Ljupco zikov biography of barack

Open Library American Libraries. Search the Wayback Machine Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Sign up for free Log in. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.

Undeterred, he created a campaign committee in and began raising funds to run for a seat in the U. Senate in With the help of political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessing his prospects for a Senate win. Encouraged by poll numbers, Obama decided to run for the open U. Senate seat, vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the Democratic primary, he defeated multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes with 52 percent of the vote.

That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity and made veiled jabs at the George W. Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues. After the convention, Obama returned to his U. Senate bid in Illinois.

His opponent in the general election was supposed to be Republican primary ljupco zikov biography of barack Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual deviancy allegations by his ex-wife, actor Jeri Ryan. That August, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.

With his win, Obama became only the third African American elected to the U. Senate since Reconstruction. Sworn into office on January 3,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.

In FebruaryObama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with then-U. 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 ljupco zikov biography of barack, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously.

When he took office at age 47, Obama inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. 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.

Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay. Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U. The government made loans to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. Obama cut taxes for working families, small businesses, and first-time home buyers.

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, troops to Afghanistan and set an August date for withdrawal of nearly all U. Obama was an early opponent of President George W.

In more dramatic incidents, Obama ordered an attack on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine flu outbreak. He signed an executive order banning excessive interrogation techniques and ordered the closing of the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year—a deadline that ultimately would not be met.

Obama signed his signature health care reform plan, the Affordable Care Act, into law in March The new law prohibited the denial of coverage based on preexisting conditions, allowed citizens under 26 years old to be insured under parental plans, provided for free health screenings for certain citizens, and expanded insurance coverage and access to medical care to millions of Americans.

In Octobera dispute over the federal budget and Republican desires to defund or derail the Affordable Care Act caused a day shutdown of the federal government. The rollout of the reforms were initially bumpy. October saw the failed launch of HealthCare. Extra technical support was brought in to work on the troubled website, which was plagued with glitches for weeks.

The health care law was also blamed for some Americans losing their existing insurance policies, despite repeated assurances from Obama that such cancellations would not occur. The legislation has faced numerous challenges in court and wound up at the U. Supreme Court three times. In the summer ofthe Supreme Court upheld part of the Act regarding health care tax subsidies.

Without these tax credits, buying medical insurance might have become too costly for millions of people. The latest Supreme Court decision about the Affordable Care Act began in when Congressional Republicans dropped the individual mandate tax penalty to zero. Texas and 17 other Republican states quickly sued to strike down the Affordable Care Act, mainly based on their opposition to its individual mandate.

A Texas federal judge ruled in favor of the suit, saying that because there was no longer a tax, the law was unconstitutional. The case was sent to an appeals court. A final ruling came in June when the U. Supreme Court voted, to uphold the Affordable Care Act on the grounds that the objecting states were not required to pay anything under the mandate provision and thus had no standing to bring the challenge to court.

As of Januarynearly On May 2, an elite team of U. There were no American casualties, and the team was able to collect invaluable intelligence about the workings of al-Qaeda. Armed Forces. He became the first president to voice support for same-sex marriage in May As he did induring his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives.

Representative Paul Ryan. On November 6,Obama won a second term as president, capturing more than 60 percent of the Electoral College. Obama officially began his second term on January 21,when U. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. In his second inaugural address, Obama called the nation to action on such issues as climate change, health care, the federal deficit, and marriage equality.

Congress, [ 11 ] and Obama decided to run for her Illinois state senate seat. Palmer lost her election for U. Congress, so she tried to keep her seat in the state senate, but she did not have enough time to meet the rules of the election. Obama's team said that she could not be on the ballot, and the election rule makers agreed. Obama won the election and became an Illinois state senator.

While he was Illinois state senator, he wrote a law that required police to keep records on the race of people they stopped. Judge and political teacher Abner J. Mikva taught Obama politics and became his mentor. During his early political career, Obama would make appearances and debate on Chicago Tonight. Obama ran for the U. He spoke on television.

He was a U. Senator from to Obama won the presidential election of Obama's presidential campaign for the White House started in early Junewhen he defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton was favored to win but Obama won many smaller state caucuses local party elections by having a lot of volunteers. He decided not to accept government money for his campaign so that he could accept more private money under Campaign finance reform in the United States.

He raised the most amount of money ever for a presidential campaign. Obama's campaign theme was that he was a man of hope and change. He was also against the war in Iraq. He was in favor of giving money to American car companies. He was in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan. During the campaign, some people said that Obama's friends were Tony Rezko, a landlord, and former revolutionary Bill Ayers ; Obama said that they were not his friends.

Bushsomething that John McCain said was not true. He ran with Joe Biden as his candidate for Vice President.

Ljupco zikov biography of barack

He defeated McCain in the election on November 4 by a wide electoral majority of tomeaning that he won the most votes in enough states to send people to officially elect him. Obama announced he was running for president again in Aprilwhen he posted a video on his website. Because he was already the president, there were very few other Democrats who tried to oppose him.

He won the democratic nomination easily. Their opponents in the Republican party this time were Mitt Romneywho was running for president, and Paul Ryanwho was running for vice president. In the election on November 6, Obama and Joe Biden defeated Romney and Ryan by a majority of to electoral votes. This meant that, even though it was still large, his majority was smaller than in In terms of the popular vote, Obama won When Obama was sworn in, the United States was battling a tough recession.

He called the plan the stimulus bill. The stimulus bill funded many road projects, gave money to schools, gave tax credits to many Americans, and funded many science and research projects. He continued the financial bailout that George W. Bush started, giving billions of dollars to car companies and banks so that they would not go bankrupt.

He signed an act written by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd which would regulate Wall Street the financial industry to try to prevent another recession like this from happening again. Obama said he would change the health care system in the United States in order to make healthcare more affordable for Americans. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, He received much criticism from Republicansconservativeslibertariansand members of the Tea Party as they believed that the federal government was becoming too big and spending too much money, and that his programs were not the best for the country.

Obama made a plan to slowly withdraw troops from Iraqending the War in Iraq by the end ofwhile adding more troops to Afghanistan to help the United States win the War in Afghanistan. He also decided that the United States should help in the war against Libya. He has said several times that he wants to improve U. Obama reduced US participation in the Iraq War and continued the war on terror which resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, Obama started a no-fly-zone policy on the Libyan civil war that ended in October with the killing of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

With rising economic deficits the amount of money the government borrows each month under his administration, he called for taxes to be increased on the rich. He criticized his Republican opponents for wanting to cut welfare benefits for the poor rather than raising taxes to help pay down the debt. He signed the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of inallowing openly gay men and openly lesbian women in the armed forces.

On December 14,after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut occurred, Obama had said, "We're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics". On December 21,Obama and his White House staff observed a moment of silence because of the school shooting in Connecticut. Before his second term began, there has been debating of guns because of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that happened on December 14,as well as shootings in the past.

On April 4, Obama said that he would run for re-election for a second term in in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission. Mitt Romney was officially nominated as his opponent by the Republican party on August 30, While the election results were very close, Obama easily won the electoral college votes he needed to win a second term.

Obama was inaugurated for a second term privately only his family members could see on January 20,at the White House. The next day, January 21,he was inaugurated again, this time in public, at the United States Capitol. This was because January 20,was on a Sunday. The start of his second term in had a few setbacks. With the NSA, people were upset at the Obama administration that the government was possibly listening to their phone calls.

His party the Democrats also lost the Congressional elections. Because of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, neither side was getting anything done and Obama resulted in using his Executive Order his power as president to help reform things like the immigration ljupco zikov biography of barack. He visited South Africa in late June Prior to visiting South Africa, he visited Senegal.

He visited Robben Islandwhere Mandela was imprisoned. He did not meet with Nelson Mandela. The United States government shutdown occurred on October 1, On October 17,Obama signed a bill that ended the United States government shut down. Obama awarded several people, including former U. On December 5,he gave a four-and-a-half-minute speech of Nelson Mandela after Mandela's death was announced.

On December 9,he departed Washington, D. He supported increasing the minimum wage, requiring women to be paid the same as men at the same job, and has called for the first 2 years of college to be fully government-funded for students who study full-time and get good grades. Obama supported LGBT members, and successfully convinced the courts in that same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States.

Obama was also worried about climate changeand promoted the Paris Agreement on climate ljupco zikov biography of barack. After the death of Supreme Court justice Antonin ScaliaObama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him on March 16,but the nomination expired because the Senate refused to hold a vote for him. As it is not possible for a person to be president for three termsObama could not run for president again.

He was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump in early Even though he is not the president anymore, Obama still owns a house in Washington, D. Obama and his wife, Michelle, spend time making speeches and attending events. They also run a charity called the Obama Foundation, and own Higher Ground Productions, a company which makes movies.

The company was hired by Netflix to make documentaries.