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44. Barack Obama

Multimedia
  1. -President Obama Addresses British Parliament (The Guardian)
      President Obama speaks of freedom in the Middle East. See text of speech under "News" below. 05-11

  2. Michelle Obama on the Move (ABC News)
      Provides several news stories on Michelle Obama. 02-11

News
  1. -Editorial: Obama's Style of Communication (Time.com)
      "Everyone knows this recession is going to hurt, that there will be a price for our profligacy and that some hard shoveling will be necessary to get out of this hole. Indeed, that knowledge is what has made Obama's success possible. But if he wants to do more than merely succeed, if he wants to govern successfully, he is going to have to trust the people as much as they are beginning to trust him. After years of happy talk from politicians, that is the change we really need." 10-08

  2. -Editorial: Other Presidents More Radical than Obama (CNN News)
      "None of the presidents are really radical in any global sense. Any all-good or all-bad analysis of American history always misses the big picture. And politics is history in the present tense."

      "As a country, we have become accustomed to using fear and hate in the service of hyper-partisanship. We need to wake up to the fact that demonizing people we disagree with, and indulging in attempts to delegitimize a duly elected president from Day One, hurts us all as a nation. We can do better -- and we deserve better, especially from people who want to lead the nation themselves." 04-10

  3. -Editorial: The Flap on Obama's Birth Certificate (CNN News)
      "During the presidential campaign last year, the issue of whether Barack Obama was a 'natural born citizen' legally qualified to be president was scrutinized by reporters and researchers who concluded that Obama was born in the United States."

      "For example, in August, 2008, factcheck.org published the following: 'FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false.' "

      A copy of Obama's Certification of Live Birth is available here. 07-09

  4. -Obama's Mother (Time.com)
      "It turns out that Obama's nascent career peddling hope is a family business. He inherited it. And while it is true that he has not been profoundly tested, he was raised by someone who was."

      "In most elections, the deceased mother of a candidate in the primaries is not the subject of a magazine profile. But Ann Soetoro was not like most mothers." 01-09

  5. Analysis of Presidential Debate: Barack Obama (Time.com)
      "Crisply specific on his economic platform, and personal and expository on the importance to regular Americans of the financial bailout." 10-08

  6. Fact Checking Statements Made in the 2nd Presidential Debate (Newsweek)
      "We noted some misleading statements and mangled facts." 10-08

  7. Health Affairs Journal: Obama and McCain Differ on Health Care Coverage (MSNBC News)
      "Obama wants the government to subsidize the cost of health coverage for millions who otherwise would have trouble affording it on their own. He also would also require all but small businesses to make a "meaningful" payment for health coverage of their workers or contribute a percentage of payroll toward the cost."

      "McCain wants patients to have more control over their care and how their health care dollars are spent. His tax credit could help people buy insurance through their employer or directly from insurers in the individual market, licensed in any state."

      "The assessment published in Health Affairs found McCain's plan could lead to employers declining to offer coverage if they know workers can get it elsewhere. The authors also said Obama's requirement for employers to contribute would lead to job losses or pay cuts." 10-08

  8. My Wife Made Me Canvass for Obama (Christian Science Monitor)
      "I am the dreaded swing voter."

      "Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again."

      "I've learned [from canvassing] that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways." 11-08

  9. Obama's Birth Certificate (LA Times)
      Provides a copy of President Barack Obama's birth certificate. "Obama's mother was an American. So is her son." 02-09

  10. Obama's Speech to the Nation (PBS News)
      "President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that the United States is facing the greatest economic challenge in a lifetime and vowed to confront the crisis head-on when he takes office." 11-08

Papers
  1. -Editorial: Michelle Obama's Personal Story (CNN News)
      "After Michelle Obama's speech Tuesday night, it will be very difficult for her critics to portray her as angry or aggrieved. She rarely raised her voice. She smiled, she charmed, she seemed to tear up. She said not an unkind thing about her political opponents. Indeed, she never mentioned them." 09-12

  2. -Editorial: Obama Advocates for Freedom of Religion (Truth-Out.org)
      "The president allows each woman to decide for herself whether or not to ask her insurance company to cover contraception. If this violates a woman's religious principles, she would never ask. A woman would make such a request only if contraception fit her principles. In short, the president has guaranteed that each woman can act according to her religious principles. He has made a strong defense of freedom of religion." 08-12

  3. -Editorial: Palin Celebrating Ignorance? (Time.com)
      "Those who celebrate Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge as a form of 'authenticity' superior to Barack Obama's gloriously American mongrel ethnicity and self-made intellectuality are representatives of a long-standing American theme--the celebration of sameness, and mediocrity, in a country that has succeeded brilliantly because of its diversity and restlessly eccentric genius. Happily, it has almost always been a losing theme. And, indeed, in the truest sense, it can be called anti-American." 02-10

  4. -Obama After Dark (New York Times)
      "Mr. Obama calls himself a “night guy,” and as president, he has come to consider the long, solitary hours after dark as essential as his time in the Oval Office. Almost every night that he is in the White House, Mr. Obama has dinner at 6:30 with his wife and daughters and then withdraws to the Treaty Room, his private office down the hall from his bedroom on the second floor of the White House residence."

      "There, his closest aides say, he spends four or five hours largely by himself." 07-16

  5. -Photos of Barack and Michelle Obama (Time.com)
      Provides photos of the couple. 01-17

  6. -Poll: Obama Is America's Most Admired Man (USA Today)
      "His party may have suffered a shellacking in November's elections, but President Obama remains the unchallenged champion on another front: For the third year in a row, he is by far the most admired man in America."

      "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues an even longer run, ranked in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll as the most admired woman for the ninth straight year. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is second, as she was in 2009." 12-10

  7. -President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Speech (Slate.com)
      Provides the text of President Obama's speech. 02-14

  8. -Report Card on Obama's First Year (Time.com)
      Provide Time's assessment of President Obama's performance. "While the nation's 44th President has not been overmatched, he has not yet mastered the role either. A look at five things Obama is doing better than you may realize — and five things he is doing worse." 01-10

  9. -The Obama Legacy (Time.com)
      "Obama’s new administration went immediately to work on the largest economic-stimulus bill ever enacted by Congress-about $800 billion. Much of the money went to tax relief, unemployment insurance and other direct infusions of cash into the pockets of Americans who would, in tum, the administration hoped, spend or invest it. But the new president also seized the chance to pump billions into priorities that would normally struggle to receive much smaller sums. The stimulus bill was packed with record spending on renewable energy, a modern electrical grid, computerization of health-care records, high-speed rail, and new bridges and roads. Obama also directed billions to basic scientific research, hoping to sow seeds of discovery that would yield the next wave of American innovation." 12-16

  10. Americans Visiting Lahore, Pakistan in 1981 (New York Times)
      President Obama mentioned in a speech that he had visited Pakistan in 1981. "Birthers" then took that as "proof" that Obama did not have a U.S. passport in 1981 because, they allege, Americans were prohibited from traveling to Pakistan in 1981. This article from the New York Times published in 1981 shows that Pakistan was not off limits for U.S. travelers.

      "Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports. Transportation within Lahore is plentiful, with taxis, scooter rickshaws and horse-drawn tongas (especially in the old city) readily available. Insist that taxis and scooter rickshaws use their meters to determine fares, however. Fares for longer journeys (for example, to the Shalimar Gardens) may have to be negotiated; ask the hotel staff for help. (We paid about $2 by scooter for the round trip to Shalimar.) Tonga fares are always agreed on through bargaining; most rides should cost less than 50 cents." 01-12

  11. Barack Obama (BarackObama.com)
      Provides his offici
    • Barack Obama Biographical Articles (New York Times)
        Provides articles on Barack Obama. 03-08

    • Barack Obama News (MSNBC News
        Provides news stories on Senator Bara
      • Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize (New York Times)
          "President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,' a stunning honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president." 10-07

      • Barack Obama's Speech to the Democratic Convention (MSNBC News)
          Provides the text of Senator Barack Obam's speech to the Democratic National Conv
        • Big Donors Support Obama (MSNBC News)
            "Sen. Barack Obama credits his presidential campaign with creating a 'parallel public financing system' built on a wave of modest donations from homemakers and high school teachers. Small givers, he said at a fundraiser this week, 'will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful.' "

            "But those with wealth and power also have played a critical role in creating Obama's record-breaking fundraising machine, and their generosity has earned them a prominent voice in shaping his campaign. Seventy-nine 'bundlers,' five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million." 04-08

        • Billy Graham and President Obama Meet (Time.com)
            "I know Ruth has now entered that heavenly home, and that some day soon I will join her. This gives me great comfort." 02-08

        • Biography of Barack Obama (Wikipedia.org)
            "Barack Hussein Obama II (...born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States of America. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first President born outside of the continental United
          • Cultural Differences in Views of Obama (Time.com)
              "After years of growing political polarization, much of the divide in American politics is partisan. But Americans’ perceptions of the fall presidential election between Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, and Senator John McCain , Republican of Arizona, also underlined the racial discord that the poll found. More than 80 percent of black voters said they had a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama; about 30 percent of white voters said they had a favorable opinion of him." 07-08

          • Editorial: "He Won What?!" (Time.com)
              Regarding President Barack Obama winning the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize: "Why the Norwegian Nobel Committee made such a decision barely nine months into his presidency was a worthy question. So instead of popping off, I wanted to go deeper, and there is no better explanation than the committee’s rationale."

              " 'Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population,' according to text of the Nobel Prize citation."

              " 'For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that ‘Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.' " 10-09

          • Editorial: Did Obama Keep His Campaign Promises? (CBS News)
              "Four years ago, when President Obama accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic convention in Denver, he made several specific policy promises -- in addition to general promises of hope and change. Here's a look at the specific promises from that speech and whether or not he's followed through." 09-12

          • Editorial: Does Obama's Winning Streak Prove Race Doesn't Matter? (US News)
              "In a ringing endorsement that connected his brother JFK’s legacy with the inspirational qualities of the candidate, Ted Kennedy hailed Obama's campaign as being 'about the country we will become, if we can rise above the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one an
            • Editorial: How Obama Learned to Win (Time.com)
                "How did the man who is virtually certain to face John McCain in the fall come so far so fast? Much of the answer can be traced to the lessons of his first thumping. It was after that brief race in 2000, say dozens of aides and associates who spoke with TIME, that Obama learned how to be a po
              • Editorial: Obama's Achievements as Senator (Obsidian Wings - Hilzoy)
                  "There he [Obama] was, working for nuclear non-proliferation and securing loose stockpiles of conventional weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles. There he was again, passing what the Washington Post called 'the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet' -- though not as strong as Obama would have liked. Look -- he's over there, passing a bill that created a searchable database of recipients of federal contracts and grants, proposing legislation on avian flu back when most people hadn't even heard of it, working to make sure that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were screened for traumatic brain injury and to prevent homelessness among veterans, successfully fighting a proposal by the VA to reexamine all PTSD cases in which full benefits had been awarded, working to ban no-bid contracts in Katrina reconstruction, and introducing legislation to criminalize deceptive political tactics and voter intim
                • Editorial: Obama's Achievements as Senator (Obsidian Wings - Hilzoy)
                    "There he [Obama] was, working for nuclear non-proliferation and securing loose stockpiles of conventional weapons, like shoulder-fired missiles. There he was again, passing what the Washington Post called 'the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet' -- though not as strong as Obama would have liked. Look -- he's over there, passing a bill that created a searchable database of recipients of federal contracts and grants, proposing legislation on avian flu back when most people hadn't even heard of it, working to make sure that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were screened for traumatic brain injury and to prevent homelessness among veterans, successfully fighting a proposal by the VA to reexamine all PTSD cases in which full benefits had been awarded, working to ban no-bid contracts in Katrina reconstruction, and introducing legislation to criminalize deceptive political tactics and voter intimidation." 09-08

                • Fact Check on Obama (Time.com)
                    "A new McCain ad calls Obama a celebrity (true) who says he'll raise taxes on electricity (false)." 07-08

                • Fact Checking Palin's Claim That Obama Is "Palling Around With Terrorists" (CNN News)
                    "There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now 'palling around,' or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are." 10-08

                • Fact or Falsehood Regarding Obama and Ayers? (CBS News)
                    "A recent web advertisement from Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain makes two false claims about a connection between Bill Ayers and Senator Barack Obama." 10-08

                • FactChecking the Presidential Debate (Newsweek News)
                    "McCain and Obama contradicted each other repeatedly during their first debate, and each volunteered some factual misstatements as well. Here's how we sort them out...." 09-08

                • Larry King Interviews Michelle Obama (USA Today)
                    "First lady Michelle Obama went on CNN's Larry King Live last night to discuss her campaign against childhood obesity, as well as other subjects -- including another famous woman in U.S. politics, Sarah Palin." 02-10

                • Meteoric Rise of Keynote Speaker (MSNBC News)
                    "Barack Obama says he'll use his convention speech to counter Republican accusations that the Democratic Party stands for big government and big spending." 7-04

                • Michelle Obama's Fashion Home Run (CBS News)
                    "The would-be first lady's fashion flair is already grabbing attention -- she's being closely watched as a possible budding fashion icon -- and most observers the outfit she selected for the big event."
                  • Obama Background (CNN News)
                      "Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, born in Hawaii, raised in Chicago, was an little-known Illinois state Senator as recently as late last year."

                      "Now, he's the state's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, the subject of major features in The New Yorker and The New Republic magazines, the odds-on favorite to win the seat being vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald -- and he's getting the Democratic convention's glamour slot, giving the keynote address in the heart of prime time." 7-04

                  • Obama Makes History (Christian Science Monitor)
                      "He's first African-American to head presidential ticket of a major party, winning Democrats' long war of attrition." 06-08

                  • Obama Strongly Denounces Former Pastor (MSNBC News)
                      "Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged by the latest assertion by his former pastor that criticism of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church." 04-08

                  • Obama Tied to Lobbyists too (USA Today)
                      "Barack Obama often boasts he is 'the only candidate who isn't taking a dime from Washington lobbyists,' yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show."

                      "Lobbyists have long played key fundraising and policymaking roles for candidates, and lobbyists are raising money for both Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain." 04-08

                  • Obama Wins Historic Victory (Time.com)
                      "Praising Clinton and attacking McCain. This is what the near term will be about for Barack Obama."

                      "First, Clinton. Obama made little reference to the historic nature of his victory as the first African-American to win a major party nomination on Tuesday night, but he gave a passionate homage to his vanquished rival, noting the barriers she broke as a candidate and her critical advocacy for universal health care." 06-08

                  • Obama and McCain Have Different World Views (Newsweek News)
                      "After last week's debate, it's obvious how different the foreign policies of Barack Obama and John McCain would be. What's less well understood are the key factors that shaped their world views. Here are five of them." 09-08

                  • Obama's Acceptance Speech (CNN News)
                      Provides the transcript of Barack Obama's speech in Chicago to accept his election as the 44th President of the United States. 11-08

                  • Obama's Biography and His Mother (Time.com)
                      "Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama's mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology; a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia; a natural-born mother obsessed with her work; a romantic pragmatist, if such a thing is possible."

                      "Ann's most lasting professional legacy was to help build the microfinance program in Indonesia, which she did from 1988 to '92—before the practice of granting tiny loans to credit-poor entrepreneurs was an established success story. Her anthropological research into how real people worked helped inform the policies set by the Bank Rakyat Indonesia, says Patten, an economist who worked there. 'I would say her work had a lot to do with the success of the program,' he says. Today Indonesia's microfinance program is No. 1 in the world in terms of savers, with 31 million members, according to Microfinance Information eXchange Inc., a microfinance-tracking outfit." 04-08

                  • Obama's Grandmother (Time.com)
                      "Several thousand miles and a world away, Barack Obama is campaigning to change American politics. But in the tiny farmstead where his father used to herd goats, his Kenyan relatives are praying for anything but more political upheaval."

                      "The Obamas live about an hour's drive — first on potholed asphalt roads then on a rutted dirt track into the village of Kogelo — from the city of Kisumu, the center of opposition support, standing on the shores of Lake Victoria. The population here is Luo, arch-rivals of President Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe. Angry mobs torched shops, bars and garages belonging to Kikuyu businessmen and forced their families to board buses for their tribal homelands in Central Kenya. In spite of the apparent political breakthrough in the capital Nairobi, the anger remains even if the mobs have been called off for now." 03-08

                  • Obama's Victory Speech (ABC News)
                      Provides the full text of Barack Obama's victory speech after becoming the first African-American to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party. 06-08

                  • Obamas Declare $2.66 Million in Earnings (BBC News)
                      "US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle earned $2.66m (£1.78m) in 2008, according to annual tax returns released by the White House." 04-09

                  • Online Rumors About Barack Obama (Snopes.com)
                      "Green bullets are used for two similar but distinct types of entries: claims that are demonstrably true, and urban legends that are based on real events."

                      "Red bullets mark claims which cannot be established as true by a preponderance of (reliable) evidence. Some urban legends are also placed into this category because they describe events too implausible to have actually occurred, or too fantastic to have escaped mention in the media of t
                    • Poll: Obama Is America's Most Admired Man (USA Today)
                        "His party may have suffered a shellacking in November's elections, but President Obama remains the unchallenged champion on another front: For the third year in a row, he is by far the most admired man in America."

                        "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues an even longer run, ranked in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll as the most admired woman for the ninth straight year. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is second, as she was in 2009." 12-10

                    • World Reacts to Obama's Victory (CNN News)
                        "Across the globe, people in city squares and villages, living rooms and shacks cheered his success, boosting hopes that America's first black commander-in-chief might herald a more conciliatory approach to the rest of the world." 11-08

       


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