In late August 1961, a few weeks after he was born, Barack and his mother moved to the
University of Washington in
Seattle, where they lived for a year. During that time, Barack's father completed his undergraduate degree in economics in Hawaii, graduating in June 1962. He left to attend graduate school on a scholarship at
Harvard University, where he earned an
Master of Arts in economics. Obama's parents divorced in March 1964.[23] Obama Sr. returned to
Kenya in 1964, where he married for a third time and worked for the Kenyan government as the Senior Economic Analyst in the Ministry of Finance.[24] He visited his son in Hawaii only once, at Christmas 1971,[25] before he was killed in an automobile accident in 1982, when Obama was 21 years old.[26] Recalling his early childhood, Obama said: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[20] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[27]
At the age of six, Obama and his mother had moved to Indonesia to join his stepfather. From age six to ten, he was registered in school as "Barry"[30] and attended local
Indonesian-language schools: Sekolah Dasar Katolik Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School) for two years and
Sekolah Dasar Negeri Menteng 01 (State Elementary School Menteng 01) for one and a half years, supplemented by English-language
Calvert School homeschooling by his mother.[31][32] As a result of his four years in
Jakarta, he was able to speak
Indonesian fluently as a child.[33] During his time in Indonesia, Obama's stepfather taught him to be resilient and gave him "a pretty hardheaded assessment of how the world works".[34]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents,
Madelyn and
Stanley Dunham. He attended
Punahou School—a private
college preparatory school—with the aid of a scholarship from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979.[35] In high school, Obama continued to use the nickname "Barry" which he kept until making a visit to Kenya in 1980.[36] Obama lived with his mother and half-sister,
Maya Soetoro, in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in
anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[37] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii when his mother and half-sister returned to Indonesia in 1975, so his mother could begin anthropology field work.[38] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo Soetoro in 1980 and earning a PhD degree in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following unsuccessful treatment for
ovarian and
uterine cancer.[39]
Of his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."[40] Obama has also written and talked about using
alcohol,
marijuana, and
cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".[41] Obama was also a member of the "Choom Gang" (the slang term for smoking marijuana), a self-named group of friends who spent time together and smoked marijuana.[42][43]
Two years after graduating from Columbia, Obama moved from New York to Chicago when he was hired as director of the
Developing Communities Project, a faith-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in
Roseland,
West Pullman, and
Riverdale on Chicago's
South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[51][53] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in
Altgeld Gardens.[54] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the
Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[55] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in
Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his
paternal relatives for the first time.[56][57]
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the
University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[64][66] He then taught
constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, first as a lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004.[67]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's
Project Vote, a
voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.[68]
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of
his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations," he said. "I've got relatives who look like
Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like
Margaret Thatcher."[69] Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng) and seven other half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family, six of them living.[70] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[71] until her death on November 2, 2008,[72] two days before his election to the presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in
Moneygall in May 2011.[73] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of
Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate States of America during the
American Civil War. He also shares distant ancestors in common with
George W. Bush and
Dick Cheney, among others.[74][75][76]
Obama lived with anthropologist
Sheila Miyoshi Jager while he was a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s.[77] He proposed to her twice, but both Jager and her parents turned him down.[77][78] The relationship was not made public until May 2017, several months after his presidency had ended.[78]
In June 1989, Obama met
Michelle Robinson when he was employed at
Sidley Austin.[79] Robinson was assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, and she joined him at several group social functions but declined his initial requests to date.[80] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[81] After suffering a miscarriage, Michelle underwent
in vitro fertilization to conceive their children.[82] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998,[83] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), in 2001.[84] The Obama daughters attended the
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the
Sidwell Friends School.[85] The Obamas had two
Portuguese Water Dogs; the first, a male named
Bo, was a gift from Senator
Ted Kennedy.[86] In 2013, Bo was joined by
Sunny, a female.[87] Bo died of cancer on May 8, 2021.[88]
Obama is a supporter of the
Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the
2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[89] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the
All-Star Game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[90] He is also primarily a
Chicago Bears football fan in the
NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a
fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and rooted for them ahead of their victory in
Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as president.[91] In 2011, Obama invited the
1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their
Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[92] He plays
basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team,[93] and he is left-handed.[94]
In 2005, the Obama family applied the proceeds of a book deal and moved from a
Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6million house (equivalent to $2.5million in 2023) in neighboring
Kenwood, Chicago.[95] The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend
Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.[96]
In December 2007, Money Magazine estimated Obama's net worth at $1.3million (equivalent to $1.9million in 2023).[97] Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5million—up from about $4.2million in 2007 and $1.6million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[98][99] On his 2010 income of $1.7million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to
Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[100][101] Per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10million.[102]
Religious views
Obama is a
Protestant Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life.[103] He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household." He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents, as being detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person... I have ever known", and "a lonely witness for
secular humanism." He described his father as a "confirmed
atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful." Obama explained how, through working with
black churches as a
community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."[104]
In January 2008, Obama told Christianity Today: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the
redemptive death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[105] On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views, saying:
I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of
Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper,
treating others as they would treat me.[106][107]
In 2016, Obama said that he gets inspiration from a few items that remind him "of all the different people I've met along the way", adding: "I carry these around all the time. I'm not that superstitious, so it's not like I think I necessarily have to have them on me at all times." The items, "a whole bowl full", include rosary beads given to him by
Pope Francis, a figurine of the Hindu deity
Hanuman, a
Coptic cross from Ethiopia, a small
Buddha statue given by a monk, and a metal poker chip that used to be the lucky charm of a motorcyclist in Iowa.[113][114]
Legal career
Civil rights attorney
He joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an
associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then
of counsel from 1996 to 2004. In 1994, he was listed as one of the lawyers in Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 94 C 4094 (N.D. Ill.). This
class action lawsuit was filed in 1994 with Selma Buycks-Roberson as lead plaintiff and alleged that Citibank Federal Savings Bank had engaged in practices forbidden under the
Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the
Fair Housing Act. The case was settled out of court.
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the
Woods Fund of Chicago—which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project—and of the
Joyce Foundation.[51] He served on the board of directors of the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[51] Obama's law license became inactive in 2007.[115][116]
Obama was elected to the
Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding Democratic State Senator
Alice Palmer from
Illinois's 13th District, which, at that time, spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park–Kenwood south to
South Shore and west to
Chicago Lawn.[117] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[118][119] He sponsored a law that increased
tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated
welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[120] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor
George Ryan's
payday loan regulations and
predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home
foreclosures.[121][122]
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.[126] He 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.[120][127][128][129] During his 2004 general election campaign for the U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting
death penalty reforms.[130] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[131]
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race. He created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant
David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[132]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's
2003 invasion of Iraq.[133] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the
joint resolution authorizing the
Iraq War,[134] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago
anti-Iraq War rally,[135] and spoke out against the war.[136] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd "it's not too late" to stop the war.[137]
Decisions by Republican incumbent
Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor
Carol Moseley Braun not to participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving 15 candidates.[138] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the
national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[139] In July 2004, Obama delivered
the keynote address at the
2004 Democratic National Convention,[140] seen by nine million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[141]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner
Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[142] Six weeks later,
Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[143] In the
November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a Senate candidate in Illinois history.[144] He took 92 of the state's 102 counties, including several where Democrats traditionally do not do well.
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.[151][152] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the
Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[153][154]
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[155] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[156] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which was never enacted but later incorporated in the
Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010;[157] and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[158] 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.[159]
Numerous candidates entered the
Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to Obama and Senator
Hillary Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process, but Obama gained a steady lead in pledged
delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in
caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[169]
On June 2, 2008, Obama had received enough votes to clinch his nomination. After an initial hesitation to concede, on June 7, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[170] On August 23, 2008, Obama announced his
selection of
Delaware Senator
Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[171] Obama selected Biden from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator
Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor
Tim Kaine.[171] At the
Democratic National Convention in
Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and
Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[172][173] Obama delivered his acceptance speech at
Invesco Field at Mile High stadium to a crowd of about eighty-four thousand; the speech was viewed by over three million people worldwide.[174][175][176] During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[177] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down
public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[178]
John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate, and he selected
Sarah Palin as his running mate. Obama and McCain engaged in three
presidential debates in September and October 2008.[179] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365
electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[180] Obama won 52.9 percent of the
popular vote to McCain's 45.7 percent.[181] He became the first African-American to be elected president.[182] Obama delivered
his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's
Grant Park.[183][184] He is one of the three United States senators moved directly from the U.S. Senate to the White House, the others being
Warren G. Harding and
John F. Kennedy.[185]
On April 4, 2011, Obama filed election papers with the
Federal Election Commission and then announced his reelection campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website.[186][187][188] As the incumbent president, he ran virtually unopposed in the
Democratic Party presidential primaries,[189] and on April 3, 2012, Obama secured the 2778
convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[190] At the
Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, North Carolina, Obama and Joe Biden were formally nominated by former President Bill Clinton as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president in the general election. Their main opponents were Republicans
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Representative
Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.[191]
On November 6, 2012, Obama won 332 electoral votes, exceeding the 270 required for him to be reelected as president.[192][193][194] With 51.1 percent of the popular vote,[195] Obama became the first Democratic president since
Franklin D. Roosevelt to win the
majority of the popular vote twice.[196][197] Obama addressed supporters and volunteers at Chicago's
McCormick Place after his reelection and said: "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties."[198][199]
The
inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued
executive orders and
presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[200] He ordered the closing of the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[201] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds[202][203] and preventing moving any Guantanamo detainee.[204] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records.[205] He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President
Ronald Reagan's
Mexico City policy which prohibited federal aid to international
family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.[206]
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the
statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[207] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover an additional four million uninsured children.[208] In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy that had limited funding of
embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.[209]
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his presidency. He nominated
Sonia Sotomayor on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring
Associate JusticeDavid Souter. She was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[210] becoming the first Supreme Court Justice of
Hispanic descent.[211] Obama nominated
Elena Kagan on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice
John Paul Stevens. She was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three for the first time in American history.[212]
In July 2009, Obama launched the
Priority Enforcement Program, an immigration enforcement program that had been pioneered by George W. Bush, and the
Secure Communities fingerprinting and immigration status data-sharing program.[213]
On January 16, 2013, one month after the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Obama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding
gun control.[215] He urged Congress to reintroduce an
expired ban on military-style
assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings, impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets, introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the first time since 2006.[216] On January 5, 2016, Obama announced new executive actions extending background check requirements to more gun sellers.[217] In a 2016 editorial in The New York Times, Obama compared the struggle for what he termed "common-sense gun reform" to
women's suffrage and other
civil rights movements in American history.
In 2011, Obama signed a four-year renewal of the Patriot Act.[218] Following the
2013 global surveillance disclosures by
whistleblowerEdward Snowden, Obama condemned the leak as unpatriotic,[219] but called for increased restrictions on the
National Security Agency (NSA) to address violations of privacy.[220][221] Obama continued and expanded surveillance programs set up by George W. Bush, while implementing some reforms.[222] He supported legislation that would have limited the NSA's ability to collect phone records in bulk under a single program and supported bringing more transparency to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).[222]
In his speeches as president, Obama did not make more overt references to race relations than his predecessors,[223][224] but according to one study, he implemented stronger policy action on behalf of African-Americans than any president since the Nixon era.[225]
Following Obama's election, many pondered the existence of a "
post-racial America".[226][227] However, lingering racial tensions quickly became apparent,[226][228] and many African-Americans expressed outrage over what they saw as an intense racial animosity directed at Obama.[229] The
acquittal of
George Zimmerman following the
killing of Trayvon Martin sparked national outrage, leading to Obama giving a speech in which he said that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."[230] The shooting of
Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Missourisparked a wave of protests.[231] These and other events led to the birth of the
Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns against violence and
systemic racism toward
black people.[231] Though Obama entered office reluctant to talk about race, by 2014 he began openly discussing the disadvantages faced by many members of minority groups.[232]
Several incidents during Obama's presidency generated disapproval from the African-American community and with law enforcement, and Obama sought to build trust between law enforcement officials and civil rights activists, with mixed results. Some in law enforcement criticized Obama's condemnation of racial bias after incidents in which police action led to the death of African-American men, while some racial justice activists criticized Obama's expressions of empathy for the police.[233] In a March 2016 Gallup poll, nearly one third of Americans said they worried "a great deal" about race relations, a higher figure than in any previous Gallup poll since 2001.[234]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate in 1996, Obama stated he favored legalizing
same-sex marriage.[240] During his Senate run in 2004, he said he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners but opposed same-sex marriages.[241] In 2008, he reaffirmed this position by stating "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage."[242] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[243][244] During his second
inaugural address on January 21, 2013,[199] Obama became the first U.S. president in office to call for full equality for gay Americans, and the first to mention
gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address.[245][246] In 2013, the Obama administration filed briefs that urged the
Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the cases of Hollingsworth v. Perry (regarding same-sex marriage)[247] and United States v. Windsor (regarding the
Defense of Marriage Act).[248]
Obama intervened in the
troubled automotive industry[252] in March 2009, renewing loans for
General Motors (GM) and
Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the
sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker
Fiat[253] and a
reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company.[254] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[255] He signed into law the
Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", which temporarily boosted the economy.[256][257][258]
The Bush and Obama administrations authorized spending and loan guarantees from the
Federal Reserve and the
Department of the Treasury. These guarantees totaled about $11.5trillion, but only $3trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[259] On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan
Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforced limits on discretionary spending until 2021, established a procedure to increase the debt limit, created a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and established automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee did not achieve such savings.[260] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a
U.S. governmentdefault on its obligations.[261]
The unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0 percent and averaging 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year.[262] Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8 percent, which was less than the average of 1.9 percent experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries.[263] By November 2012, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent,[264] decreasing to 6.7 percent in the last month of 2013.[265] During 2014, the unemployment rate continued to decline, falling to 6.3 percent in the first quarter.[266] GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6 percent, followed by a 5.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter.[267] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[267] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve noted that economic activity continued to increase, but its pace had slowed, and chairman
Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain".[268] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.[269]
Job growth during the presidency of Obama compared to other presidents, as measured as a cumulative percentage change from month after inauguration to end of his term
The
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[272][273] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1million,[273][274][275] while conceding that "it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[272] Although an April 2010, survey of members of the
National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73 percent of 68 respondents believed the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment.[276] The economy of the United States has grown faster than the other original
NATO members by a wider margin under President Obama than it has anytime since the end of
World War II.[277] The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development credits the much faster growth in the United States to the stimulus plan of the U.S. and the austerity measures in the European Union.[278]
Within a month of the
2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the
2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year
payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for
estate taxes.[279] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858billion (equivalent to $1.2 trillion in 2023)
Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[280]
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore
drilling rig at the
Macondo Prospect in the
Gulf of Mexico, causing a
major sustained oil leak. Obama visited the Gulf, announced a federal investigation, and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by
Secretary of the InteriorKen Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. He then announced a six-month moratorium on new
deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[283] As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[284] Prior to the oil spill, on March 31, 2010, Obama ended a ban on oil and gas drilling along the majority of the
East Coast of the United States and along the coast of
northern Alaska in an effort to win support for an energy and climate bill and to reduce foreign imports of oil and gas.[285]
In July 2013, Obama expressed reservations and said he "would reject the
Keystone XL pipeline if it increased carbon pollution [or] greenhouse emissions."[286][287] On February 24, 2015, Obama vetoed a bill that would have authorized the pipeline.[288] It was the third veto of Obama's presidency and his first major veto.[289]
In December 2016, Obama permanently banned new offshore oil and gas drilling in most United States-owned waters in the
Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Act.[290][291][292]
Obama emphasized the
conservation of
federal lands during his term in office. He used his power under the
Antiquities Act to create 25 new
national monuments during his presidency and expand four others, protecting a total of 553,000,000 acres (224,000,000 ha) of federal lands and waters, more than any other U.S. president.[293][294][295]
Obama called for
Congress to pass legislation reforming
health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[296] He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, cap premium increases, and allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900billion over ten years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the
public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for
pre-existing conditions, and require every American to carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[297][298]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[296] After public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered
a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals.[300] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[301]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[302][303] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[304] On March 21, 2010, the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially "Obamacare") passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[305]
The ACA includes
health-related provisions, most of which took effect in 2014, including expanding
Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133 percentof the
federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[306] subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400 percentof the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 percent to 9.5 percent of income,[307] providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing
health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and CBO figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[308]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income
brackets, taxes on
indoor tanning, cuts to the
Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[310] there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[311] In March 2010, the CBO estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143billion over the first decade.[312]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the mandate was constitutional under the U.S. Congress's taxing authority.[313] In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby the Court ruled that "closely-held" for-profit corporations could be exempt on religious grounds under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act from regulations adopted under the ACA that would have required them to pay for insurance that covered certain contraceptives. In June 2015, the Court ruled 6–3 in King v. Burwell that subsidies to help individuals and families purchase health insurance were authorized for those doing so on both the federal exchange and state exchanges, not only those purchasing plans "established by the State", as the statute reads.[314]
In February and March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden and
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "
reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[315] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab satellite TV network,
Al Arabiya.[316] On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran.[317][318] On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at
Cairo University in Egypt calling for "
A New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[319] On June 26, 2009, Obama condemned the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following
Iran's 2009 presidential election.[320]
In 2011, Obama ordered a drone strike in Yemen which targeted and killed
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam suspected of being a leading
Al-Qaeda organizer. al-Awlaki became the first
U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a
U.S. drone strike. The Department of Justice released a memo justifying al-Awlaki's death as a lawful act of war,[321] while civil liberties advocates described it as a violation of al-Awlaki's constitutional right to
due process. The killing led to significant controversy.[322] His
teenage son and
young daughter, also Americans, were later killed in separate
US military actions, although they were not targeted specifically.[323][324]
In March 2015, Obama declared that he had authorized U.S. forces to provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudis in their
military intervention in Yemen, establishing a "Joint Planning Cell" with Saudi Arabia.[325][326] In 2016, the Obama administration proposed a series of
arms deals with Saudi Arabia worth $115billion.[327] Obama halted the sale of guided munition technology to
Saudi Arabia after Saudi warplanes
targeted a funeral in Yemen's capital Sanaa, killing more than 140 people.[328]
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months.[330] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troop's levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last U.S. combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to
counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[331][332] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[333] On October 21, 2011, President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays."[334]
In June 2014, following the
capture of Mosul by
ISIL, Obama sent 275 troops to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. ISIS continued to gain ground and to commit
widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing.[335][336] In August 2014, during the
Sinjar massacre, Obama ordered a
campaign of U.S. airstrikes against ISIL.[337] By the end of 2014, 3,100 American ground troops were committed to the conflict[338] and 16,000 sorties were flown over the battlefield, primarily by U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots.[339] In early 2015, with the addition of the "Panther Brigade" of the
82nd Airborne Division the number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq increased to 4,400,[340] and by July American-led coalition air forces counted 44,000 sorties over the battlefield.[341]
In his election campaign, Obama called the war in Iraq a "dangerous distraction" and that emphasis should instead be put on the war in Afghanistan,[342] the region he cites as being most likely where an attack against the United States could be launched again.[343] Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. He announced an increase in U.S. troop levels to 17,000 military personnel in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires."[344] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General
David D. McKiernan, with former
Special Forces commander Lt. Gen.
Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war.[345] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date;[346] this took place in July 2011.
David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[347] In February 2013, Obama said the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops by February 2014.[348] In October 2015, the White House announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces in Afghanistan indefinitely in light of the deteriorating security situation.[349]
Regarding neighboring Pakistan, Obama called its tribal border region the "greatest threat" to the security of Afghanistan and Americans, saying that he "cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary." In the same speech, Obama claimed that the U.S. "cannot succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homeland unless we change our Pakistan policy."[350]
Starting with information received from Central Intelligence Agency operatives in July 2010, the CIA developed intelligence over the next several months that determined what they believed to be the hideout of
Osama bin Laden. He was living in seclusion in
a large compound in
Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles (56 km) from
Islamabad.[351] CIA head
Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[351] Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by
United States Navy SEALs.[351] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, and resulted in the shooting death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound.[352][353] DNA testing was one of five methods used to positively identify bin Laden's corpse,[354] which was buried at sea several hours later.[355] Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's
Ground Zero and
Times Square.[352][356]Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.[357]
Since the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and
Vatican City.[358] The Vatican first became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis advised the U.S. and Cuba to
exchange prisoners as a gesture of goodwill.[359] On December 10, 2013, Cuban President
Raúl Castro, in a significant public moment, greeted and shook hands with Obama at the
Nelson Mandela memorial service in
Johannesburg.[360]
In December 2014, after the secret meetings, it was announced that Obama, with Pope Francis as an intermediary, had negotiated a restoration of relations with Cuba, after nearly sixty years of détente.[361] Popularly dubbed the
Cuban Thaw, The New Republic deemed the Cuban Thaw to be "Obama's finest foreign policy achievement."[362] On July 1, 2015, President Obama announced that formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States would resume, and embassies would be opened in Washington and
Havana.[363] The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August 13, 2015, respectively.[364] Obama visited Havana, Cuba for two days in March 2016, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to arrive since
Calvin Coolidge in 1928.[365]
Israel
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the
U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries.[366] The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the
Iron Dome program in response to the waves of
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[367] In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of
East Jerusalem.[368][369] In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning
Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[370] Obama supports the
two-state solution to the
Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[371]
In 2013,
Jeffrey Goldberg reported that, in Obama's view, "with each new settlement announcement, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation."[372] In 2014, Obama likened the
Zionist movement to the
civil rights movement in the United States. He said both movements seek to bring justice and equal rights to historically persecuted peoples, explaining: "To me, being pro-Israel and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I've been fighting for since I was politically conscious and started getting involved in politics."[373] Obama expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the
2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.[374] In 2015, Obama was harshly criticized by Israel for advocating and signing the
Iran Nuclear Deal; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had advocated the U.S. congress to oppose it, said the deal was "dangerous" and "bad."[375]
On December 23, 2016, under the Obama Administration, the United States abstained from
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the occupied
Palestinian territories as a violation of international law, effectively allowing it to pass.[376] Netanyahu strongly criticized the Obama administration's actions,[377][378] and the Israeli government withdrew its annual dues from the organization, which totaled $6million, on January 6, 2017.[379] On January 5, 2017, the United States House of Representatives voted 342–80 to condemn the UN Resolution.[380][381]
In February 2011, protests in Libya began against long-time dictator
Muammar Gaddafi as part of the
Arab Spring. They soon turned violent. In March, as forces loyal to Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the
Arab League, and a resolution[382] passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[383] In response to the passage of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, the Foreign Minister of Libya Moussa Koussa announced a ceasefire. However Gaddafi's forces continued to attack the rebels.[384]
On March 19, a multinational coalition led by France and the United Kingdom with Italian and U.S. support, approved by Obama, took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[385] including the use of
Tomahawk missiles,
B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[386][387][388] Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed
Operation Unified Protector.[389] Some members of Congress[390] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[391][392] In 2016 Obama said "Our coalition could have and should have done more to fill a vacuum left behind" and that it was "a mess".[393] He has stated that the lack of preparation surrounding the days following the government's overthrow was the "worst mistake" of his presidency.[394]
On August 18, 2011, several months after the start of the
Syrian civil war, Obama issued a written statement that said: "The time has come for
President Assad to step aside."[395] This stance was reaffirmed in November 2015.[396] In 2012, Obama authorized multiple
programs run by the CIA and the Pentagon to train anti-Assad rebels.[397] The Pentagon-run program was later found to have failed and was formally abandoned in October 2015.[398][399]
On October 1, 2009, the Obama administration went ahead with a Bush administration program, increasing nuclear weapons production. The "Complex Modernization" initiative expanded two existing nuclear sites to produce new bomb parts. In November 2013, the Obama administration opened
negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring
nuclear weapons, which included an
interim agreement. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays, with a deal being announced on July 14, 2015. The deal titled the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" saw sanctions removed in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[404][405][406] In addition, the transfer of $1.7billion in cash to Iran shortly after the deal was announced was criticized by the Republican party. The Obama administration said that the payment in cash was because of the "effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions."[407] In order to advance the deal, the Obama administration shielded
Hezbollah from the
Drug Enforcement Administration's
Project Cassandra investigation regarding drug smuggling and from the
Central Intelligence Agency.[408][409]
On a side note, the very same year, in December 2015, Obama started a $348billion worth program to back the biggest U.S. buildup of nuclear arms since Ronald Reagan left the White House.[410]
In March 2010, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev to replace the
1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about a third.[411] Obama and Medvedev signed the
New START treaty in April 2010, and the
U.S. Senate ratified it in December 2010.[412] In December 2011, Obama instructed agencies to consider
LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[413] In August 2013, he criticized Russia's law that discriminates against gays,[414] but he stopped short of advocating a boycott of the upcoming
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi, Russia.[415]
Obama's family history, upbringing, and
Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[418] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the
National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong."[419] Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[420] Additionally, Obama has frequently been referred to as an exceptional orator.[421] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[422]
Job approval
According to the
Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68 percent
approval rating,[423] the fifth highest for a president following their swearing in.[424] His ratings remained above the majority level until November 2009[425] and by August 2010 his approval was in the low 40s,[426] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[427] Following the
death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, Obama experienced a small poll bounce and steadily maintained 50–53 percent approval for about a month, until his approval numbers dropped back to the low 40s.[428][429][430]
His approval rating fell to 38 percent on several occasions in late 2011[431] before recovering in mid-2012 with polls showing an average approval of 50 percent.[432] After his second inauguration in 2013, Obama's approval ratings remained stable around 52 percent[433] before declining for the rest of the year and eventually bottoming out at 39 percent in December.[428] In polling conducted before the
2014 midterm elections, Obama's approval ratings were at their lowest[434][435] with his disapproval rating reaching a high of 57 percent.[428][436][437] His approval rating continued to lag throughout most of 2015 but began to reach the high 40s by the end of the year.[428][438] According to Gallup, Obama's approval rating reached 50 percent in March 2016, a level unseen since May 2013.[428][439] In polling conducted January 16–19, 2017, Obama's final approval rating was 59 percent, which placed him on par with
George H. W. Bush and
Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose final Gallup ratings also measured in the high 50s.[440]
Obama has maintained relatively positive public perceptions after his presidency.[441] In Gallup's retrospective approval polls of former presidents, Obama garnered a 63 percent approval rating in 2018 and again in 2023, ranking him the fourth most popular president since World War II.[442][443]
Foreign perceptions
Polls showed strong support for Obama in other countries both before and during his presidency.[444][445][446] In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by
Harris Interactive for
France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[447] In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.[448][449]
On October 9, 2009—only nine months into his first term—the
Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples",[450] which drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[451][452][453][454] He became the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.[455] He himself called it a "call to action" and remarked: "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations".[456]
In 2009 the saying "thanks, Obama" first appeared in a
Twitter hashtag "#thanks Obama" and was later used in a demotivational poster. It was later adopted satirically to blame Obama for any socio-economic ills. Obama himself used the phrase in video in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the phrase was used by
Stephen Colbert to express gratitude to Obama on his last day in office. In 2022, President Joe Biden's Twitter account posted the phrase.
Post-presidency (2017–present)
Obama's presidency ended on January 20, 2017, upon the
inauguration of his successor,
Donald Trump.[457][458] The family moved to a house they rented in
Kalorama, Washington, D.C.[459] On March 2, the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum awarded the
Profile in Courage Award to Obama "for his enduring commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of political courage."[460] His first public appearance since leaving the office was a seminar at the
University of Chicago on April 24, where he appealed for a new generation to participate in politics.[461] On September 7, Obama partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush to work with
One America Appeal to help the victims of
Hurricane Harvey and
Hurricane Irma in the
Gulf Coast and
Texas communities.[462] From October 31 to November 1, Obama hosted the inaugural summit of the
Obama Foundation,[463] which he intended to be the central focus of his post-presidency and part of his ambitions for his subsequent activities following his presidency to be more consequential than his time in office.[464]
Obama was reluctant to make an endorsement in the
2020 Democratic presidential primaries because he wanted to position himself to unify the party, regardless of the nominee.[472] On April 14, 2020, Obama endorsed Biden, the presumptive nominee, for president in
the presidential election, stating that he has "all the qualities we need in a president right now."[473][474] In May, Obama criticized President Trump for
his handling of the
COVID-19 pandemic, calling his response to the crisis "an absolute chaotic disaster", and stating that the consequences of the
Trump presidency have been "our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."[475] On November 17, Obama's presidential memoir, A Promised Land, was released.[476][477][478]
In February 2021, Obama and musician
Bruce Springsteen started a podcast called Renegades: Born in the USA where the two talk about "their backgrounds, music and their 'enduring love of America.'"[479][480] Later that year, Regina Hicks had signed a deal with
Netflix, in a venture with his and Michelle's Higher Ground to develop comedy projects.[481]
On March 4, 2022, Obama won an Audio Publishers Association (APA) Award in the best narration by the author category for the narration of his memoir A Promised Land.[482] On April 5, Obama visited the White House for the first time since leaving office, in an event celebrating the 12th annual anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act.[483][484][485] In June, it was announced that the Obamas and their podcast production company, Higher Ground, signed a multi-year deal with
Audible.[486][487] In September, Obama visited the White House to unveil his and Michelle's official White House portraits.[488] Around the same time, he won a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator[489] for his narration in the Netflix documentary series Our Great National Parks.[490]
In 2022, Obama opposed expanding the Supreme Court beyond the present nine Justices.[491]
In March 2023, Obama traveled to Australia as a part of his speaking tour of the country. During the trip, Obama met with Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese and visited
Melbourne for the first time.[492] Obama was reportedly paid more than $1 million for two speeches.[493][494]
In October 2023, during the Israel–Hamas war, Obama declared that
Israel must dismantle
Hamas in the wake of the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.[495] Weeks later, Obama warned
Israel that its actions could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations" and weaken international support for Israel; any military strategy that ignored the war's human costs "could ultimately backfire."[496]
In July 2024, Obama expressed concerns about Biden's campaign viability after his critically maligned
debate performance against former president Trump.[497] On July 21, Biden
withdrew his candidacy and swiftly endorsed Vice President Harris right after to run as the Democratic nominee. Obama endorsed Harris alongside his wife Michelle five days later and delivered a critically acclaimed speech at the
2024 Democratic National Convention formally endorsing her.[498] He joined Harris on the campaign trail in October, traveling to various swing states and emphasizing her record as a prosecutor, Senator, and Vice President and advocating for increased voter turnout, and his criticisms of Donald Trump and the Republican Party were widely reported by various media outlets.[499][500] After Trump was declared the winner of the election on November 6, Obama and Michelle congratulated him and Vice President-elect
JD Vance while praising the Harris campaign and calling on liberal voters to continue supporting democracy and human rights.[501]
Legacy and recognition
Obama has been described as one of the most effective campaigners in American history (his 2008 campaign being particularly highlighted) as well as one of the most talented political orators of the 21st century.[502][503][504] Historian
Julian Zelizer credits Obama with "a keen sense of how the institutions of government work and the ways that his team could design policy proposals." Zeitzer notes Obama's policy successes included the economic stimulus package which ended the
Great Recession and the
Dodd-Frank financial and consumer protection reforms, as well as the
Affordable Care Act. Zeitzer also notes the Democratic Party lost power and numbers of elected officials during Obama's term, saying that the consensus among historians is that Obama "turned out to be a very effective policymaker but not a tremendously successful party builder." Zeitzer calls this the "defining paradox of Obama's presidency".[505]
The
Brookings Institution noted that Obama passed "only one major legislative achievement (Obamacare)—and a fragile one at that—the legacy of Obama's presidency mainly rests on its tremendous symbolic importance and the fate of a patchwork of executive actions."[506] David W. Wise noted that Obama fell short "in areas many Progressives hold dear", including the continuation of drone strikes, not going after big banks during the Great Recession, and failing to strengthen his coalition before pushing for Obamacare. Wise called Obama's legacy that of "a disappointingly conventional president".[507]
Obama's most significant accomplishment is generally considered to be the Affordable Care Act (ACA), provisions of which went into effect from 2010 to 2020. Many attempts by Senate Republicans to repeal the ACA, including a "skinny repeal", have thus far failed.[508] However, in 2017, the penalty for violating the individual mandate was repealed effective 2019.[509] Together with the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of
Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.[510][511][512][513]
Many commentators credit Obama with averting a threatened
depression and pulling the economy back from the Great Recession.[508] According to the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
Obama administration created 11.3 million jobs from the month after his first inauguration to the end of his second term.[514] In 2010, Obama signed into effect the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Passed as a response to the
financial crisis of 2007–2008, it brought the most significant changes to
financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform that followed the
Great Depression under Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[515]
In 2009, Obama signed into law the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which contained in it the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first addition to existing federal hate crime law in the United States since Democratic President Bill Clinton signed into law the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996. The act expanded
existing federal hate crime laws in the United States, and made it a federal crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.[516]
As president, Obama advanced LGBT rights.[517] In 2010, he signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, which brought an end to "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the U.S. armed forces that banned open service from
LGBT people; the law went into effect the following year.[518] In 2016, his administration brought an end to the ban on
transgender people serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.[519][239] A
Gallup poll, taken in the final days of Obama's term, showed that 68 percent of Americans believed the U.S. had made progress on LGBT rights during Obama's eight years in office.[520]
Obama substantially escalated the use of
drone strikes against suspected militants and terrorists associated with al-Qaeda and the
Taliban.[521] In 2016, the last year of his presidency, the U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different countries.[522][523] Obama left about 8,400 U.S. troops in
Afghanistan, 5,262 in Iraq, 503 in Syria, 133 in Pakistan, 106 in Somalia, seven in Yemen, and two in Libya at the end of his presidency.[524]
According to
Pew Research Center and
United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, from December 31, 2009, to December 31, 2015, inmates sentenced in U.S. federal custody declined by five percent. This is the largest decline in sentenced inmates in U.S. federal custody since Democratic President
Jimmy Carter. By contrast, the federal prison population increased significantly under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.[525]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Obama's human rights record "mixed", adding that "he has often treated human rights as a secondary interest—nice to support when the cost was not too high, but nothing like a top priority he championed."[222]
Obama left office in January 2017 with a 60 percent approval rating.[526][527] He gained 10 spots from the same survey in 2015 from the Brookings Institution that ranked him the 18th-greatest American president.[528] In Gallup's 2018 job approval poll for the past 10 U.S. presidents, he received a 63 percent approval rating.[529]
The Barack Obama Presidential Center is Obama's planned
presidential library. It will be hosted by the University of Chicago and located in
Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago.[530]
——————— (1990). "Tort Law. Prenatal Injuries. Supreme Court of Illinois Refuses to Recognize Cause of Action Brought by Fetus Against Its Mother for Unintentional Infliction of Prenatal Injuries. Stallman v. Youngquist, 125 Ill. 2d 267, 531 N. E.2d 355 (1988)". Harvard Law Review. 103 (3): 823–828.
doi:
10.2307/1341352.
JSTOR1341352. Uncredited case comment.[532]
^Barreto, Amílcar Antonio; O'Bryant, Richard L. (November 12, 2013).
"Introduction". American Identity in the Age of Obama. Taylor & Francis. pp. 18–19.
ISBN978-1-317-93715-9. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
^Maraniss (2012), p. 65Archived March 5, 2024, at the
Wayback Machine: He had been born inside the euphorbia hedges of the K'obama homestead on June 18, 1934.
^Liberties (2012), p. 202Archived March 5, 2024, at the
Wayback Machine: The age of his father is questionable since June 18, 1934, is on most of the documents Obama Sr. filled out for his United States student visa; however, Obama II's book Dreams of My Father states his father's birth date was June 18, 1936. Immigration and Naturalization Service records indicate the birth date to be June 18, 1934, thereby making Obama Sr. twenty-seven at the birth of Obama II instead of the annotated twenty-five on the birth certificate.
Merida, Kevin (December 14, 2007).
"The ghost of a father". The Washington Post. p. A12.
Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
^Reyes, B.J. (February 8, 2007).
"Punahou left lasting impression on Obama". Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2007. As a teenager, Obama went to parties and sometimes sought out gatherings on military bases or at the University of Hawaii that were attended mostly by blacks.
for analysis of the political impact of the quote and Obama's more recent admission that he smoked marijuana as a teenager ("When I was a kid, I inhaled"), see:
Possley, Maurice (March 30, 2007).
"Activism blossomed in college". Chicago Tribune. p. 20.
Archived from the original on October 9, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
Secter, Bob; McCormick, John (March 30, 2007).
"Portrait of a pragmatist". Chicago Tribune. p. 1. Archived from
the original on December 14, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
Obama (1995, 2004), pp. 140–295.
Mendell (2007), pp. 63–83.
^
abcMatchan, Linda (February 15, 1990).
"A Law Review breakthrough". The Boston Globe. p. 29.
Archived from the original on January 22, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2008.
Corr, John (February 27, 1990).
"From mean streets to hallowed halls"(paid archive). The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. C01.
Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2008.
^Obama, Barack (August–September 1988). "Why organize? Problems and promise in the inner city". Illinois Issues. Vol. 14, no. 8–9. pp. 40–42.
ISSN0738-9663. reprinted in: Knoepfle, Peg, ed. (1990). After Alinsky: community organizing in Illinois. Springfield, IL: Sangamon State University. pp. 35–40.
ISBN978-0-9620873-3-2. He has also been a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, an organizing institute working throughout the Midwest.
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^
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the original on April 4, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010. instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush's footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.
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"Obama strongly denounces former pastor". NBC News. Associated Press. April 29, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2012. I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992, and have known Reverend Wright for 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person [whom] I met 20 years ago.
Miller, Lisa (July 11, 2008).
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Remnick, David (2010).
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177.
ISBN978-1-4000-4360-6. In late October 1987, his third year as an organizer, Obama went with Kellman to a conference on the black church and social justice at the Harvard Divinity School.
Maraniss (2012), p. 557: It would take time for Obama to join and become fully engaged in Wright's church, a place where he would be baptized and married; that would not happen until later, during his second time around in Chicago, but the process started then, in October 1987... Jerry Kellman: "He wasn't a member of the church during those first three years, but he was drawn to Jeremiah."
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^
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^Block, Robert; Matthews, Mark K. (January 27, 2010).
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