21 Facts about Barack Obama

Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States. In the last 20 months he spent much of his time campaigning for the job, and deflecting criticism about his character and what type of job he'd do as Commander in Chief. Now he's won the top spot and people around the world are just beginning to learn about him. As Barack Obama is being briefed about his new responsilbilities as President, now would be a good time to brief ourselves on the man who is now leader of our great country.



Here are 21 interesting facts about Barack Obama.

1. Barack Obama is 48 years old and was born on August 4, 1961.
   
2. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School
   
3. His father Barack Hussein Obama was a senior economist for the government of Kenya and is considered to be a national hero in that country.
   
4. Barack Obama has admitted to using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine as a youth.
   
5. He is the author of the 1995 memoir "Dreams of My Father."
   
6. As a child he was known as 'Barry', but asked people to start calling him Barack during his college years.
   
7. Obama and his wife Michelle earned a combined $4.2 million in 2007.
   
8. Obama has seven half brothers and sisters from the Kenya side of the family.
   
9. He also has a half sister from his mother's second marriage to Indonesian Lolo Soetoro
   
10. Obama was the son of a teenager who became pregnant. That teenager, S. Ann Soetoro went on to receive her PH.D in Anthropology. "When I think about my mother," Obama said. "I think that there was a certain combination of being very
    grounded in who she was, what she believed in. But also a certain recklessness. I think she was always searching for something. She wasn't comfortable seeing her life confined to a certain box."
    
11. Barack Obama loves basketball and played varsity basketball in high school.
    
12. Obama was extremely close to his mother's mother, Madelyn Dunham, who died on November 2nd. 2008, just prior to his election as President and just after she cast her vote for him.
    
13. Obama penned 'The Audacity of Hope', which was released in 2006.
    
14. Barack Obama has been married to Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama , since 1992. She's a life-long Chicago area resident and the main reason the new President has developed roots in that city.
    
15. Obama is the father of two girls, Malia Ann and Sasha.
    
16. Barack Obama met wife Michelle when they both worked for the same law firm.
    
17. In May of this year, Obama severed all ties with his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, who was known for making controversial statements.
    
18. Barack Obama raised more money than any other Presidential candidate in history
    
19. Obama is an opponent of same sex marriage. 'I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."
    
20. Obama is a left hander.
    
21. Obama is a 1979 graduate of Punahou High School in Honolulu, Hawaii.
    

"America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for this country that we love," said Obama.

Barack Obama will be sworn in as the new President of the United States on January 20th 2009.

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