Who is Barack obama, Everthing you thought and learnt about him might be wrong.

Who is Barack obama, Everthing you thought and learnt about him might be wrong.
Barack Obama is the 44th and current
president of the United States, and the
first African American to serve as U.S.
president. First elected to the presidency in
2008, he won a second term in 2012.
Synopsis
Born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu,
Hawaii, Barack Obama is the 44th
and current president of the United
States. He was a civil-rights lawyer
and teacher before pursuing a
political career. He was elected to the
Illinois State Senate in 1996, serving
from 1997 to 2004. He was elected to
the U.S. presidency in 2008, and won
re-election in 2012 against
Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
President Obama continues to enact
policy changes in response to the
issues of health care and economic
crisis.
Early Life
Barack Hussein Obama was born on
August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
His mother, Ann Dunham , grew up in
Wichita, Kansas, where her father
worked on oil rigs during the Great
Depression. After the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's
father, Stanley, enlisted in the
service and marched across Europe in
Patton's army. Dunham's mother,
Madelyn, went to work on a bomber
assembly line. After the war, the
couple studied on the G.I. Bill,
bought a house through the Federal
Housing Program and, after several
moves, landed in Hawaii.
Barack Obama's father, Barack
Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity
in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr.
grew up herding goats in Africa,
eventually earning a scholarship that
allowed him to leave Kenya and
pursue his dreams of college in
Hawaii. While studying at the
University of Hawaii in Manoa,
Obama Sr. met fellow student Ann
Dunham, and they married on
February 2, 1961. Barack was born six
months later.
Obama did not have a relationship
with his father as a child. When his
son was still an infant, Obama Sr.
relocated to Massachusetts to attend
Harvard University, pursuing a Ph.D.
Barack's parents officially separated
several months later and ultimately
divorced in March 1964, when their
son was 2. In 1965, Obama Sr.
returned to Kenya.
In 1965, Dunham married Lolo
Soetoro, an East–West Center student
from Indonesia. A year later, the
family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia,
where Barack's half-sister, Maya
Soetoro Ng, was born. Several
incidents in Indonesia left Dunham
afraid for her son's safety and
education so, at the age of 10,
Barack was sent back to Hawaii to
live with his maternal grandparents.
His mother and sister later joined
them.
Education
While living with his grandparents,
Obama enrolled in the esteemed
Punahou Academy, excelling in
basketball and graduating with
academic honors in 1979. As one of
only three black students at the
school, Obama became conscious of
racism and what it meant to be
African-American. He later
described how he struggled to
reconcile social perceptions of his
multiracial heritage with his own
sense of self: "I began to notice
there was nobody like me in the
Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog ...
and that Santa was a white man," he
said. "I went to the bathroom and
stood in front of the mirror with all
my senses and limbs seemingly intact,
looking the way I had always looked,
and wondered if something was
wrong with me."
Obama also struggled with the
absence of his father, who he saw
only once more after his parents
divorced, when Obama Sr. visited
Hawaii for a short time in 1971. "[My
father] had left paradise, and
nothing that my mother or
grandparents told me could obviate
that single, unassailable fact," he
later reflected. "They couldn't
describe what it might have been like
had he stayed."
Ten years later, in 1981, tragedy
struck Obama Sr. He was involved in a
serious car accident, losing both of
his legs as a result. Confined to a
wheelchair, he also lost his job. In
1982, Obama Sr. was involved in yet
another car accident while traveling
in Nairobi. This time, however, the
crash was fatal. Obama Sr. died on
November 24, 1982, when Barack was
21 years old. "At the time of his
death, my father remained a myth
to me," Obama later said, "both
more and less than a man."
After high school, Obama studied at
Occidental College in Los Angeles for
two years. He then transferred to
Columbia University in New York,
graduating in 1983 with a degree in
political science. After working in the
business sector for two years, Obama
moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he
worked on the South Side as a
community organizer for low-income
residents in the Roseland and the
Altgeld Gardens communities.
Law Career
It was during this time that Barack
Obama, who said he "was not raised
in a religious household," joined the
Trinity United Church of Christ. He
also visited relatives in Kenya, which
included an emotional visit to the
graves of his biological father and
paternal grandfather. "For a long
time I sat between the two graves
and wept," Obama said. "I saw that
my life in America—the black life,
the white life, the sense of
abandonment I felt as a boy, the
frustration and hope I'd witnessed
in Chicago—all of it was connected
with this small plot of earth an ocean
away."
Obama returned from Kenya with a
sense of renewal, entering Harvard
Law School in 1988. The next year, he
met Michelle Robinson, an associate
at the Chicago law firm of Sidley
Austin. She was assigned to be
Obama's adviser during a summer
internship at the firm, and not long
after, the couple began dating. Their
first kiss took place outside of a
Chicago shopping center—where a
plaque featuring a photo of the
couple kissing was installed more
than two decades later, in August
2012. In February 1990, Obama was
elected the first African-American
editor of the Harvard Law Review . He
graduated from Harvard, magna
cum laude, in 1991.
After law school, Obama returned to
Chicago to practice as a civil rights
lawyer, joining the firm of Miner,
Barnhill & Galland. He also taught
part-time at the University of
Chicago Law School (1992-2004)—first
as a lecturer and then as a professor
—and helped organize voter
registration drives during Bill
Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.
On October 3, 1992, he and Michelle
were married. They moved to
Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side,
and welcomed two daughters several
years later: Malia (born 1998) and
Sasha (born 2001).
Entry Into Illinois Politics
Obama published an autobiography,
Dreams From My Father: A Story of
Race and Inheritance , in 1995. The
work received high praise from
literary figures like Toni Morrison
and has since been printed in 10
languages, including Chinese, Swedish
and Hebrew. The book had a second
printing in 2004, and was adapted
for a children's version. The 2006
audiobook version of Dreams ,
narrated by Obama, received a
Grammy Award (best spoken word
album).
Obama's advocacy work led him to
run for a seat in the Illinois State
Senate. He ran as a Democrat, and
won election in 1996. During these
years, Obama worked with both
Democrats and Republicans to draft
legislation on ethics, and expand
health care services and early
childhood education programs for
the poor. He also created a state
earned-income tax credit for the
working poor. Obama became
chairman of the Illinois Senate's
Health and Human Services
Committee as well, and after a
number of inmates on death row were
found innocent, he worked with law
enforcement officials to require the
videotaping of interrogations and
confessions in all capital cases.
In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful
Democratic primary run for the U.S.
House of Representatives seat held by
four-term incumbent candidate
Bobby Rush. Undeterred, he created
a campaign committee in 2002, and
began raising funds to run for a seat
in the U.S. Senate in 2004. With the
help of political consultant David
Axelrod, Obama began assessing his
prospects of a Senate win.
Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001,
Obama was an early opponent of
President George W. Bush 's push to go
to war with Iraq. Obama was still a
state senator when he spoke against
a resolution authorizing the use of
force against Iraq during a rally at
Chicago's Federal Plaza in October
2002. "I am not opposed to all wars.
I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said.
"What I am opposed to is the cynical
attempt by Richard Perle and Paul
Wolfowitz and other armchair,
weekend warriors in this
administration to shove their own
ideological agendas down our
throats, irrespective of the costs in
lives lost and in hardships borne."
Despite his protests, the Iraq War
began in 2003.
U.S. Senate Career
Obama, encouraged by poll numbers,
decided to run for the U.S. Senate
open seat vacated by Republican
Peter Fitzgerald. In the 2004
Democratic primary, he won 52
percent of the vote, defeating
multimillionaire businessman Blair
Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel
Hynes. That summer, he was invited
to deliver the keynote speech in
support of John Kerry at the 2004
Democratic National Convention in
Boston. Obama emphasized the
importance of unity, and made
veiled jabs at the Bush
administration and the diversionary
use of wedge issues.
After the convention, Obama
returned to his U.S. Senate bid in
Illinois. His opponent in the general
election was supposed to be
Republican primary winner Jack
Ryan, a wealthy former investment
banker. However, Ryan withdrew from
the race in June 2004, following
public disclosure of unsubstantiated
sexual deviancy allegations by Ryan's
ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.
In August 2004, diplomat and former
presidential candidate Alan Keyes
accepted the Republican nomination
to replace Ryan. In three televised
debates, Obama and Keyes expressed
opposing views on stem cell research,
abortion, gun control, school vouchers
and tax cuts. In the November 2004
general election, Obama received 70
percent of the vote to Keyes' 27
percent, the largest electoral victory
in Illinois history. With his win,
Barack Obama became only the third
African-American elected to the U.S.
Senate since the Reconstruction.
Sworn into office on January 4, 2005,
Obama partnered with Republican
Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on
a bill that expanded efforts to
destroy weapons of mass destruction
in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then,
with Republican Senator Tom Coburn
of Oklahoma, he created a website to
track all federal spending. Obama
also spoke out for victims of
Hurricane Katrina, pushed for
alternative energy development and
championed improved veterans'
benefits.
His second book, The Audacity of
Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the
American Dream , was published in
October 2006. The work discussed
Obama's visions for the future of
America, many of which became
talking points for his eventual
presidential campaign. Shortly after
its release, it hit No. 1 on both the
New York Times and Amazon.com
best-seller lists.
2008 Presidential Election
In February 2007, Obama made
headlines when he announced his
candidacy for the 2008 Democratic
presidential nomination. He was
locked in a tight battle with former
first lady and then-U.S. senator
from New York Hillary Rodham
Clinton. On June 3, 2008, however,
Obama became the presumptive
nominee for the Democratic Party,
and Senator Clinton delivered her
full support to Obama for the
duration of his campaign. On
November 4, 2008, Barack Obama
defeated Republican presidential
nominee John McCain, 52.9 percent to
45.7 percent, winning election as the
44th president of the United States—
and the first African-American to
hold this office. His running mate,
Delaware Senator Joe Biden, became
vice president. Obama's inauguration
took place on January 20, 2009.
When Obama took office, he
inherited a global economic
recession, two ongoing foreign wars
and the lowest international
favorability rating for the United
States ever. He campaigned on an
ambitious agenda of financial
reform, alternative energy, and
reinventing education and health
care—all while bringing down the
national debt. Because these issues
were intertwined with the economic
well-being of the nation, he believed
all would have to be undertaken
simultaneously. During his
inauguration speech, Obama
summarized the situation by saying,
"Today I say to you that the
challenges we face are real. They are
serious and they are many. They will
not be met easily or in a short span
of time. But know this, America: They
will be met."
First 100 Days
Between Inauguration Day and April
29, 2009, the Obama administration
took to the field on many fronts.
Obama coaxed Congress to expand
health care insurance for children
and provide legal protection for
women seeking equal pay. A $787
billion stimulus bill was passed to
promote short-term economic growth.
Housing and credit markets were put
on life support, with a market-based
plan to buy U.S. banks' toxic assets.
Loans were made to the auto
industry, and new regulations were
proposed for Wall Street. He also cut
taxes for working families, small
businesses and first-time home
buyers. The president also loosened
the ban on embryonic stem cell
research and moved ahead with a
$3.5 trillion budget plan.
Over his first 100 days in office,
President Obama also undertook a
complete overhaul of America's
foreign policy. He reached out to
improve relations with Europe, China
and Russia and to open dialogue with
Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. He
lobbied allies to support a global
economic stimulus package. He
committed an additional 21,000
troops to Afghanistan and set an
August 2010 date for withdrawal of
U.S. troops from Iraq. In more
dramatic incidents, he took on
pirates off the coast of Somalia and
prepared the nation for a swine flu
attack. For his efforts, he was
awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
by the Nobel Committee in Norway.
2010 State of the Union
On January 27, 2010, President
Obama delivered his first State of the
Union speech. During his oration,
Obama addressed the challenges of
the economy, proposing a fee for
larger banks, announcing a possible
freeze on government spending in
2010 and speaking against the
Supreme Court's reversal of a law
capping campaign finance spending.
He also challenged politicians to stop
thinking of re-election and start
making positive changes, criticizing
Republicans for their refusal to
support any legislation, and
chastising Democrats for not pushing
hard enough to get legislation
passed. He also insisted that, despite
obstacles, he was determined to help
American citizens through the
nation's current domestic
difficulties. "We don't quit. I don't
quit," he said. "Let's seize this
moment to start anew, to carry the
dream forward, and strengthen our
union once more."
Challenges and Successes
In the second part of his first term
as president, Obama faced a number
of obstacles and scored some victories
as well. He signed his health care
reform plan, known as the
Affordable Care Act, into law in
March 2010. Obama's plan is intended
to strengthen consumers' rights and
to provide affordable insurance
coverage and greater access to
medical care. His opponents, however,
claim that "Obamacare," as they
have called it, added new costs to
the country's overblown budget and
may violate the Constitution with its
requirement for individuals to obtain
insurance.
On the economic front, Obama has
worked hard to steer the country
through difficult financial times. He
signed the Budget Control Act of 2011
in an effort to rein in government
spending and prevent the
government from defaulting on its
financial obligations. The act also
called for the creation of a
bipartisan committee to seek
solutions to the country's fiscal
issues, but the group failed to reach
any agreement on how to solve these
problems.
Obama has also handled a number of
military and security issues during
his presidency. In 2011, he helped
repeal the military policy known as
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which
prevented openly gay troops from
serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. He
also gave the green light to a 2011
covert operation in Pakistan, which
led to the killing of infamous al-
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by a
team of U.S. Navy SEALs.
Obama made headlines again in June
2012, when a mandate included in
his Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (initiated in
2010) was upheld by the U.S. Supreme
Court, thus allowing other important
pieces of the law to stay intact. The
law includes free health screenings
for certain citizens, restrictions on
stringent insurance company policies
and permission for citizens under
age 26 to be insured under parental
plans, among several other provisions.
In a 5-4 decision, the court voted to
uphold the mandate under which
citizens are required to purchase
health insurance or pay a tax—a
main provision of Obama's health
care law—stating that while the
mandate is unconstitutional,
according to the Constitution's
commerce clause, it falls within
Congress' constitutional power to tax.
2012 Re-Election
As he did in 2008, during his
campaign for a second presidential
term, Obama focused on grassroots
initiatives. Celebrities such as Anna
Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker
aided the president's campaign by
hosting fund-raising events.
"I guarantee you, we will move this
country forward," Obama stated in
June 2012, at a campaign event in
Maryland. "We will finish what we
started. And we'll remind the world
just why it is the United States of
America is the greatest nation on
Earth."
In the 2012 election, Obama faced
Republican opponent Mitt Romney
and Romney's vice-presidential
running mate, U.S. Representative
Paul Ryan. On the evening of
November 6, 2012, Obama was
announced the winner of the
election, gaining a second four-year
term as president. Early election
results indicated a close race. By the
early hours of Wednesday, however,
Obama had received more than 270
electoral votes—the number of votes
required to win a U.S. presidential
election; later results showed that
the president had won nearly 60
percent of the electoral vote, as well
as the popular vote by more than 1
million ballots.
Nearly one month after President
Obama's re-election, the nation
endured one of its most tragic school
shootings to date: On December 14,
2012, 20 children and six adult
workers were shot to death at the
Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut. Two days after
the attack, Obama delivered a speech
at an interfaith vigil for the victims
in Newtown, discussing a need for
change in order to make schools
safer, and alluding to implementing
stricter gun control. "These tragedies
must end," Obama stated. "We can't
accept events like these as routine.
In the coming weeks, I'll use
whatever power this office holds to
engage my fellow citizens, from law
enforcement, to mental-health
professionals, to parents and
educators, in an effort aimed at
preventing more tragedies like this,
because what choice do we have? . . .
Are we really prepared to say that
we're powerless in the face of such
carnage, that the politics are too
hard?"
Obama achieved a major legislative
victory on January 1, 2013, when the
Republican-controlled House of
Representatives approved a
bipartisan agreement on tax
increases and spending cuts, in an
effort to avoid the looming fiscal
cliff crisis (the Senate voted in favor
of the bill earlier that day). The
agreement marked a productive first
step toward the president's re-
election promise of reducing the
federal deficit by raising taxes on
the extremely wealthy—individuals
earning more than $400,000 per year
and couples earning more than
$450,000, according to the bill. Prior
to the the bill's passage, in late 2012,
tense negotiations between
Republicans and Democrats over
spending cuts and tax increases
became a bitter political battle. Vice
President Joe Biden managed to
hammer out a deal with Republican
Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell. Obama pledged to sign the
bill into law.
Second Term
Barack Obama officially began his
second term on January 21, 2013. The
inauguration was held on Martin
Luther King Jr. Day. Civil rights
activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, the
widow of Medgar Evers, gave the
invocation. James Taylor, Beyoncé
Knowles and Kelly Clarkson sang at
the ceremony, and poet Richard
Blanco read his poem "One Today."
U.S. Supreme Court Chief John Roberts
conducted Obama's presidential oath
of office. After completing his oath,
Obama was congratulated by his wife
Michelle and daughters Malia and
Sasha.
In his inaugural address, Obama
called the nation to action on such
issues as climate change, health care
and marriage equality. "We must
act, knowing that our work will be
imperfect. We must act, knowing that
today's victories will be only partial
and that it will be up to those who
stand here in four years and 40
years and 400 years hence to
advance the timeless spirit once
conferred to us in a spare
Philadelphia hall," Obama told the
crowd gathered in front of the U.S.
Capitol building.
Celebrations continued that day.
President Barack Obama and First
Lady Michelle Obama attended two
official inauguration balls, including
one held at the Walter E. Washington
Convention Center. There the first
couple danced the Al Green classic
"Let's Stay Together," sung by
Jennifer Hudson. Alicia Keys and
Jamie Foxx also performed.
After the inauguration, Obama led
the nation through many challenges—
none more difficult, perhaps, than
the bombing of the Boston Marathon
on April 15, 2013. Three people were
killed and more than 200 people were
injured in this terror attack. Obama
traveled to Boston to speak at a
memorial service three days after the
bombings. To the wounded, he said,
"Your country is with you. We will all
be with you as you learn to stand
and walk and, yes, run again. Of
that I have no doubt. You will run
again." And he applauded the
response to this tragedy by city's
citizens. "You’ve shown us, Boston,
that in the face of evil, Americans
will lift up what’s good. In the face
of cruelty, we will choose
compassion."
By June, Obama had suffered a
significant drop in his approval
ratings in a CNN/ORC International
poll. He had declined to an approval
rating of only 45 percent—his lowest
rating in more than 18 months. The
poll results meant that more than
half of Americans disapproved of
how Obama was doing as president.
Experts attributed the ratings slide
to several factors, including the
controversy surrounding the NSA
surveillance program.
Obama defended the NSA's program,
which includes email monitoring and
telephone wiretapping, during a visit
to Germany that June. "We are not
rifling through the emails of German
citizens or American citizens or
French citizens or anyone else,” he
said, according to the Financial
Times ."The encroachment on privacy
has been strictly limited." Obama
stated that the program has helped
stop roughly 50 threats.
In early July 2013, President Obama
made history when he joined former
President George W. Bush in Africa to
commemorate the 15th anniversary
of Osama bin Laden's first U.S.
attack. The event marked the first
meeting between two U.S. presidents
on foreign soil in commemoration of
an act of terrorism.
Later that month, Obama spoke out
about the Trayvon Martin murder
trial and the outrage that followed
the jury's verdict. Martin's shooter,
George Zimmerman, was acquitted of
killing the African-American teen in
Florida. In a White House press
conference, the president said that
"when Trayvon Martin was first shot
I said that this could have been my
son. Another way of saying that is
Trayvon Martin could have been me
35 years ago." Obama explained that
this particular case was a state
matter, but he discussed how the
federal government could address
some of the legislative and racial
issues brought up by this situation.
International Challenges
Obama found himself grappling with
an international crisis in late August
and September 2013. It was
discovered that Syrian leader Bashar
al-Assad had used chemical weapons
against civilians. According to the
White House website, Obama said that
"thousands of people, including over
400 children," had been killed in
these attacks. Syria's actions present
"a serious national security threat to
the United States and to the region,
and as a consequence, Assad and
Syria needs to be held accountable."
The president then worked to
persuade Congress and the
international community at large to
take action against Syria.
As the positions of the members of
Congress revealed that the majority
was in favor of refraining from
striking Syria, Obama announced an
alternative solution. During an
address on forthcoming action
against Syria made on September 10,
2013, Obama stated that if al-Assad
agreed with the stipulations outlined
in a proposal made by Russia to give
up its chemical weapons, then a
direct strike against the nation could
be avoided. Al-Assad acknowledged
the possession of chemical weapons
and was receptive to the idea of a
proposal from Russia, but Obama
said, "It's too early to tell whether
this offer will succeed, and any
agreement must verify that the Assad
regime keeps its commitments."
Later that month, Obama made
diplomatic strides with Iran. He
spoke with Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani on the phone, which marked
the first time in decades that the
leaders of the two countries had had
direct contact. This groundbreaking
move by Obama is seen by many as a
sign of thawing in the relationship
between the United States and Iran.
According to an NBC News report,
Obama said, "The two of us discussed
our ongoing efforts to reach an
agreement over Iran's nuclear
program." Obama expressed some
optimism that a deal on the issue
could be reached.
Domestic Policies and
Problems
Obama found himself struggling on
the domestic front in October 2013.
There was a 16-day shutdown of the
federal government, which was
caused by a dispute over the federal
budget. Republicans especially wanted
to defund or otherwise derail
Obama's Affordable Care Act. After
a deal had been reached to end the
shutdown, Obama used his weekly
address to express his frustration
over the situation and his desire for
political reform: "The way business is
done in Washington has to change.
Now that these clouds of crisis and
uncertainty have lifted, we need to
focus on what the majority of
Americans sent us here to do—grow
the economy, create good jobs,
strengthen the middle class, lay the
foundation for broad-based
prosperity, and get our fiscal house
in order for the long haul."
The Affordable Care Act continued to
come under fire in October after the
failed launch of HealthCare.gov,
which was meant to help people find
health insurance. Extra technical
support was brought in to work on the
troubled website after users
encountered difficulty with it in its
early days. The act also seemed to
affect the existing insurance policies
of many Americans, causing them to
lose coverage. According to the
Chicago Tribune , Obama insisted that
his legislation didn't cause the
coverage change, the insurance
companies did. He said, "Remember,
before the Affordable Care Act,
these bad-apple insurers had free
rein every single year to limit the
care that you received, or used minor
pre-existing conditions to jack up
your premiums, or bill you into
bankruptcy."
Under mounting pressure, Obama
found himself apologizing regarding
some health care changes. He said of
those who lost their insurance plans,
"I am sorry that they are finding
themselves in this situation based on
assurances they got from me,"
according to a NBC News report.
Obama pledged to find a remedy to
this problem, saying, "We are going
to do everything we can to deal with
folks who find themselves in a tough
position as a consequence of this."
Managing Foreign Crises
Obama had to manage more
challenges in the area of foreign
relations around this time as well. In
October 2013, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel revealed that the U.S.
National Security Agency had been
listening in to her cell phone calls.
Speaking at a summit of European
leaders, Merkel said, "Spying among
friends is never acceptable,"
according to CNN.com.
In the wake of several controversies,
Obama saw his approval rating drop
to a new low in November 2013. Only
37 percent of Americans polled by
CBS News thought he was doing a good
job as president. Another 57 percent
disapproved of his handling of the
nation.
In March 2014, in an effort to
provide relief for Ukrainians
following the 2014 Ukrainian
revolution—which began with civil
unrest and protests in Kiev and led
to the downfall of Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych's
administration—and subsequently
work to establish a new government
for the country, it was announced
that Obama had ordered a round of
sanctions targeting individuals and
businesses considered by the U.S.
government to be Ukraine agitators
or involved in the Crimean crisis. In
this crisis, Russian troops' seizure of
control led to a referendum to
decide whether the region could
separate from the Ukraine and join
Russia.
"The proposed referendum on the
future of Crimea would violate the
Ukrainian constitution and violate
international law," Obama stated at
the White House. "In 2014 we are well
beyond the days when borders can be
redrawn over the heads of
democratic leaders." According to
the president, the sanctions give the
U.S. "the flexibility to adjust our
response going forward based on
Russia's actions. We took these steps
in close coordination with our
European allies."
Obama faced more difficulties at
home and abroad later that year. In
addition to the ongoing troubles in
Ukraine, tensions between Israelis
and Palestinians erupted into
violence during the summer. He also
faced a domestic situation regarding
the U.S.-Mexico border, with tens of
thousands of children making the
perilous crossing alone. Many
Republicans called for the rapid
deportation of these illegal
immigrants, while others considered
the situation a humanitarian crisis.
Another of the president's woes came
from the legislative branch. Speaker
of the House John Boehner launched
an effort to sue Obama for
overstepping his executive powers with
some of his actions regarding the
Affordable Care Act.
In September 2014, Obama led an
attack against the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS or ISIL. The United
States, along with several Arab
countries, launched airstrikes on
targets related to this extremist
Islamic militant group around this
time. Obama also appeared at the
United Nations to call for more
nations to rally together against
ISIS. According to The New York
Times , he said, "The only language
understood by killers like this is the
language of force. So the United
States of America will work with a
broad coalition to dismantle this
network of death."
Presidency After 2014
Elections
That November, Obama had to cope
with new challenges on the home
front. Republicans made an
impressive showing on Election Day,
changing the balance of power in the
Senate. The Democrats lost their
majority in the Senate, meaning that
Obama would have to contend with
Republicans controlling both the
House and the Senate for the final
two years of his term.
Obama flexed his presidential power
in December, moving to reestablish
diplomatic relations with Cuba. This
policy change came after an
exchange of prisoners between the two
nations. American citizen Alan Gross
and another unnamed American
intelligence agent were released by
the Cuban government in return for
three Cuban spies. In a speech at the
White House, Obama explained that
this dramatic shift in Cuban policy
will "create more opportunities for
the American and Cuban people, and
begin a new chapter among the
nations of the Americas."
In addition to renewing diplomatic
ties with Cuba, Obama also
announced plans "to increase travel,
commerce and the flow of
information to and from Cuba." He
cannot, however, lift the U.S.
economic embargo on Cuba, which has
lasted for more than 50 years. The
embargo can only be removed with
the approval of Congress, and Obama
may not be able to sway Congress to
agree on this policy shift. Leading
Republican senators, such as John
Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Marco
Rubio, have all spoken out against
Obama's new Cuba policies.
In his 2015 State of the Union
address, Obama declared that the
nation was out of recession.
"America, for all that we've
endured; for all the grit and hard
work required to come back . . . know
this: The shadow of crisis has
passed," he said, according to the
Washington Post . He went on to share
his vision for ways to improve the
nation, calling for free community
college programs and tax breaks for
the middle class.
With Democrats outnumbered by
Republicans in both the House and
the Senate, Obama has also
threatened to use his executive power
to prevent any tinkering by the
opposition on his existing policies.
"We can’t put the security of families
at risk by taking away their health
insurance, or unraveling the new
rules on Wall Street, or refighting
past battles on immigration when
we’ve got a system to fix," he said.
"And if a bill comes to my desk that
tries to do any of these things, it will
earn my veto."
Not long after his address to the
nation, Obama traveled to India to
meet with Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. He attended India's Republic
Day, which celebrates the anniversary
of the country's constitution.
According to several news reports,
Obama and Modi had reached a
"breakthrough understanding"
regarding India's nuclear power
efforts. Obama told the Indian
people in a speech given in New Delhi
that "we can finally move toward
fully implementing our civil nuclear
agreement, which will mean more
reliable electricity for Indians and
cleaner, non-carbon energy that
helps fight climate change." This
agreement would also open the door
to U.S. investment in India's energy
industry.