Barack Obama - Democratic Presidential Candidate 2008
In 2005 Barack Obama, a Democrat, was elected a senator from Illinois. He quickly became very popular and a rising star in American politics.
He was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas. They had met as students at the University of Hawaii. When Obama was very young his parents divorced. His father went back to Kenya to work in the economy and his mother remarried and moved to Indonesia.
When Obama was 10 his mother sent him back to the United States, He studied at Columbia University and later on attended Harvard Law School. In the year that he got his degree he married Michelle Robinson. The couple have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Obama became a civil rights lawyer in Chicago and also wrote a few books. In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. In the 2004 elections he beat his Republican opponent by big margin.
In 2007 Obama announced that he would become a candidate for the Democratic nomination.
The American President - Table of Contents
- The American President - His Life, Job and Duties
- The Road to the White House
- How American Government Works
- The Electoral College
- The 2000 Presidential Election
- Famous American Presidents
Presidential Election 2008 - Table of Contents
- Results of the 2008 Election
- Democratic Presidential Candidate - Barack Obama
- Republican Presidential Candidate - John McCain
Online Exercises
- American President - Multiple Choice Exercise
- American President - True or False
- American President - Rearrange the events in their correct order
- The Road to the White House - Find the correct order
- American States
- Vocabulary Matching Exercise 1
- Vocabulary Matching Exercise 2
- American President - Crossword 1
- Presidents of the Past - Crossword 2
- American President - Fill in the missing words
Related Topics
Words
- announce = to say officially
- attend = go to
- beat = to win against
- civil rights = the rights that every person should have , like the right to vote or to be treated fairly
- couple = two people who are married or have a relationship
- degree = a title you get when you have finished your studies at a university or college
- divorce = to break up a marriage
- economy = the buying and selling of goods in a country
- elect = when the people choose someone for an official job
- lawyer = a person who gives others information about the law or who defends others in court
- margin = here: very clearly
- nomination = here: when a party officially suggests someone to be their candidate for the Presidency
- opponent = here: the person who you fight against, your political rival
- popular =well known and liked
- senator = a member of the US Senate ; there are 100 Senators – two from each state
- State Senate = the senate of an American state