After 19 months of campaigning, U.S. Illinois Senator Barack Obama officially became the Democratic presidential nominee on Thursday night as the national convention ended in Denver, Colorado.
Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, a student from Kenya, and his mother, a white woman from Kansas, knew each other when studying in the Hawaii University.
Because his father chose to return to his homeland after graduation, Obama was raised up by his single mother. At the age of 10, he went to Indonesia with his mother and step-father, and spent four years there.
Two years after graduation from the University of Columbia in 1983, he moved to Chicago as a community worker. In 1991, he was admitted to the Law College of Harvard and became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, a prominent publication.
With a law doctorate, Obama returned to Chicago and joined the bar. Meanwhile, he was also a Constitution professor in the Law College of the Chicago University.
Obama had his debut on the political arena in 1997 when he was elected an Illinois senator. He campaigned for a Senate seat in 2000, but did not make it. Four years later, his moment finally came when the then Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry invited him to address the National Convention as a keynote speaker, making him a rising star in the party. Four months later, Obama won the congressional elections and cleared a way to the Senate.
During the three years in the Capitol Hill, Obama helped draft or approve bills on conventional weapons, lobbyism, electoral fraud, global warming and nuclear terrorism, and visited East European, Middle East and African countries.
Obama announced his bid for the White House in February, 2007. Calling for changes, he vowed to end the Iraq war, cease tax-cut policies, provide people with affordable healthcare, and rebuild American's leadership in the world by strengthening alliance with other countries. His ideas were more favored by young, African-American, educated and independent voters.
He was left behind by Hillary Rodham Clinton in the first month after the presidential primary started in January, but he gained the lead after the Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 and continued as the No. 1 candidate till the primary concluded on June 3.
As a presumptive presidential nominee, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden, a foreign and national security affairs veteran, as his running mate. The pair won their nominations on Aug. 27 at the national convention.
After delivering a speech to an audience of tens of thousands, he announced the decision to accept the nomination and become the first minority presidential candidate of a major party.
Obama married Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters.
Source:Xinhua
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