Nobel Peace Prize
Main article: 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
On October 9, 2009 the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[236] As specific examples of the work that led to the award, the Nobel Prize Committee highlighted his efforts to promote nuclear nonproliferation (particularly in Iran),[237] and the fostering of a "new climate" in international relations, especially in reaching out to the Muslim world.[238]
Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the third to become a Nobel laureate during his term in office, and the first to be recognized in the first year of his presidency.[239] Members of the Nobel Committee award stated that it could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support for the policies of his young administration.[240] The award was a surprise to many, including Obama himself.[241] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[242][243] Members of the selection committee defended their choice against criticism that the award was premature.[244]
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Cultural and political image
Cultural and political image
President George W. Bush invited then-President-elect Barack Obama and former Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter to a meeting in the Oval Office on January 7, 2009.Main article: Public image of Barack Obama
Obama's family history, early life and upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[215] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong."[216] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[217]
Obama presents his first weekly address as President of the United States, discussing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[218] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses[219] similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous fireside chats to explain his policies and actions.[220]
According to the Gallup Daily Poll, during his first 100 days in office as president, Obama received approval ratings ranging from 59% to 69%.[221] From late August through November 2009, his approval rating was around 53%[222], dropping below 50% for the first time on the Nov. 17-19 Gallup daily results.[223][224][225]
Obama's international appeal has been described as a defining factor for his public image.[226] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[227] and he has met with prominent foreign figures including then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[228] Italy's Democratic Party leader and then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[229] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[230]
According to a May 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of this economic downturn.[231]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[232] His "Yes We Can" speech, which artists independently set to music, was viewed by 10 million people on YouTube in the first month,[233] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[234] In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[235]
President George W. Bush invited then-President-elect Barack Obama and former Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter to a meeting in the Oval Office on January 7, 2009.Main article: Public image of Barack Obama
Obama's family history, early life and upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[215] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong."[216] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[217]
Obama presents his first weekly address as President of the United States, discussing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[218] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses[219] similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous fireside chats to explain his policies and actions.[220]
According to the Gallup Daily Poll, during his first 100 days in office as president, Obama received approval ratings ranging from 59% to 69%.[221] From late August through November 2009, his approval rating was around 53%[222], dropping below 50% for the first time on the Nov. 17-19 Gallup daily results.[223][224][225]
Obama's international appeal has been described as a defining factor for his public image.[226] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[227] and he has met with prominent foreign figures including then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[228] Italy's Democratic Party leader and then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[229] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[230]
According to a May 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of this economic downturn.[231]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[232] His "Yes We Can" speech, which artists independently set to music, was viewed by 10 million people on YouTube in the first month,[233] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[234] In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[235]
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Family and personal life
Family and personal life
Barack Obama together with his family, as they wave from the South Portico of the White House to guests attending the White House Easter Egg Roll.Main articles: Early life and career of Barack Obama and Family of Barack Obama
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[188] Obama has seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family, six of them living, and a half-sister with whom he was raised, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband.[189] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham[190] until her death on November 2, 2008[191] just two days before his election to the Presidency. In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[192] Obama's great-uncle served in the 89th Division that overran Ohrdruf,[193] the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops during World War II.[194]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[195] Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at the conversational level, which he learned during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[196] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team.[197]
Obama playing basketball with U.S. military at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti in 2006[198]Obama is a well known supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[199] In 2009 he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game wearing a White Sox jacket.[200]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[201] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[202] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[203] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[204] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[205] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[206]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[207] The purchase of an adjacent lot and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[208]
In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[209] Their 2007 tax return showed a household income of $4.2 million—up from about $1 million in 2006 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[210]
Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household". He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists") to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He describes his father as "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change".[211] He was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and was an active member there for two decades.[212] Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[213]
Obama has tried to quit smoking several times,[214] and said he will not smoke in the White House.
Barack Obama together with his family, as they wave from the South Portico of the White House to guests attending the White House Easter Egg Roll.Main articles: Early life and career of Barack Obama and Family of Barack Obama
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher."[188] Obama has seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family, six of them living, and a half-sister with whom he was raised, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband.[189] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham[190] until her death on November 2, 2008[191] just two days before his election to the Presidency. In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.[192] Obama's great-uncle served in the 89th Division that overran Ohrdruf,[193] the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops during World War II.[194]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[195] Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at the conversational level, which he learned during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[196] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team.[197]
Obama playing basketball with U.S. military at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti in 2006[198]Obama is a well known supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[199] In 2009 he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game wearing a White Sox jacket.[200]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[201] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[202] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[203] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[204] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[205] The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[206]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[207] The purchase of an adjacent lot and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[208]
In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[209] Their 2007 tax return showed a household income of $4.2 million—up from about $1 million in 2006 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[210]
Obama is a Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household". He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists") to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He describes his father as "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change".[211] He was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and was an active member there for two decades.[212] Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[213]
Obama has tried to quit smoking several times,[214] and said he will not smoke in the White House.
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