Barack
Obama is the 44th and current president of the United States, and the
first African American to serve as U.S. president. First elected to the
presidency in 2008, he won a second term in 2012. Born
on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Barack Obama is the 44th and
current president of the United States. He was a community organizer,
civil-rights lawyer and teacher before pursuing a political career. He
was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 and to the U.S. Senate
in 2004. He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008, and won
re-election in 2012 against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Early Life
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham,
was born on an Army base in Wichita, Kansas, during World War II. After
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, enlisted
in the military and marched across Europe in General George Patton's
army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line.
After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house
through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, ended up
in Hawaii.
Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo
ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. grew up herding goats in
Africa and, eventually earned a scholarship that allowed him to leave
Kenya and pursue his dreams of going to college in Hawaii. While
studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Obama Sr. met fellow
student Ann Dunham, and they married on February 2, 1961. Barack was
born six months later.
As a child, Obama did not have a
relationship with his father. When his son was still an infant, Obama
Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and pursue a
Ph.D. Obama's parents officially separated several months later and
ultimately divorced in March 1964, when their son was two. Soon after,
Obama Sr. returned to Kenya.
In 1965, Dunham married Lolo
Soetoro, a University of Hawaii student from Indonesia. A year later,
the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama's half-sister, Maya
Soetoro Ng, was born in 1970. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham
afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Obama
was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His
mother and half-sister later joined them.
Education
While
living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou
Academy, He excelled in basketball and graduated with academic honors in
1979. As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became
conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later
described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his
multiracial heritage with his own sense of self: "I noticed that there
was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog. . .and that
Santa was a white man," he wrote. "I went into the bathroom and stood in
front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact,
looking as I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with
me."
Obama also struggled with the absence of his father, who he
saw only once more after his parents divorced, when Obama Sr. visited
Hawaii for a short time in 1971. "[My father] had left paradise, and
nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that
single, unassailable fact," he later reflected. "They couldn't describe
what it might have been like had he stayed."
Ten years later, in
1981, tragedy struck Obama Sr. when he lost both of his legs in a
serious car accident. Confined to a wheelchair, he also lost his job. In
1982, Obama Sr. was involved in yet another car accident while
traveling in Nairobi. This time, however, the crash was fatal. Obama Sr.
died on November 24, 1982, when Obama was 21 years old. "At the time of
his death, my father remained a myth to me," Obama later wrote, "both
more and less than a man."
After high school, Obama studied at
Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to
Columbia University in New York City, graduating in 1983 with a degree
in political science. After working in the business sector for two
years, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked on the
impoverished South Side as a community organizer for low-income
residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities.
Law Career
It
was during this time that Obama, who said he "was not raised in a
religious household," joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. He
also visited relatives in Kenya, and paid an emotional visit to the
graves of his biological father and paternal grandfather. "For a long
time I sat between the two graves and wept," Obama wrote. "I saw that my
life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of
abandonment I'd felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in
Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean
away."
Returning from Kenya with a sense of renewal, Obama
entered Harvard Law School in 1988. The next year, he joined the Chicago
law firm of Sidley Austin as a summer associate and Michelle Robinson,
a young lawyer assigned to be Obama's adviser. Not long after, the
couple began dating. In February 1990, Obama was elected the first
African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991.
After
law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights
lawyer with the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught
constitutional law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School
between 1992 and 2004—first as a lecturer and then as a professor—and
helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton's
1992 presidential campaign. On October 3, 1992, he and Michelle were
married. They moved to Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side, and welcomed
two daughters several years later: Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born
2001).
Entry Into Illinois Politics
Obama published an autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, in 1995. The work received high praise from literary figures such as Toni Morrison
and has since been printed in more than 25 languages, including
Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. The book had a second printing in 2004 and
was adapted for a children's version. The audiobook version of Dreams, narrated by Obama, received a Grammy Award for best spoken word album in 2006.
Obama's
advocacy work led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate.
He ran as a Democrat and won election in 1996. During his years as a
state senator, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft
legislation on ethics, as well as expand health care services and early
childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state
earned-income tax credit for the working poor. As chairman of the
Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee Obama worked with
law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations
and confessions in all capital cases after a number of death-row inmates
were found to be innocent.
In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful
Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held
by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Undeterred, he created a
campaign committee in 2002 and began raising funds to run for a seat in
the U.S. Senate in 2004. With the help of political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessing his prospects for a Senate win.
Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush's
push to go to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he
spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq
during a rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza in October 2002. "I am not
opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said. "What I am
opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz
and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove
their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the
costs in lives lost and in hardships borne." Despite his protests, the
Iraq War began in 2003.
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U.S. Senate Career
Encouraged
by poll numbers, Obama decided to run for the U.S. Senate open seat
vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the 2004 Democratic primary,
he defeated multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois
Comptroller Daniel Hynes with 52 percent of the vote. That summer, he
was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry
at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized
the importance of unity and made veiled jabs at the Bush administration
and the diversionary use of wedge issues.
After the convention,
Obama returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the
general election was supposed to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan,
a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the
race in June 2004 following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual
deviancy allegations by his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.
In August 2004, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and Keyes
expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control,
school vouchers and tax cuts. In the November 2004 general election,
Obama received 70 percent of the vote to Keyes' 27 percent, the largest
electoral victory in Illinois history. With his win, Obama became only
the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since
Reconstruction.
Sworn into office on January 3, 2005, Obama
partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill
that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern
Europe and Russia. Then, with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma,
he created a website to track all federal spending. Obama also spoke
out for victims of Hurricane Katrina, pushed for alternative energy
development and championed improved veterans' benefits.
His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,
was published in October 2006. The work discussed Obama's visions for
the future of America, many of which became talking points for his
eventual presidential campaign. Shortly after its release, the book hit
No. 1 on both the New York Times and Amazon.com best-seller lists.
2008 Presidential Election
In
February 2007, Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for
the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight
battle with former first lady and then-U.S. senator from New York Hillary Rodham Clinton.
On June 3, 2008, Obama became the Democratic Party's presumptive
nominee after winning a sufficient number of pledged delegates during
the primaries, and Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the
duration of his campaign. On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated
Republican presidential nominee John McCain,
52.9 percent to 45.7 percent, to win election as the 44th president of
the United States—and the first African-American to hold this office.
His running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, became vice president.
Obama's inauguration took place on January 20, 2009.
When Obama
took office, he inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing
foreign wars and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for
the United States. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial
reform, alternative energy and reinventing education and health care—all
while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were
intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all
would have to be undertaken simultaneously. During his inauguration
speech, Obama summarized the situation by saying, "Today I say to you
that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are
many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know
this, America: They will be met."
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First 100 Days
Between
Inauguration Day and April 29, 2009, the Obama administration took
action on many fronts. Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care
insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking
equal pay. A $787 billion stimulus bill was passed to promote short-term
economic growth. Housing and credit markets were put on life support,
with a market-based plan to buy U.S. banks' toxic assets. Loans were
made to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall
Street. Obama also cut taxes for working families, small businesses and
first-time home buyers. The president also loosened the ban on embryonic
stem cell research and moved ahead with a $3.5 trillion budget plan.
Over
his first 100 days in office, President Obama also undertook a complete
overhaul of America's foreign policy. He reached out to improve
relations with Europe, China and Russia and to open dialogue with Iran,
Venezuela and Cuba. He lobbied allies to support a global economic
stimulus package. He committed an additional 21,000 troops to
Afghanistan and set an August 2010 date for withdrawal of nearly all
U.S. troops from Iraq. In more dramatic incidents, he ordered an attack
on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine
flu outbreak. He signed an executive order banning excessive
interrogation techniques and ordered the closing of the military
detention facility at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay within a year (a deadline
that ultimately would not be met). For his efforts, the Nobel Committee
in Norway awarded Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
2010 State of the Union
On
January 27, 2010, President Obama delivered his first State of the
Union speech. During his oration, Obama addressed the challenges of the
economy, proposed a fee for larger banks, announced a possible freeze on
government spending in the following fiscal year and spoke against the
Supreme Court's reversal of a law capping campaign finance spending. He
also challenged politicians to stop thinking of re-election and start
making positive changes. He criticized Republicans for their refusal to
support any legislation and chastised Democrats for not pushing hard
enough to get legislation passed. He also insisted that, despite
obstacles, he was determined to help American citizens through the
nation's current domestic difficulties. "We don't quit. I don't quit,"
he said. "Let's seize this moment to start anew, to carry the dream
forward, and to strengthen our union once more."
Challenges and Successes
In
the second part of his first term as president, Obama faced a number of
obstacles and scored some victories as well. In spite of opposition
from Congressional Republicans and the populist Tea Party movement,
Obama signed his health care reform plan, known as the Affordable Care
Act, into law in March 2010. The new law prohibited the denial of
coverage based on pre-existing conditions, allowed citizens under 26
years old to be insured under parental plans, provided for free health
screenings for certain citizens and expanded insurance coverage and
access to medical care to millions of Americans. Opponents of the
Affordable Care Act, which foes dubbed "Obamacare," asserted that it
added new costs to the country's overblown budget, violated the
Constitution with its requirement for individuals to obtain insurance
and amounted to a “government takeover” of health care
On the
economic front, Obama worked to steer the country through difficult
financial times. After drawn-out negotiations with Republicans who
gained control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 mid-term
elections, he signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 in an effort to
rein in government spending and prevent the government from defaulting
on its financial obligations. The act also called for the creation of a
bipartisan committee to seek solutions to the country's fiscal issues,
but the group failed to reach any agreement on how to solve these
problems.
Also in 2011, Obama signed a repeal of the military
policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which prevented openly gay
troops from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. In March 2011, he approved
U.S. participation in NATO airstrikes to support rebels fighting
against the forces of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, and in May he also gave the green light to a covert operation in Pakistan that led to the killing of infamous al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs.
Obama
gained a legal victory in June 2012 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which required citizens to
purchase health insurance or pay a tax. In a 5-4 decision, the court
decided the health care law’s signature provision fell within the
taxation power granted to Congress under the Constitution. Voting with
the majority were two associate justices appointed by Obama—Sonia Sotomayor (confirmed in 2009) and Elena Kagan (confirmed in 2010).
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2012 Re-Election
As
he did in 2008, during his campaign for a second presidential term,
Obama focused on grassroots initiatives. Celebrities such as Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker aided the president's campaign by hosting fund-raising events.
"I
guarantee you, we will move this country forward," Obama stated in June
2012, at a campaign event in Maryland. "We will finish what we started.
And we'll remind the world just why it
it is that the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth."
In the 2012 election, Obama faced Republican opponent Mitt Romney and Romney's vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan.
On November 6, 2012, Obama won a second four-year term as president by
receiving nearly five million more votes than Romney and capturing more
than 60 percent of the Electoral College.
Nearly one month after
President Obama's re-election, the nation endured one of its most tragic
school shootings to date when 20 children and six adults were shot to
death at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on
December 14, 2012. Two days after the attack, Obama delivered a speech
at an interfaith vigil for the victims in Newtown and discussed a need
for change in order to make schools safer while alluding to implementing
stricter gun-control measures. "These tragedies must end," Obama
stated. "In the coming weeks, I'll use whatever power this office holds
to engage my fellow citizens—from law enforcement, to mental-health
professionals, to parents and educators—in an effort aimed at preventing
more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have? We can't
accept events like these as routine. Are we really prepared to say that
we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too
hard?"
Obama achieved a major legislative victory on January 1,
2013, when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a
bipartisan agreement on tax increases and spending cuts, in an effort
to avoid the looming fiscal cliff crisis (the Senate voted in favor of
the bill earlier that day). The agreement marked a productive first step
toward the president's re-election promise of reducing the federal
deficit by raising taxes on the extremely wealthy—individuals earning
more than $400,000 per year and couples earning more than $450,000,
according to the bill. Prior to the bill's passage, in late 2012, tense
negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over spending cuts and
tax increases became a bitter political battle until Vice President Joe
Biden managed to hammer out a deal with Republican Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell. Obama pledged to sign the bill into law.
Obama found himself
grappling with an international crisis in late August and September 2013
when it was discovered that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad had
used chemical weapons against civilians. While saying that thousands of
people, including over 400 children, had been killed in the chemical
attacks, Obama called Syria's actions "a serious national security
threat to the United States and to the region, and as a consequence,
Assad and Syria needs to be held accountable."
The president
worked to persuade Congress and the international community at large to
take action against Syria, but found a majority on Capitol Hill opposed
to military involvement. Obama then announced an alternative solution on
September 10, 2013, by stating that if al-Assad agreed with the
stipulations outlined in a proposal made by Russia to give up its
chemical weapons, then a direct strike against the nation could be
avoided. Al-Assad acknowledged the possession of chemical weapons and
ultimately accepted the Russian proposal.
Later that month, Obama made diplomatic strides with Iran. He spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
on the phone, which marked the first direct contact between the leaders
of the two countries in more than 30 years. This groundbreaking move by
Obama was seen by many as a sign of thawing in the relationship between
the United States and Iran. "The two of us discussed our ongoing
efforts to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear program," reported
Obama at a press conference in which he expressed optimism that a deal
could be reached to lift sanctions on Iran in return for that country’s
willingness to halt its nuclear development program.
Domestic Policies and Problems
Obama
found himself struggling on the domestic front in October 2013. A
dispute over the federal budget and Republican desires to defund or
derail the Affordable Care Act caused a 16-day shutdown of the federal
government. After a deal had been reached to end the shutdown, Obama
used his weekly address to express his frustration over the situation
and his desire for political reform: "The way business is done in
Washington has to change. Now that these clouds of crisis and
uncertainty have lifted, we need to focus on what the majority of
Americans sent us here to do—grow the economy, create good jobs,
strengthen the middle class, lay the foundation for broad-based
prosperity, and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul."
The
Affordable Care Act continued to come under fire in October after the
failed launch of HealthCare.gov, the website meant to allow people to
find and purchase health insurance. Extra technical support was brought
in to work on the troubled website, which was plagued with glitches for
weeks. The health care law was also blamed for some Americans losing
their existing insurance policies, despite repeated assurances from
Obama that such cancellations would not occur. According to the Chicago Tribune,
Obama insisted that the insurance companies—and not his
legislation—caused the coverage change. "Remember, before the Affordable
Care Act, these bad-apple insurers had free rein every single year to
limit the care that you received, or used minor pre-existing conditions
to jack up your premiums, or bill you into bankruptcy,” he said.
Under
mounting pressure, Obama found himself apologizing regarding some
health care changes. In an interview with NBC News, he said of those who
lost their insurance plans, "I am sorry that they are finding
themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me."
Obama pledged to find a remedy to this problem, saying, "We are going to
do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough
position as a consequence of this."
Managing Foreign Crises
The fall of 2013 brought Obama additional challenges in the area of foreign relations. In October 2013, German Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed
that the NSA had been listening in to her cell phone calls. "Spying
among friends is never acceptable," Merkel told a summit of European
leaders. In the wake of these controversies, Obama saw his approval
rating drop to a new low in November 2013. Only 37 percent of Americans
polled by CBS News approved of the job he was doing as president, while
57 percent disapproved of his handling of the job.
Echoes of the
Cold War also returned after civil unrest and protests in the capital
city of Kiev led to the downfall of Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych's administration in February 2014. Russian troops crossed
into Ukraine to support pro-Russian forces and the annexation of the
province of Crimea. In response, Obama ordered sanctions targeting
individuals and businesses considered by the U.S. government to be
Ukraine agitators or involved in the Crimean crisis. "In 2014 we are
well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of
democratic leaders," Obama stated. The president said the sanctions were
taken in close coordination with European allies and gave the U.S. "the
flexibility to adjust our response going forward based on Russia's
actions.”
In addition to the ongoing troubles in Ukraine,
tensions between Israelis and Palestinians erupted into violence in Gaza
during the summer of 2014. At the same time, tens of thousands of
Central American children were being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico
border after making the perilous crossing alone. Many Republicans called
for the rapid deportation of these illegal immigrants, while others
considered the situation a humanitarian crisis. Another of the
president's woes came from the legislative branch. Speaker of the House John Boehner
launched an effort to sue Obama for overstepping his executive powers
with some of his actions regarding the Affordable Care Act.
In
August 2014, Obama ordered the first airstrikes against the
self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which had
seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria and conducted high-profile
beheadings of foreign hostages. The following month, the U.S. launched
its first attacks on ISIS targets in Syria, although the president
pledged to keep combat troops out of the conflict. Several Arab
countries joined in the airstrikes against the extremist Islamic
militant group. "The only language understood by killers like this is
the language of force,” Obama said in a speech to the United Nations.
“So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to
dismantle this network of death."
Presidency After 2014 Elections
That
November, Obama had to cope with new challenges on the home front.
Republicans made an impressive showing on Election Day and gained a
majority in the Senate, meaning that Obama would have to contend with
Republicans controlling both houses of Congress for the final two years
of his term.
Obama flexed his presidential power in December by
moving to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba for the first time
in more than 50 years. The policy change came after the exchange of
American citizen Alan Gross and another unnamed American intelligence
agent for three Cuban spies. In a speech at the White House, Obama
explained that the dramatic shift in Cuban policy would "create more
opportunities for the American and Cuban people and begin a new chapter
among the nations of the Americas."
In renewing diplomatic ties
with Cuba, Obama announced plans "to increase travel, commerce and the
flow of information to and from Cuba." The long-standing U.S. economic
embargo on Cuba, however, remained in effect and could only be removed
with the approval of Congress. Obama may not be able to sway Congress to
agree on this policy shift as leading Republicans—including Boehner,
McConnell and Florida Senator Marco Rubio—all spoke out against Obama's new Cuba policies.
In
his 2015 State of the Union address, Obama declared that the nation was
out of recession. "America, for all that we've endured; for all the
grit and hard work required to come back . . . know this: The shadow of
crisis has passed," he said. He went on to share his vision for ways to
improve the nation through free community college programs and
middle-class tax breaks.
With Democrats outnumbered by
Republicans in both the House and the Senate, Obama threatened to use
his executive power to prevent any tinkering by the opposition on his
existing policies. "We can’t put the security of families at risk by
taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall
Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve got to fix a
broken system," he said. "And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to
do any of these things, I will veto it."
Not long after his State of the Union address, Obama traveled to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to several news reports, Obama and Modi had reached a
"breakthrough understanding" regarding India's nuclear power efforts.
Obama told the Indian people in a speech given in New Delhi that "we can
finally move toward fully implementing our civil nuclear agreement,
which will mean more reliable electricity for Indians and cleaner,
non-carbon energy that helps fight climate change." This agreement would
also open the door to U.S. investment in India's energy industry.
Supreme Court Victories
The
summer of 2015 brought two major U.S. Supreme Court wins for the Obama
administration. The court upheld part of the president's Affordable Care
Act regarding health care tax subsidies. Without these tax credits,
buying medical insurance might have become too costly for millions of
Americans.
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court also made marriage
equality a reality with its 5-4 decision to overturn an earlier 6th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that same-sex marriage bans in several
states were constitutional. By reversing this earlier decision, the
Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal throughout the country.
President Obama, who became the first president to voice support for
same-sex marriage in May 2012, praised the court for affirming "that the
Constitution guarantees marriage equality. In doing so, they've
reaffirmed that all Americans are entitled to the equal protection of
the law. That all people should be treated equally, regardless of who
they are or who they love."
In
his speech, Obama also said that the court's decision "is a consequence
of the countless small acts of courage of millions of people across
decades who stood up, who came out, who talked to parents—parents who
loved their children no matter what. Folks who were willing to endure
bullying and taunts, and stayed strong . . . and slowly made an entire
country realize that love is love."
On
the same day as this landmark decision, President Obama grappled with
an incident of racial violence by speaking at the funeral of Reverend
Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine African-Americans killed by a young
white man during a Bible study meeting at the Emanuel AME Church in
Charleston, South Carolina. In his eulogy for Pinckney, Obama said that
the church’s late pastor "embodied the idea that our Christian faith
demands deeds and not just words."Iran Nuclear Deal In
July 2015, Obama announced that, after lengthy negotiations, the United
States and five world powers had reached an agreement with Iran over its
nuclear program. The deal would allow inspectors entry into Iran to
make sure the country kept its pledge to limit its nuclear program and
enrich uranium at a much lower level than would be needed for a nuclear
weapon. In return, the U.S. and its partners would remove the tough
sanctions imposed on Iran and allow the country to ramp up sales of oil
and access frozen bank accounts.
As the administration began its
effort to lobby Congress to endorse the deal, Obama made his first trip
as president back to his father’s homeland of Kenya. In addition to
having dinner with three-dozen relatives, some of whom he met for the
very first time, Obama proudly proclaimed to a packed arena, “I am proud
to be the first American president to come to Kenya—and of course I’m
the first Kenyan-American to be president of the United States.”
Clean Power Plan
In August 2015, the Obama administration announced The Clean Power Plan,
a major climate change plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
the first-ever national standards to limit carbon pollution from
coal-burning power plants in the United States. President Obama called
the plan the "single most important step that America has ever made in
the fight against global climate change."
The
plan calls for aggressive Environmental Protection Agency regulations
including requiring existing power plants to cut carbon dioxide
emissions 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and use more renewable
energy sources like wind and solar power. Under the regulations, states
will be allowed to create their own plans to reduce emissions and are
required to submit initial plans by 2016 and final versions by 2018.
Critics
quickly voiced loud opposition to the plan including Kentucky Senator
Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, who sent a letter to
every governor in the United States urging them not to comply with the
regulations. States and private companies, which rely on coal production
for their economic livelihoods, are also expected to legally challenge
the plan.
Despite the backlash from those sectors, President
Obama remained steadfast in his bold action to address climate change.
"We've heard these same stale arguments before," he said in an address
from the White House. "Each time they were wrong."
He added:
"We're the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the
last generation that can do something about it."
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