökt stärka det politiker har velat göra och exemplifierade med Willy Brandt [5]på 1970-talet och Michail Gorbatjov [6] 1990.

För att vara helt säker på att undvika läckor hade man inte meddelat pristagaren själv ännu, berättade Jagland. Man hade inte velat väcka honom.

Det norska Nobelinstitutets forskningschef Olav Njölstad betonade i en intervju i SVT att det var just viljan till fortsatt kärnvapennedrustning som var av avgörande vikt.

- Redan under valkampanjen sade Obama detta, och han upprepade det direkt efter det att han blivit vald och senare i det stora talet i Prag [7]. Så han har i högsta grad haft det högt på sin agenda, sade Njölstad.

Ännu finns inga konkreta nedrustningsresultat att visa upp.

- Men han har varit pådrivare för att få till ett nytt Startavtal [8], ett nytt avtal som kommer att leda till en ganska betydande minskning av kärnvapnen, sade Njölstad.

barack obama

barack obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/ ( listen); born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii. Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.

Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he ran for United States Senate in 2004. During the campaign, several events brought him to national attention, such as his victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary election for the United States Senator from Illinois as well as his prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004.

Obama began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Obama is the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.[4]