Barack Obama - Presidential Hopeful

Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961.

Barack Obama obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii. His continued education was from Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif., and Columbia University, New York City.

He studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1992. 

A lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago, a member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004.

He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004 for a term beginning January 3, 2005.

A freshman senator from Illinois, might be the first to admit that the excitement generated by his presidential bid has little to do with what he has already done, and much more to do with hopes about what he might do.

Hope, in fact, is deliberately at the center of Mr. Obama's political strategy -- as in the title of the introspective, highly personal best seller that he wrote leading up to his decision to run, "The Audacity of Hope."

Barack Obama is now running head strong against New York Senator Hillary Clinton.