The Soon-to-Be POTUS

Let me clear things up for you non-West Wing fans (unless this isn’t an exclusive term but I’d like to say it is). “POTUS” stands for “President of the United States” and the person I am referring to is Barack Obama. I’m sure many of you have heard of this person or have seen him grace the cover of many magazines from Newsweek to People – but who is this figure of hope and change? Being the amazing profiler I am even though this is the first profile I’ve done, I’ve decided to introduce you all to the next POTUS. It doesn’t matter that he’s not your president, you just have to accept the fact that he is one of the most influential men in the world and that definitely affects you.

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to a white Kansas woman and a black man form Kenya. For those of you who are confused, this makes him half-white and half-black. Barack’s parents divorced in 1964 and his mother re-married shortly afterwards relocating them to Indonesia. His father died in a car accident in 1982 in Kenya. Barack returned to Hawaii when he was 10 and lived with his maternal grandparents. His mother spent most of her time in Indonesia but moved back to Hawaii in 1994. She died of cancer in 1995.

Everyone knows he went to Harvard to study law but before this, he studied at a school in L.A. for two years before going to Columbia University where he received his B.A. in political science. At Harvard, he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, and if this were a very cheesy PBS documentary, I would end that sentence with, “Foreshadowing his precedence in Washington.” But of course, being the first black president of anything would garner him media attention and this led to his book deal, Dreams from My Father. He did a lot of business stuff (if I went into detail, you would stop reading if you haven’t already) before lecturing at University of Chicago Law for 12 years. His law license expired in 2002 (and people keep telling me to renew my driver’s license).

Now onto the good stuff! His political career began in 1996 when he was elected to the Illinois Senate in Illinois’ 13th District and became well known for his bipartisanship I got marks taken off my essay for writing this about Bush, I don’t think my liberal professors would dock me anything for this one. In 2002, he ran for the U.S. Senate, enlisting David Axelrod (it’s an important name) to help him, and won with 70% of the vote. He wasn’t the first black senator but was the 5th, which doesn’t mean much to him except the fact that only FIVE African-Americans have been elected to the senate in all of its history. I would go into the many awesome things he’s done as senator but none of that really matters so let’s move on.

On February 10th, 2007 in Springfield Illinois, the halfer from Hawaii announced his candidacy at the same place Abraham Lincoln gave his “House Divided” speech in 1858. Fast forward to November 4th, 2008 when Democratic Nominee Barack Obama defeated Republican Nominee John McCain 365 to 173 electoral votes (I’m not putting the number of people who voted for each person because as we’ve learned in 2000, the popular vote means nothing). After an amazing speech at Grant Park, Chicago surrounded by 10 feet high bulletproof glass, the 44th President of the United States of America was decided.

Hopefully, after almost 500 words you’ve learned something about the president-elect. What has he been doing since Election Day and will be doing until Inauguration Day January 20th? He’s been announcing his cabinet/Team Awesome with names such as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Adviser David Axelrod (remember him?). That’s all unimportant because right now he’s enjoying a nice little holiday in Hawaii looking like this: (My Xmas presents to you)

Gift Number One

Gift Number Two

Gift Number Three

Don't feel guilty for enjoying those pictures; he's the one who's flaunting it. I hope those pictures have made up for my lack of posting =) Until next time, Ciao!

- Franny.