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Obama’s first official job was as a financial writer for a New
York-based international consulting firm, Business International
Corporation. He joined the firm soon after graduating from
Columbia University in 1985.
Less than two years later, Obama moved to South Side, Chicago, to
take up the position of Director for the Developing Communities
Project in Roseland and Altgeld Gardens in Chicago’s South
Side, a church-based social action group dedicated towards
enhancing the living conditions of people in the outlying
neighborhoods. His responsibilities ranged from the mundane,
day-to-day support service (utilities, regulatory, legal,
employment), to those involving organizing and developing
outreach and educational programs for the community.
While studying in Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Obama worked as a summer associate in the law firms of Sidley &
Austin and Hopkins & Sutter (now known as Foley & Lardner).
After graduation, he returned to Chicago and practiced civil
rights law with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He was attached
to the firm from 1992 until 2004. In the same period, he also
taught at the University of Chicago Law School on the subject of
constitutional law.
Obama at the University of Chicago
He took his first step into politics by heading the Illinois
Project VOTE, a Clinton-campaign sponsored voter-registration
initiative. Under his leadership, the program managed to
successfully register over 150,000 new voters in 1992. His next
foray into politics came four years later when he ran for and won
the Illinois 13th District State Senate seat. He repeated the
feat in 1998 by defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah, securing an
incredible 89% of the votes in the election.
In 2000, Obama made a step up and attempted to contest the House
of Representatives seat of Illinois District 1. He was, however,
soundly beaten in the Democratic primary by the incumbent Bobby
Rush, losing by a huge 30.67 points. Rush has the distinction of
being the only candidate to defeat Obama in an election for
public office. Obama remains unfazed and regrouped to defend his
State Senate seat in 2002, winning unopposed.
In 2004, Obama, who has risen to the chairmanship of the Illinois
Senate's Public Health and Welfare Committee, made another
attempt for national office. He won the Illinois Senate seat
after routing his Republican challenger, Alan Keyes, in November
2004 by winning 70% of the votes. His victory is widely credited
to an acclaimed keynote address at the Democratic National
Convention in Boston that year. He was sworn as US Senator on
January 4, 2005.
Amidst a breakneck senatorial career that saw him either
sponsoring or co-sponsoring a total of 627 bills, Senator Obama
announced that he was running for president of the United States
on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. Obama was
officially unveiled as the Democratic nominee on August 2008
after a closely fought primary battle with fellow nominee
Hillary.
In the 2008 Presidential Election, Obama, with Delaware Senator
Joe Biden as his running mate, comprehensively defeated
Republican John McCain by winning 365 electoral votes to his
opponent’s 173. Obama was inaugurated as the President of the
United States of America on January 20, 2009.
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