Barack Hussein Obama II Political Party:

DemocratState Elected From:

IllinoisDates in Office:

2008-Vice President:

Joe BidenBorn:

August 4, 1961 (age 48)

Honolulu, Hawaii

(1) Election of 2008

Nominee Barack Obama John McCainParty Democratic Republican

Home state Illinois Arizona

Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin

Electoral vote 365 173States carried 28 + DC + NE-02 22

Popular vote 69,456,897 59,934,814

Percentage 52.9% 45.7%

• Looking at this map it gives the impression that the Republicans won the election handily, since there is rather more red on the map than there is blue. In fact, however, the reverse is true – the Democrats won by a substantial margin. The explanation for this apparent paradox, as pointed out by many people, is that the map fails to take account of the population distribution. It fails to allow for the fact that the population of the red states is on average significantly lower than that of the blue ones. The blue may be small in area, but they represent a large number of voters, which is what matters in an election.

• Using a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states are rescaled according to their population. (drawn with size proportional to population not acreage)states with more people appearing larger than states with fewer, regardless of their actual area on the ground. On such a map, for example, the state of Rhode Island, with its 1.1 million inhabitants, would appear about twice the size of Wyoming, which has half a million, even though Wyoming has 60 times the acreage of Rhode Island.

Here are the 2008 presidential election results on a population cartogram of this type

Random info about the President• (1 cont.) He is the first African American

to hold the office.• Obama previously served as the junior United

States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.

• Originally from Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. (wow!!)

(2) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009) (aka the Stimulus Bill)

• Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009. The Act distributed the $787 billion and includes federal tax cuts, expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare provisions, and domestic spending help in education, health care, and the energy sector.

• California received the most at $23,026,644,548 for 5,261 projects

• MS got 1,137 projects/$3,276,645,225• New Hampshire has received the least at $1,046,745,895 for

471 projects

(3) 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. *The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was

awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

*The Committee announced the award on October 9, 2009, citing Obama's promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a "new climate" in international relations fostered by Obama, especially in reaching out to the Muslim world.Obama is the fourth U.S. President to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, after Theodore

Roosevelt (1906) and Woodrow Wilson (1919)—both of whom received the award during their terms—and Jimmy Carter (2002), who received the award 21 years after leaving office.

National Defense?

Somali Pirates• Sometimes, even small

international dust-ups can generate big consequences for a commander in chief. History is peppered with cases where an American president was forced to deal with an emergency in a faraway place that wouldn't have amounted to much if handled correctly but damaged his reputation when the job was botched.

• Barack Obama's decision to use force against Somali pirates fits into the success category. Above all, the plan worked, giving Americans a feel-good moment and showing off the new president's coolness under pressure, his good judgment, and his decisiveness.

Somali Pirates took over a US cargo ship and they were pointing the AK-47s at

the captain,“

"The United States government's policy is to not negotiate,” US Navy Seal snipers were told to end it and they did. 3 dead

pirates and one in jail

(4) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka. Health Care Act)

• Signed March 23, 2010.• The law includes a large number of health-related provisions to take effect

over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, subsidizing insurance premiums, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, and support for medical research. The costs of these provisions are offset by a variety of taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies; there is also a tax penalty for citizens who do not obtain health insurance (unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons). The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the net effect (including the reconciliation act) will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion dollars over the first decade.

(4) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka. Health Care Act) cont’d.

• In the case National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius (Kathleen Sebelius was the director of the Dept. of Health and Human Services) the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate that everyone be required to buy health insurance.

• States were allowed to choose whether to extend their Medicaid coverage or not – many chose not to

(4) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka. Health Care Act) cont’d.

• The Republicans then tried to defund Obamacare – almost led to a government shutdown

• After the first sign-up period, problems with the health care web site eventually led to the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius.

• Today King v. Burwell is before the U.S. Supreme Court – the issue is whether the subsidies for health insurance applies only to state run insurance exchanges or state and federally run exchanges – the decision should come down sometime this summer.

(10) BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

1. On April 20, 2010 the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people.

2. The largest marine oil spill in history, oil flowed for 87 days into the Gulf of Mexico (the well was finally capped on July 15, 2010).

3. Its estimated that 210 million gallons of oil were spilled into the Gulf – over 16,000 miles of coastline were affected.

(11) 2010 Midterm Elections

1. In December of 2010, Obama signed the Compromise Tax Plan which extended the George W. Bush tax cuts but also extended the unemployment benefits that were passed as part of the stimulus package – this was done largely because of the growth of Republican support during his first two years of office.

2. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was repealed and the U.S renewed nuclear arms reduction talks with Russia.

(5) Osama bin Laden killed

• May 2, 2011 Osama bin Laden was killed in Obbottabad, Pakistan.

• Bin Laden was killed by members of Seal Team Six during a raid on the home he was hiding in – the operation was known as Operation Neptune Spear.

(12) Immigration

• In 2010 Arizona enacted two laws allowing local law enforcement officials to help combat illegal immigration - before they could go into effect the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit claiming they are unconstitutional.

• In 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the key part of the laws, allowing police to ask about immigration status.

• In 2014, for a nine month period, over 50,000 unaccompanied children entered the U.S. illegally, leading to disputes once again over U.S. immigration policies.

• Residents of Murrieta, CA, actually blocked three buses of illegal immigrants from being taken to a border patrol post there.

(6) Benghazi Attack

1. On the night of September 11, 2012, a heavily armed group of between 125 and 150 gunmen attacked the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and another diplomat2. Initially, it was reported that the Benghazi attack emerged from a spontaneous protest against a video3. It was later determined that there was no protest and that the attack was a planned terrorist attack launched by Islamist militants.

(13) Election of 2012

• In 2012 Democrat Barak Obama defeated Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

• Obama received 65,915,769 popular votes and 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 60,933,500 popular votes and 206 electoral votes.

(14) Boston Marathon Bombing1. In April of 2013, the first

successful terrorist attack since 9/11 was carried out in the U.S. when two bombs were detonated near the finish line (three were killed, including an 8 year old boy).

2. Chechen brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were responsible – Tamerlan was killed as the authorities tried to apprehend him, Dzhokhar was found guilty this year and awaits sentencing.

3. He told authorities he was angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there.

(7) Edward Snowden

• In June of 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Council private contractor released thousands of classified documents to the media, exposing a global surveillance run by the NSA

• Snowden, who had already fled the country, was charged with espionage – he applied for asylum in Russia and was later given residency there.

(8) Syria• The Syrian Civil War is an armed

conflict which began in 2011 between forces loyal to the Muslim government and rebels seeking to overthrow it.

• The government is supported by Hezbollah and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

• Chemical weapons have been used in Syria on more than one occasion, triggering strong international reactions.

• In 2013, Congress gave Obama military authority to use force against Syria but eventually the Syrian government agreed to hand over its chemical weapons to Russia.

ISIL/ISIS

1. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is an Islamic extremist terrorist organization that controls territory within Syria and Iraq today.

2. It claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide.

3. The group participated in the Iraqi insurgency (in August 2014 Obama approved targeted airstrikes against ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria) and later moved into Syria during the civil war there.

4. They are known for their effective use of propaganda and social media to draw support/converts.

(9) The Crimean Crisis

• The Crimean crisis is an ongoing international crisis involving Russia and Ukraine.

• The Crimean Peninsula is a multi-ethnic region populated by an ethnic Russian majority that want to reunite with Russia, which the minority of both ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars do not want to happen.

• Russia has faced economic sanctions from many countries, the U.S. included, because of its support of the Russian’s in Ukraine.

(15) Cuba• In December of 2014 Obama

announced that the U.S. would be resuming normal relations with Cuba, ending almost 60 years if strained relations.

(16) Keystone XL Veto

• February of 2015 Obama vetoed the Keykstone XL Pipeline bill passed by Congress

• Those who supported the pipeline claim it will create jobs, lower oil prices and bolster the economy – those who oppose it claim its environmental impact will speed global warming

Race Relations• Public outcry over the

acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012

• Riots in Ferguson, MO, over the death of Michael Brown by the police

• Riots in Baltimore, MD, over the death of Freddie Gray by the Baltimore police

• race relations in the U.S. have improved but still aren’t where MLK hoped they would be