Obama+Primer

 =Barack Obama- 44th President of the United States of America=

One word describes Barack Obama, and that word is change. This was Obama's simple but to the point campaign slogan for the 2008 Presidential Elections. With this promise of change and his running mate Joe Biden, Barack won the hearts of the American people and became the 44th President in United States history. But something was different about this election, Obama was African American. This was the first time that an African American had been elected to the Presidency, and this not only was a huge movement for the people of the United States, but also for racial barriers that still stood in America. 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.​ Barack Obama began his presidential run in February of 2007.
 * Overview[[image:obama_change.jpg width="126" height="150" align="right" caption="Obamas Campaign Slogan" link="http://thumbbook.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/barack_obama_change_fairey.jpg"]] **

Central Issue
Obama beat out Hilary Clinton in the Democratic Party presidential primaries to become the Democratic Representative in the Presidential race and later defeated Republican candidate John McCain for the Presidency. He was inaugurated on January 20th, 2009 as many people around the United States and the World watched and attended his inauguration. As many presidents have in the past, Obama was also tracked for his first 100 days in office. Barack wasted no time going to work as he issued executive orders and directed the U.S. Military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, and ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention camp within his first few days in office. The president also reversed George W. Bush's ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions. Obama has changed the outlook on United States foreign policy as he has outreached a hand to the Muslim world and several Arab leaders. On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East." Obama made more history on September 24, 2009 by being the first sitting United States President to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Council. Overall //TIME// magazine gave Barack Obama a rating of an A- for his first 100 days in office.

By far the biggest achievement that Barack Obama has achieved wasn't one that was just about him, but about the American people and mostly the African American descendants in the United States. Obama broke racial barriers on the day he was inaugurated and the United States took a large step in over coming racial backgrounds that has haunted it in the past. It was about time that a person of African American descent hold the presidential office, it wasn't just for Barack and his family but for ones that came before him in the civil rights movement; Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X. On October 9th, 2009 Barack was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. Specific examples for why the award was granted to him was: his efforts to promote nuclear nonproliferation, especially in Iran and the fostering of a "new climate" in international relations, especially in reaching out to the Muslim world. Obama is the fourth president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate during his term in office.
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