Born in Hawaii, Barack studied at Occidental University and later transferred to Columbia University. He moved to Chicago after college and began working as a community organiser, helping to set up job training and tutoring programs.
In 1988 he entered Harvard Law School, and his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention, leading to his first book being published, and a job at the University of Chicago Law School.
During the summers he worked at a law firm in Chicago, which is where he met Michelle Robinson.
The pair dated and married in 1992. They have two daughters, Malia, aged 16, and Natasha (Sasha) aged 13.
At the age of 36 Barack was elected to the Illinois Senate and after three consecutive wins, he ran for the US senate.
In 2004 he gave the keynote speech during the Democratic National Convention, bringing him to national attention and kick-starting his plan to run for the 2008 Presidential election.
Barack threw his hat into the ring for President early in 2007. Hillary Clinton had been the presumed nominee, but this opened the race up to a tough battle. Whoever won would become the first female or first African American president, causing a huge media story.
Barack won the Democratic nomination, and in November 2008 won the presidency with 365 electoral votes and the majority of the public vote, delivering his acceptance speech to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Grant Park, Chicago.
In 2012 he won re-election with a second majority of the public vote – making him only the second Democratic President since Roosevelt in the 1940s to win the public vote twice.
Remember to drop a note to Obama!
Long live Mr President!
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