President Obama: The Likes, The Dislikes, and Everything Else

On November 4th, 2008, Senator Barack Obama became the President-elect. That November day will be remembered forever, signifying the election of the first African-American to the White House. On January 20th, 2009, Barack H. Obama II became the 44th President of the United States.

I recently watched a biography on the president. It was inspiring to say the least. Born in the 1960's when racism was at its peak, and moving from country to country through the 70's, it showed how Mr. Obama dealt with his race in his adolescent years. Having seen the poverty in Indonesia, Obama decided to excel in school, and set a goal to make a difference in the world using his education. Graduating in 1979 with honors from Punahou Academy in Hawaii, he was accepted to Occidental College in Los Angeles. After two years, Obama transferred to Columbia University in New York. A year into his Columbia career, he had learned that his father died in a car accident in Kenya. A year later, Mr. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983. In 1985, Obama moved to Chicago and there worked as a community organizer on the south side. He worked to improve housing in the community. In 1988 Obama set off to attend Harvard Law School. Two years later, he was elected first African American President of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1991 graduated magna cum laude. After returning to Chicago, he ran for State Senate in 1996. He was successful. He then worked in a bipartisian manner, drafting legislation for ethics, healthcare, and education reform. Wanting to use his education to address national issues, Obama ran for the Democratic Nomination for a House of Representatives seat in 2000. He was unsuccessful. After 9/11, Obama spoke out against the use of force in Iraq. In 2003, Mr. Obama ran for the Democratic Nomination for the vacant Illinois US Senate Seat. He won the primary with 52% of the vote. During the summer of 2004, Obama gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in support of Presidential Nominee, John Kerry. After returning to Illinois for his bid for the Senate, he learned of a scandal with his opponents name written all over it. The republican, Jack Ryan, soon dropped out of the race. He was replaced by Alan Keyes. November 2nd, 2004 proved to be a big win for Obama. The new junior Senator recieved 70% of the vote. Working with Republicans, he drafted legislation to destroy WMD's in East Europe and Russia, and created a website to track federal spending. Two years ago, Obama launched his campaign for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. He had a tough battle defeating Senator Hillary Clinton, but was presumed the nominee on June 3rd, 2008. He was elected to the Office of the President in November, and the rest is history.

With Mr. Obama's life story stated, I would like to express my favorable thoughts toward the new president. On November 4th, I was dissappointed and proud at the same time. Dissappointed by the results of the election, but proud to be an American. It was not long before the President-elect got to work. He was the quickest President in history to pick his cabinet. For that, I applaud him. I also liked the weekly video address that he gave. It gave me a chance to get to know his thoughts for the country a bit more. One thing I must touch on though, is his determination. Barack Obama's story makes the sentence, "Anyone can be president if they truely want to be", all the more true. This man is a prime example of a man who lived through times of race and poverty, who decided to set goals, and achieved them. He wasn't going to let anyone stand in the way of that. Instead of not going to college, and working at a burger joint his whole life, he decided to get a good education to support himself in the real world. He was dependent on noone, and attended very prestigous schools. He wanted to use his education to help others, and for that, I give him my upmost respect. Since Obama has become president, he has done some good things. He has issued executive orders to make his administration the most ethical in history, and hopefully that stands true. He has issued orders to establish transperancy in government. Those orders are change even conservatives can believe in.

With the likes, always comes the dislikes. One thing I have not liked about the first two weeks in the new administration is his lack of oversight in this so called "stimulus bill". He and his White House advisors should have drafted the bill and then gave it to the House. The lack of bipartisianship in the house should also be addressed. In the future, he will find much more success in uniting the House of Representatives. The pork on this bill is dispicable, and now that it has moved to the Senate, they only continue to add. All this bill should include is infrastructure spending and tax cuts. It would be much less expensive than $900 billion if those two things were the only things in this bill. Another dissappointment is a lack in the vetting process. Now three of his cabinets designates have withdrawn thier nomination from consideration. He has to make sure these designates have followed the same ethics rules that he has established for the rest of his administration.


In addition, Americans must support the new president, because if we do, we can pressure members of congress to take out a majority of pork barrel spending. Mr. Obama does truely want bipartisianship, and that is change. I can believe in somethings he wants, and though it may not be on policies, it will be in the act of accountibility.


Special thanks to Biography.com for the information in the second paragraph.