From Illinois State Senator to potential President of the United States: A
look at Barack Obama's rise to political power.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES POOL -
U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama has come a long way in a
relatively short period of time. Within a few years, Obama has gone from a
little-known Illinois state senator to a man who could likely become the next
President of the United States.
Obama's political journey started as an energetic community-based
grassroots effort to reach people who desperately wanted the United States to
take a new political direction, and his message of "Change"
resonated with millions of Americans.
Barack Obama made his political debut on a national level during the
2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, Massachusetts where he gave the keynote
address during Senator John Kerry's run for U.S. President.
Obama's rousing and passionate speech during the convention not only
motivated the crowd, but it also marked Obama's status as a powerful rising
star who could energize the stagnant Democratic party and unite people with
varied backgrounds behind common Democratic party ideals.
"America, tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you
feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if
you feel the same hopefulness that I do, if we we do what we must do, then I
have no doubt that all across the country from Florida to Oregon, to
Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November and John Kerry will
be sworn in as President and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President
and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political
darkness, a brighter day will come. Thank you very much everybody and God
bless you," Obama said.
Barack Obama's multi-ethnic background has helped shape his political
and personal beliefs, and many people think his background has also helped him
appeal to large segments of the U.S. population.
Obama's humble story begins in the U.S. state of Hawaii where Barack
Obama, Sr., a black Kenyan man, met and married Ann Dunham, a white American
woman. The two met while studying at the University of Hawaii, and Barack
Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A few years later, Obama's parents divorced, and Ann Dunham later
married Lolo Soetoro, a student from Indonesia. Obama and his mother
eventually moved to Indonesia, but after a few years, Obama returned to Hawaii
to live with his maternal grandparents.
Eventually, Obama went on to graduate from Columbia University in New
York, and later Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, Obama became the first
black man to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review.
In 1995, Obama first book called 'Dreams From My Father' was published.
The book was inspired by Obama's trip to Kenya to visit his father's
homeland.
Barack Obama's political career began on the streets of Chicago where
he worked as a community organizer. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois
State Senate, and was re-elected twice.
Obama gained worldwide attention, a few months after his speech at the
2004 Democratic National Convention, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Obama won the Senate seat with a whopping 70 percent of the vote, and became
the nation's fifth African American U.S. Senator.
During his acceptance speech, Obama set the tone for his eventual run
for U.S. President by pointing out his personal differences and by embracing
common American values. "In a fearful nation, someone named Barack
Obama, could never hope to win an election and yet here we stand because we
had a different concept, a different notion of the American people. We
understood that there was a core of decency to the American people, that there
was a set of shared values that extended beyond race and region, and extended
beyond income and ethnicity," Obama said.
In 2006, Obama published his second book 'The Audacity of Hope' where
he further detailed his political and policy ideas.
A few months later, in January 2007, Barack Obama announced his
intention to run for U.S. President via a posting on his internet website.
The internet post was a non-traditional campaign approach, and the internet
would soon become a key part of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign.
Obama's early and aggressive use of the internet is credited with helping him
attract and mobilize both young potential voters and energetic volunteers.
Expert use of the internet also helped Obama raise an enormous amount of money
to finance his campaign.
During the campaign, Obama championed causes for working class families
such as health care and economic growth. He also made ending the unpopular
war in Iraq a central theme of his campaign.
Obama's entry into the U.S. Presidential race disrupted fellow Democrat
Hillary Clinton's campaign for President. Many Clinton supporters believed
Hillary Clinton would be the Democrats inevitable choice as their party's
candidate for U.S. President. Thus, the Obama-Clinton battle set off a longer
than average and arduous state by state primary campaign.
The primary campaign is where voters decide who they want to represent
their political party during the general election. The first battle of the
primary season happened in Iowa, and Barack Obama's core theme of
"Change" inspired thousands of people to brave the icy cold weather
to vote. Obama outshined the other seven other candidates and won 38 percent
of the vote in Iowa. It was a major victory and one that would give his
campaign invaluable momentum.
After the vote, Obama enthusiastically thanked his supporters.
"You have done what America can do in this new year, 2008. In lines that
stretched around schools and churches, in small towns, and big cities, you
came together as democrats, republicans and independents to stand up and say
that we are one nation. We are one people and our time for change has
come," Obama said.
Obama rarely discussed his race during his groundbreaking run for
President, but amid controversy about statements made by his former pastor,
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama urged Americans to move past racial divisions and
unite behind shared ideals. "I chose to run for President at this moment
in history because I believe deeply that we can not solve the challenges of
our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union, by
understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes.
And we may not look the same, and we may not come from the same place, but we
all want to move in the same direction towards a better future for our
children and our grandchildren," he said during his speech in
Philadelphia.
During the campaign, Obama's charisma easily charmed his supporters,
but his even-tempered intellectual manner led his critics to try to brand him
as an elitist.
The hard-fought primary campaign ended on June 3, 2008 when Obama
defeated Clinton by amassing enough primary votes to become the presumptive
Democratic nominee for U.S. President.
"Because of you, tonight, I can stand here and say that I will be
the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States of America,
" Obama said during a campaign rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.
On August 29, 2008, Barack Obama made history again by becoming the
first African American to accept the Democratic nomination for U.S. President.
"With gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for
President of the United States," Obama said during his acceptance speech
at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Now, Barack Obama is poised to make history again on Tuesday, November
4 when he could become the first African American President of the United
States.