George w stimson biography of barack obama

As he did in , during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives. Representative Paul Ryan. On November 6, , Obama won a second term as president, capturing more than 60 percent of the Electoral College. Obama officially began his second term on January 21, , when U. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office.

In his second inaugural address, Obama called the nation to action on such issues as climate change, health care, the federal deficit, and marriage equality. Obama stated that the program had helped stop roughly 50 threats. However, the president suffered a significant drop in his approval ratings, to 45 percent, partially due to the revelations. In August , Obama ordered the first airstrikes against the Islamic State on targets in Syria, though the president pledged to keep combat troops out of the conflict.

Several Arab countries joined the airstrikes against the extremist group. However, U. As of December , more than 1, people have died, according to military officials. Outside watchdog organizations, like Airwars, estimate the number of casualties could be as many as several thousand. In September , Obama made diplomatic strides with Iran.

He spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the phone, which marked the first direct contact between the leaders of the two countries in more than 30 years. This groundbreaking move by Obama was seen by many as a sign of thawing in the relationship between the United States and Iran. In July , Obama announced that, after lengthy negotiations, the United States and five world powers had reached an agreement with Iran.

The deal allowed inspectors entry into Iran to make sure the country kept its pledge to limit its nuclear program and enrich uranium at a much lower level than would be needed for a nuclear weapon. In return, the United States and its partners removed the tough sanctions imposed on Iran and allowed the country to ramp up sales of oil and access frozen bank accounts.

That year, Obama also traveled to India and reached a civilian nuclear agreement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that opened the door to U. Elsewhere, Obama moved to reestablish diplomatic ties with Cuba in December He and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the normalizing of diplomatic relations between the countries for the first time since The policy change came after the exchange of American citizen Alan Gross and another unnamed American intelligence agent for three Cuban spies.

However, the long-standing U. Kennedy , remained in effect. On March 20, , Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Cuba since , as part of his larger program to establish greater cooperation between the two countries. Just prior to the trip, on March 10, , Obama met at the White House with newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the first official visit by a Canadian leader in nearly 20 years.

In August , the Obama administration announced the Clean Power Plan, a major climate change policy that included the first national standards to limit carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants and called for more renewable energy from sources like wind and solar power. Ultimately, the plan never took effect after facing backlash and lawsuits from business groups, companies, 27 states, and Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell , who was then the Republican minority leader.

In February , the Supreme Court ruled, , to block the plan by putting a hold on regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from coal power plants. Obama also worked to respond to climate change on the global level. The agreement requires all participating nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the rise of global temperatures and also to allocate resources for the research and development of alternative energy sources.

Obama pledged that the United States would cut its emissions more than 25 percent by On October 5, , the United Nations announced the Paris Climate Agreement had been ratified by a sufficient number of countries—including China and the United States, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases—to allow it to take effect starting on November 4, Both justices were confirmed under a Democratic-majority Senate.

In March, the president held a press conference at the White House to present year-old U. They stated their intention to block any nominee put forward by Obama, fearing that such a confirmation would tip the balance toward a more liberal-leaning court. Garland was never granted a Senate confirmation hearing, and the seat sat empty until April when Neil Gorsuch , nominated by President Donald Trump, was confirmed.

The presidents granted a total of 1, clemencies, including commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning , the U. Army intelligence analyst who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks. Over the course of his administration, Obama led the country away from financial catastrophe as the Great Recession gave away to market stability and a declining unemployment rate.

Obama also struggled to enact the gun control measures he hoped for, such as universal background checks and the resurrection of the federal ban on sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Some of the mass shootings during his time include at Sandy Hook Elementary School 20 children and six adult fatalities in Connecticut; an Aurora, Colorado movie theater 12 fatalities ; a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina 9 fatalities ; and a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida 49 fatalities.

Ever the optimist, Obama shared these parting words at his last press conference with the White House press corps:. On January 27, , Obama delivered his first State of the Union speech. Obama also challenged politicians to stop thinking of reelection and start making positive changes. He criticized Republicans for their refusal to support legislation and chastised Democrats for not pushing hard enough to get legislation passed.

In his State of the Union address, Obama declared that the nation was out of recession. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Upcoming Events Past Events Donate. Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center. University of Virginia Miller Center. Barack Obama: Life in Brief. Breadcrumb U. Life Before the Presidency.

Obama was born in Hawaii in He would see his son only once more before dying in a car accident in Ann remarried in She and her new husband, an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro, moved with her young son to Jakarta in the late s, where Ann worked at the U. At age 10, Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. He attended the Punahou School, an elite private school where, as he wrote in his memoir, Dreams from My Father , he first began to understand the tensions inherent in his mixed racial background.

George w stimson biography of barack obama

After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, from which he graduated in with a degree in political science. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in Learn about the events surrounding the historical election of how Barack Obama became the Democratic presidential contender against Hillary Clinton and how he ultimately beat John McCain to become the first black president in U.

An excerpt from Barack H. Despite tight Republican control during his years in the state senate, Obama was able to build support among both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics and health care reform. He helped create a state earned-income tax credit that benefited the working poor, promoted subsidies for early childhood education programs and worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

Re-elected in and again in , Obama also ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the U. House of Representatives seat held by the popular four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. Notable non-Cabinet positions. Jones — Thomas E. Walter — Mary Jo White — United States Supreme Court nominations. Main article: Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates. Further information: List of federal judges appointed by Barack Obama and Barack Obama judicial appointment controversies.

See also: Social policy of the Barack Obama administration. See also: Health care reform in the United States and Health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration. See also: Banking in the United States. Climate change and the environment. Main article: Economic policy of the Barack Obama administration. See also: Taxation in the United States.

See also: United States federal budget. See also: Immigration to the United States. See also: Energy policy of the Obama administration. Drug policy and criminal justice reform. See also: Gun politics in the United States. See also: Cyberwarfare in the United States. See also: Race and ethnicity in the United States. Main article: Space policy of the Barack Obama administration.

Main article: Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration. See also: East Asian foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration. See also: United States free trade agreements. Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Killing of Osama bin Laden. Main article: Killing of Osama bin Laden. President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death 9 : President Obama's address Full Text.

President Obama on Osama bin Laden's Death. Wikisource has original text related to this article: Remarks by the President on Osama bin Laden. Main article: Cuban thaw. See also: Cuba—United States relations. Iranian nuclear negotiations. Further information: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Arab Spring and its aftermath. See also: Arab Spring.

See also: First Libyan Civil War. See also: Syrian civil war and US intervention in the Syrian civil war. Foreign and domestic surveillance. See also: Barack Obama on mass surveillance. See also: Lobbying in the United States. Elections during the Obama presidency. Main article: United States elections. Further information: Hillary Clinton presidential campaign , Donald Trump presidential campaign , United States presidential election , and First presidential transition of Donald Trump.

Approval ratings and other opinions. Throughout Obama's presidency, there were a total of Senate seats in House seats, so a Democratic majority in the Senate required 50 seats since Democratic vice president Joe Biden could provide the tie-breaking vote , and a Democratic majority in the House required seats assuming no vacancies. Presidency of Barack Obama January 20, — January 20, Full list.

Archived website Library website. This article is part of a series about Barack Obama. Timeline Congress Year th [ b ]. Vice President. Secretary of State. Secretary of the Treasury. Secretary of Defense. Attorney General. Secretary of the Interior. Secretary of Agriculture. Secretary of Commerce. Secretary of Labor. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Secretary of Transportation. Secretary of Energy. Secretary of Education. Secretary of Veterans Affairs.