Following high school, Obama moved to
Los Angeles, where he studied at
Occidental College for two years.
[8] He then transferred to
Columbia University in
New York City, where he majored in
political science with a specialization in
international relations.
[9] Obama graduated with a
B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then worked at
Business International Corporation and
New York Public Interest Research Group.
[10][11]
After four years in New York City, Obama moved to
Chicago to work as a community organizer for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the
Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprised of eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (
Roseland,
West Pullman, and
Riverdale) on Chicago's far
South Side.
[10][12] During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in
Altgeld Gardens.
[13] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the
Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.
[14] In summer 1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then Kenya for five weeks where he met many of his Kenyan relatives for the first time.
[15]
He entered
Harvard Law School in 1988.
[16] His election in 1990 as the first black president of the
Harvard Law Review was widely reported.
[17] Obama graduated with a
J.D. magna *** laude from Harvard in 1991, then returned to Chicago where he headed a voter registration drive and began writing his first book,
Dreams from My Father, a memoir published in 1995.
[18]
Obama worked as an
associate attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 2002. After 1996, he worked at the firm only during the summer, when the Illinois Senate was not in session.
[19] Obama worked on cases where the firm represented community organizers, pursued
discrimination claims, and on
voting rights cases. He also spent time on real estate transactions, filing incorporation papers and defending clients against minor lawsuits.
[20] Mostly he drew up briefs, contracts, and other legal documents as a junior associate on legal teams.
[20] Obama taught
constitutional law part-time at the
University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
[21]
Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of
Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in spring 1993.
[10][22] He served on the board of directors of the
Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993–2002,
[10][23][24][25] and served on the board of directors of
The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002.
[10][24][26] Obama served on the board of directors of the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999.
[10][23][27] He also served on the board of directors of the
Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the
Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the
Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
[10]
Obama was elected to the
Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator
Alice Palmer as Senator from the 13th District, which then spanned Chicago
South Side neighborhoods from
Hyde Park-
Kenwood south to
South Shore and west to
Chicago Lawn.
[28] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws.
[29] He sponsored a law increasing
tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.
[30] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures,
[31] and in 2003, Obama sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor
racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.
[30][32]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, and again in 2002.
[33] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent
Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.
[34][35]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.
[36] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting
death penalty reforms.
[37] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.
[38]
Consistent with his interests in conservation, Obama voted in favor of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border security and immigration reform. In 2005, he cosponsored the "
Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Republican
John McCain of Arizona.
[59] He later added three amendments to the "
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act", which passed the Senate in May 2006, but failed to gain majority support in the House of Representatives.
[60] In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the
Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of fencing and other security improvements along the
United States–Mexico border.
[61] President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward immigration reform."
[62]
Partnering with Republican Senators
Richard Lugar of Indiana and then
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name. "Lugar–Obama" expanded the
Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines.
[64] The "
Coburn–Obama Transparency Act" authorized the establishment of
USAspending.gov, a web search engine launched in December 2007 and run by the
Office of Management and Budget.
[65] After Illinois residents complained of waste water contamination by a neighboring nuclear plant, Obama sponsored legislation requiring plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks.
[66] A compromise version of the bill was subsequently blocked by partisan disputes and later reintroduced.
[67] In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the "
Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act," marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.
[68]
In January 2007, Obama worked with Democrat
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by
lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of
bundled campaign contributions under the "
Honest Leadership and Open Government Act," which was signed into law in September 2007.
[69] He introduced
S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections.
[70] Obama's energy initiatives scored pluses and minuses with environmentalists, who welcomed his sponsorship with McCain of a climate change bill to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by 2050, but were skeptical of his support for a bill promoting
liquefied coal production.
[71] Obama also introduced the "
Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007," a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.
[72]
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges, and calling for an official review following reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately to reduce government costs.
[73] He sponsored the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, and joined Republican
Chuck Hagel of Nebraska in introducing legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.
[74][75] A provision from the Obama–Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill.
[75] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the
State Children's Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.
[76]
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for
Foreign Relations,
Environment and Public Works and
Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.
[78] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
[79] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on
European Affairs.
[80]
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama has made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to
Russia,
Ukraine, and
Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against terrorist attacks.
[81] Following meetings with U.S. military in
Kuwait and
Iraq in January 2006, he visited
Jordan,
Israel, and the
Palestinian territories. At a meeting with
Palestinian students two weeks before
Hamas won the legislative election, Obama warned that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel."
[82] He left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to
South Africa,
Kenya,
Djibouti,
Ethiopia and
Chad. In a speech at the
University of Nairobi, he spoke about political corruption and ethnic rivalries.
[83] The speech touched off controversy among Kenyan leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions.
[84]
Source: Wikipedia
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Nor is his fancy talk... just 'cuz he ain't fumbling his words and ain't flip floppin on all his purported accomplishments like a 3rd string QB don't meen nuttin' in my book neither ways... mcCain's got a nice wink... and heeza a POW... if that ain't enuff to become prez I'z dunna what is.
