Members of Congress / Barack Obama
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Barack Obama won the presidency and made history on a steady message of bringing change to a country that has been hungering for it.
The first black to be elected U.S. president, Obama ran a nearly flawless campaign and proved to be a cool customer under fire on the campaign trail and during three head-to-head debates with defeated Republican John McCain.
“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” Obama told cheering supporters in Chicago after his victory.
He ran for president during the best possible conditions for a politician running against the incumbent party — a country saddled with two wars and teetering on the brink of a recession, including a Wall Street meltdown that amounted to an October surprise.
Biographical Information
OBAMA, Barack, a Senator from Illinois; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif., and Columbia University, New York City; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1992; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004 for term beginning January 3, 2005. (Source.)
