奧巴馬其人

Barack Hussein Obama, born on August 4, 1961, is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 United States presidential election.

Obama is the first African-American to be nominated by a major American political party for president and became thefirst African-American president in Americanhistory on November 4, 2008. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he became the first black person to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003. After a primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S. military personnel. Obama announced his presidential campaign in February 2007, and was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with Delaware senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

奧巴馬簡介

巴拉克•侯賽因•奧巴馬，出生於1961年8月4日，是代表美國伊利諾州的資深聯邦參議員，2008年美國總統選舉民主黨候選人。

奧巴馬是美國曆史上第一位獲得主要政黨提名的非裔總統候選人，並於2008年11月4日當選爲美國曆史上首位非裔總統。他畢業於哥倫比亞大學和哈佛法學院，是《哈佛法律研究》的第一位黑人社長。在連續三屆擔任伊利諾伊州州參議員之前（1997-2004），奧巴馬從事社區工作和民權律師工作。1992年到2004年，他在芝加哥大學教授憲法學。2000年奧巴馬競選美國衆議院議員失敗，2003年他宣佈參選聯邦參議員。2004年3月奧巴馬取得初步勝利，7月他在民主黨全國大會上發表了主題演講。2004年11月，奧巴馬以百分之70的選票當選爲聯邦參議員。

在第109屆國會會期內，作爲民主黨內的少數族裔，他協助編纂了控制常規武器和使用聯邦基金進一步推動公共問責的法律。他還對東歐，中東和非洲進行了官方訪問。在第110屆國會會期內，他協助編纂了關於遊說和選舉詐騙，氣候變化，核恐怖活動以及幫助退伍軍人的法案。2007年2月，奧巴馬宣佈參加總統競選，2008年民主黨全國大會上獲得正式提名，選擇代表特拉華州的聯邦參議員喬•拜登做副總統人選。

Early life and Education

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a Luo from Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student. They separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama's father attended Harward Universtiy for his Doctor’s Degree and returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

After her divorce, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro's home country of Indonesia in 1967, where Obama attended local schools in Jakarta until he was ten years old. He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for several years and then back to Indonesia to complete fieldwork for her doctoral dissertation. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

As an adult Obama admitted that during high school he used marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol, which he described at the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency as his greatest moral failure.

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations.

Career

Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then at the start of the following year worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP) and worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. At the end of his first year, he was selected, based on his grades and a writing competition, as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. In February 1990, in his second year, he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the Law Review's staff of eighty editors.

After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.

He served from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation.

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee. He resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the US Senate.

2008 Election

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. Throughout the campaign, Obama has emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care. And he promised “change” in the campaign course.

Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. "Change has come," he declared to a huge throng of cheering supporters.

The Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa and more.

巴拉克•奧巴馬出生於夏威夷州檀香山，他的父親老巴拉克是生於肯尼亞的盧歐族人，母親安•杜漢姆（Ann Duham）出生於美國堪薩斯州的威奇托。

奧巴馬的父母在檀香山瑪諾亞的夏威夷大學上學時相識，當時他的父親以國際學生身份在校求學。奧巴馬兩歲歲時，父母分居，之後離婚。此後，他的父親便前往哈佛大學攻讀博士學位，之後返回肯尼亞。1982年，老巴拉克在一場車禍中喪生，此前他與兒子見最後一次面。

離婚後，奧巴馬的母親嫁給了一位印度尼西亞籍的學生Lolo Soetoro。1967年，奧巴馬六歲時，與母親一家遷居到雅加達並在當地的學校上學。四年後，奧巴馬回到夏威夷，與外祖父母住在一起。從五年級起，奧巴馬就讀於位於檀香山的大型私立學校Punahou學校，並於1979年從這所學校畢業。

1972，奧巴馬的母親回到夏威夷並在這待了幾年，之後爲了完成她的博士論文，她又返回印度尼西亞進行實地考察和調研。奧巴馬的母親於1995年因卵巢癌去世。

在中年時代，奧巴馬吸食過大麻和可卡因，他在“2008年總統公民論壇”上表示，這是他一生中最大的道德失敗。

高中畢業後，奧巴馬在加州洛杉磯的西方學院（Occidental College）求學兩年，隨後轉至紐約市的哥倫比亞大學，在那裏主修政治學及國際關係。

職業生涯

1983年在哥倫比亞大學取得學士學位後，奧巴馬在“國際商務集團”和“紐約公共利益研究所”工作了一年。

1985年，他遷往芝加哥，並在之後的三年主持了一個社區發展計劃。

奧巴馬於1988年底進入哈佛法學院。第一年年末，奧巴馬憑藉其出色的成績和在一次論文比賽中脫穎而出，被選爲《哈佛法律評論》的編輯。1990年2月，他被選爲該學術期刊的主席，任全職主編，手下有八名編輯。

1991年，奧巴馬在哈佛大學獲得了“極優等”（拉丁文的學位榮譽，magna cum laude）法學士的學位，並回到芝加哥。1994年至2002年，奧巴馬分別在芝加哥森林基金會和喬伊斯基金會的董事會任職過一段時間。

1996年，奧巴馬進入政壇，當選伊利諾伊州參議員。2003年1月，奧巴馬被選爲伊利諾伊斯州衛生公共服務委員會主席。2004年11月，他在國會選舉中當選伊利諾伊州聯邦參議員。

2008年參加美國大選

2007年2月10日，奧巴馬在伊利諾斯州首府春田市的老州政府大廈前正式宣佈參加2008年總統大選。伊拉克戰爭、增大能源自主和全民醫療保險是奧巴馬競選綱領所關注的三大主要問題。此外，“變化”是奧巴馬的競選主題。

巴拉克•奧巴馬在美國當地時間週二的晚間以壓倒性優勢獲勝，成爲美國首位黑人總統。這一結果顛覆了美國有史以來存在的種族隔閡現狀。他在獲勝後對歡慶勝利的衆多支持者們喊道：“變革的時代來了。”

這位伊利諾伊州民主黨參議員在俄亥俄、佛羅里達、弗吉尼亞、愛荷華等幾個角逐激烈的戰場州擊敗共和黨參議員約翰•麥凱恩之後，這一歷史性勝利的局面便已鎖定。

Romantic story

Obama met his wife, Michelle Robinson, in June 1989 when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial offers to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992. The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998, followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), in 2001.

A diversified family

In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family.

"Michelle will tell you that when we get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving, it's like a little mini-United Nations," he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." Obama has seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family, six of them living, and a half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband. Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham until her death on November 2, 2008, just before the presidential election.

Obama plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team. Before announcing his presidential candidacy, he began a well-publicized effort to quit smoking.

“羅曼史”

1989年6月，奧巴馬在芝加哥盛德國際律師事務所做暑期助理期間，結識了米歇爾•魯賓遜。當時米歇爾被指派爲奧巴馬3個月工作期間的顧問，她在社交集會時加入了奧巴馬的團體，但卻拒絕了他最初的約會邀請。那年夏季快結束時，他們纔開始約會，隨後兩人於1991年訂婚，並於1992年10月3日正式結婚。他們有兩個女兒，大女兒瑪麗亞-安出生於1999年，小女兒娜塔莎（薩沙）出生於2001年。

“小聯合國”

在2006年的一次採訪中，奧巴馬讓人們瞭解了他的多樣性的大家庭。

他說：“米歇爾最有發言權了，每當過聖誕節或者感恩節，我們家就像一個小聯合國一樣。我的親人有的長得像伯尼·麥克（黑人喜劇演員），有的則酷似撒切爾夫人”。奧巴馬的父親是肯尼亞人，在那裏他有7個同父異母兄妹，其中6個還健在。他還有一個同母異父的妹妹---瑪雅，是他的母親和他的印尼繼父所生。他的母親先於外祖母去世。奧巴馬的外祖母瑪德琳•杜漢姆出生於堪薩斯，遺憾的是她在本月2日大選之前去世。

奧巴馬喜歡打籃球，高中時曾是校隊成員。宣佈競選總統之前，他向民衆表示自己會戒菸。

Cultural and Political image

With his Kenyan father and white American mother, his upbringing in Honolulu and Jakarta, and his Ivy League education, Obama's early life experiences differ markedly from those of African American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the civil rights movement. Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough," Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that the debate is not about his physical appearance or his record on issues of concern to black voters. Obama said that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong."

Echoing the inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."

Many commentators mentioned Obama's international appeal as a defining factor for his public image. Not only did several polls show strong support for him in other countries, but Obama also established close relationships with prominent foreign politicians and elected officials even before his presidential candidacy, notably with then current British Prime minister Tony Blair, whom he met in London in 2005, with Italy's Democratic Party leader Walter Veltroni, who visited Obama's Senate office in 2005, and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also visited him in Washington in 2006.

文化及政治形象

奧巴馬的父親來自肯尼亞，母親爲美國白人，他在檀香山和雅加達兩地長大，就讀於常青藤名校。他的這些早期經歷與在二十世紀六十年代通過民權運動開拓自己事業領域的那些非洲裔美國政界人士明顯不同。在關於他是否“夠黑”這個問題上，奧巴馬在全美黑人新聞工作者協會2007年8月的會議上表示，這樣的爭論與他的外表或者他對黑人選民問題的關注並無關係。他說：“我們到現在還在被那個固有的觀念所影響，覺得受到白人的認可是不可能的。”

對於自己的年輕形象，奧巴馬在2007年10月的一次競選演講中引用肯尼迪總統就職演說中的話說：“如果不是這個火炬在被一次次地傳遞到新一代的手上，我不會有這個機會的。”

很多評論家都認爲奧巴馬在國際上的受歡迎度在他的公衆形象中起了決定性作用。他不僅在其他國家的幾次民調中都得到了極高的支持率，而且在他成爲總統候選人之前就與一些外國政要及在職官員關係密切。這其中就有2005年與奧巴馬在倫敦會面、時任英國首相的託尼•布萊爾，同年拜訪過奧巴馬參議員辦公室的意大利民主黨領袖瓦爾特•維爾特洛尼，以及現任法國總統尼古拉斯•薩科奇，二人曾於2006年在華盛頓會過面。