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Gerald Ford George H.W. Bush William J. Clinton George Walker Bush United States Department of State / Bureau3 of International Information Programs Barack Obama In His Own Words 44th President of the United States In this excerpt from one of his speeches, Barack spired by stories of the Obama talks about a time in his life when he and JFK’s [President John F. Kennedy’s] call to “began to notice a world beyond myself ” and service, but when I got to the South Side, there about his desire to be an agent of change. These were no marches, and no soaring speeches. In remarks were made in a commencement ad- the shadow of an empty steel plant, there were dress at Wesleyan University, Middletown, just a lot of folks who were struggling. And we didn’t get very far at first. Connecticut, May 25, 2008.

I still remember one of the very first meet- became active in the movement to op- ings we put together to discuss gang violence pose the regime of South Af- with a group of community leaders. We waited rica. I began following the debates in and waited for people to show up, and finally, this country about poverty and health a group of older people walked into the hall. care. So that by the time I graduated And they sat down. And a little old lady raised from college, I was possessed with a crazy idea I her hand and asked, “Is this where the bingo — that I would work at a level to game is?” bring about change. It wasn’t easy, but eventually, we made prog- I wrote letters to every organization in the ress. Day by day, block by block, we brought country I could think of. And one day, a small the community together, and registered new group of churches on the South Side of Chi- voters, and set up after-school programs, and cago offered me a job to come work as a com- fought for new jobs, and helped people live munity organizer in neighborhoods that had lives with some measure of dignity. been devastated by steel plant closings. My mother and grandparents wanted me to go to But I also began to realize that I wasn’t just law school. My friends were applying to jobs helping other people. Through service, I found on . Meanwhile, this organization a community that embraced me; citizenship offered me $12,000 a year plus $2,000 for an that was meaningful; the direction I’d been Contents old, beat-up car. And I said yes. seeking. Through service, I discovered how Barack Obama ~ An American Life ...... 2 my own improbable story fit into the larger Barack Obama’s Vision for the Future ...... 10 Now, I didn’t know a soul in , and I story of America. wasn’t sure what this Meet the Obama Family ...... 12 business was all about. I had always been in- Vice President Biden ...... 14

1 Barack Obama ~ An American Life

arack Obama’s unique biography presidential against Republican candi- America,” Obama said in his address to the 2004 Barack Obama Jr. was born in . Two and successful campaign for the date Senator John McCain. Democratic National Convention. “There’s not years later the senior Obama left his new family, U.S. presidency have opened a a black America and white America and Latino first for graduate study at Harvard and then for new chapter in U.S. . With a polished speaking style, a command of America and Asian America; there’s the United a job as a government economist back in . eloquent and uplifting rhetoric, the ability to States of America. … We are one people, all of The young Obama met his father again only BPresident Obama, the first African-American inspire the enthusiasm of young voters, and the us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all once, at age 10. president of the United States, brings a life story sophisticated use of the Internet as a campaign of us defending the United States of America.” unlike that of any previous U.S. leader. The bi- tool, Obama was very much a 21st-century can- hen Obama was six, his mother remar- racial son of a Kenyan father and a white mother didate. In his campaign, Obama stressed two The Early Years Wried, this time to an Indonesian oil ex- from the American heartland, Obama shot to overarching themes: changing Washington’s tra- ecutive. The family moved to , and national prominence with a well-received ditional way of conducting ’s business Obama’s parents came from vastly different Obama spent four years attending school in at the Democratic National Convention and invoking of diverse ideological, backgrounds. His mother, , was capital city of . He eventually returned to in 2004, the same year he was elected to the U.S. social, and racial backgrounds to unite for the born and raised in small-town . After her and went to high school there while liv- Senate from the state of . Just four years good. family moved to the , she met ing with his maternal grandparents. later, he rose to the top of a field crowded with Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan scholarship stu- Democratic heavyweights to clinch his party’s “There’s not a liberal America and a conser- dent enrolled at the University of Hawaii. The In his first book, , Obama nomination for the and win the vative America — there’s the United States of two married in 1959, and on , 1961, describes this period of his life as having more

Young Barack with his mother, Nine-year-old Barack in Indonesia with his Barack, age 10, and his Kenyan Barack Obama, center, on his school’s Celebrating his high school graduation with As a college student at Co- Ann Dunham, circa 1963. mother; stepather ; and half father, Barack Obama Sr. junior varsity basketball team in grandparents Madelyn Payne and Stanley lumbia University in , sister Maya. Hawaii, 1977. Armour Dunham in Hawaii, 1979. circa1983.

2 3 than the usual share of adolescent turmoil, as he ated from college, I was possessed with a crazy this work, giving South Side residents a voice Chicago, where he practiced civil rights law and struggled to make sense of a biracial heritage idea — that I would work at a grassroots level to in such issues as economic redevelopment, job taught constitutional law at the University of then still relatively uncommon in the United bring about change.” training, and environmental clean-up efforts. Chicago. In 1992 he married Michelle Robinson, States. Being rooted in both black culture and He viewed his primary role as a community or- another Harvard Law graduate, and worked on white culture may have helped give Obama the Called to Public Service ganizer, however, as that of a catalyst mobilizing voter registration in Chicago to help Democratic expansive vision he brought to politics years lat- ordinary citizens in a bottom-up effort to forge candidates such as . er, one that understands many points of view. In search of his identity and a purposeful direc- indigenous strategies for political and economic tion in life, Obama subsequently left his job as empowerment. With a continuing strong commitment to public “Barack has an incredible ability to synthesize a financial writer with an international consult- service, Obama decided to make his first run at seemingly contradictory realities and make them ing firm in New York and headed to Chicago fter three years of such work, Obama con- elective office in 1996, winning a seat from Chi- coherent,” his law school classmate Cassandra in 1985. There, he worked as a community or- Acluded that to bring about true improve- cago in the Illinois state senate. In many ways Butts told New Yorker magazine writer Larissa ganizer for a coalition of local churches on the ment in such distressed communities required the race was a logical progression of his earlier MacFarquhar. “It comes from going from a home city’s South Side, a poor African-American area involvement at a higher level, in the realm of work as a community organizer, and Obama where are nurturing you, and then hard hit by the transition from a manufacturing law and politics. Accordingly, he attended Har- brought much of that same expansive outlook you go out into the world and you’re seen as a center to a service-based economy. vard Law School, where he distinguished him- — the politician as an enabler of citizen-directed black person.” self by being elected the first black president of grassroots efforts and a builder of broad-based “It was in these neighborhoods that I received the prestigious and gradu- coalitions — to his vision of politics. Obama left Hawaii to attend the best education I ever had, and where I ating magna cum laude in 1991. in for two years. He later moved to learned the true meaning of my Christian faith,” “Any who are only talking and earned a Obama recounted years later in the speech an- With these credentials, “Obama could have done about racism as a barrier to our success are se- degree from in 1983. In nouncing his presidential candidacy. anything he wanted,” noted David Axelrod, who riously misled if they don’t also come to grips a speech given in 2008, Obama described his served as his presidential campaign strategist. with the larger economic forces that are cre- thinking at the time: “… by the time I gradu- Obama enjoyed some tangible successes in Obama returned to his adopted hometown of ating economic insecurity for all workers —

At in , Registering voters in Chicago, circa 1992. Barack and on their Teaching constitutional law at the Elected to the Illinois state senate as representative State Senator Obama, with his family , circa 1991. wedding day, October 18, 1992. Law School, from Chicago in1996, Obama is reelected three times. at his side, concedes defeat in his circa 1993. bid to be elected to the , 2000. Dreams from My Father, published 1995.

4 5 — whites, Latinos, and Asians,” he said at the party’s primary for the senatorial nomination. national media spotlight as a of the In the Senate, Obama amassed a voting record time. Among his legislative accomplishments Obama easily captured the Democratic nomi- Democratic Party. He went on to win handily in in line with that of the Democratic Party’s liber- over the next eight years in the state senate nation, winning a greater share of the vote — 53 the Senate race that autumn, capturing an over- al wing. His criticism of the war in has been were campaign finance reform, tax cuts for the percent — than his six opponents combined. whelming 70 percent of the popular vote. Al- one of his trademarks, dating back to a speech working poor, and improvements to the state’s though the near-total disarray that year among in 2002, even before the war started, when he criminal justice system. With the Republicans then holding the Republicans in Illinois undoubtedly contributed warned that any such military action would be 100-member U.S. Senate by a razor-thin ma- to the landslide margin, Obama’s victory was based “not on principle but on politics.” He also The National Stage jority of 51 seats, Democrats saw the senatorial impressive in its own right, as he won in 93 of has worked to strengthen ethical standards in contest in Illinois as critical to their chances of the state’s 102 counties and captured white vot- Congress, improve care for military veterans, In 2000 Obama made his first run for the U.S. retaking the Senate that November (in fact, they ers by better than a two-to-one margin. and increase use of renewable fuels. Congress, unsuccessfully challenging Bobby only regained control in 2006). The desire to give Rush, an incumbent Democrat from Chicago, Obama’s campaign a boost through a prominent bama’s reputation as a new breed of politi- Running for President for Rush’s seat in the House of Representatives. convention role, the well-known oratory skills Ocian, one able to overcome traditional ra- Dispirited by his lopsided primary loss to Rush Obama possessed, and the very favorable im- cial divides, grew steadily. In a New Yorker pro- The long Democratic primary election cam- and searching for influence beyond the Illinois pression he already had made on Democratic file of Obama, writer William Finnegan, noting paign of 2008, with or in all state legislature, he sold Michelle on the idea of presidential candidate clinched the Obama’s talent at “slipping subtly into the idiom 50 states, was historic in several ways. African- his running for the U.S. Senate in a last-shot “up decision to select Obama as the convention’s of his interlocutor,” said Obama “speaks a full American and women candidates had run for or out strategy” to advance his political career. keynote speaker. range of American vernaculars.” Obama offered the presidency before, but this time the two his own explanation why he could connect with front-runners were a woman and an African The 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois had turned Obama’s speech, with its soaring, polished lan- white voters. American. As Barack Obama and seven other into a free-for-all the year before, when the Re- guage on the need to transcend partisan divi- contenders for the Democratic presidential “I know these people,” he said. “Those are my publican incumbent, Peter Fitzgerald, announced sions and its call for a “politics of ” rather grandparents. … Their manners, their sensibili- nomination began to organize in 2007, opin- he would not seek reelection. Seven Democrats than a politics of cynicism, did more than rouse ties, their sense of right and wrong — it’s all ion polls consistently put Obama in second and eight Republicans contested their respective convention-goers; it catapulted Obama into the totally familiar to me.” place behind the presumed favorite, New York

State Senator Obama runs for Still a candidate for U.S. senator, Obama is invited to deliver The candidate for U.S. senator U.S. Senator Obama with then chairman of Obama with his Kenyan The Obama family lays wreaths at the Barack Obama, with his family by his side, United States senator from the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, from Illinois with wife Michelle and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee grandmother, Sarah Hussein memorial to the victims of the 1998 announces his candidacy for president, Illinois, July 2004. July 27, 2004. daughters Sasha, front, and Malia Senator . Obama, in Kogelo village, U.S. embassy bombings in , February 2007. on Election Day 2004. Kenya, August 2006. Kenya, August 2006. , published 2006.

6 7 Senator . Obama, however, was The strategy paid off with the first-in-the-nation dent to have come of age in the 1980s, which of be changed any way but very, very slowly,” she highly successful in this early stage of the race caucuses on January 3, 2008, when Obama itself might portend change. The atmosphere in wrote, “Obama is deeply conservative.” at enlisting an enthusiastic cadre of supporters, scored an upset victory over Clinton. The Iowa which he grew up was markedly different from win was a game-changer; as the socially tumultuous 1960s that shaped ear- President Obama has broken new ground in especially among youth, creating a nationwide put it, “Beating Clinton … altered the course lier ’ outlook. As Obama once said U.S. politics. His candidacy came at precisely grassroots campaign organization, and fundrais- of the race by establishing Obama as her chief about the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the time when many Americans believed their ing through the Internet. rival — the only candidate with the message, or- contested by candidates from a much earlier co- country needed a fundamental transformation ganizational muscle, and financial resources to hort of that postwar generation, “I sometimes in its direction. Washington Post political colum- ith Clinton enjoying greater name recog- challenge her front-runner status.” felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of nist E.J. Dionne may have summed up perfectly Wnition, a well-oiled campaign machine, the baby boom generation – a tale rooted in old the serendipitous confluence between Obama’s and support at the state level from leading Dem- It paid off once more on “” — the grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful candidacy and the American zeitgeist when he ocrats, the Obama camp devised an innovative elections held simultaneously in 22 states on of college campuses long ago – played out on the wrote: strategy to negate these advantages: targeting February 5 — when Obama dueled Clinton to a national stage.” states that used caucuses rather than primaries tie and swept rural states in the West and South. Change, not experience, was the order of the day. to select delegates and focusing on smaller states And it paid off yet again when Obama went on he New Yorker’s Larissa MacFarquhar of- Sweep, not a mastery of detail, was the virtue most to win 10 more consecutive contests in Febru- fered one theory on Obama’s noticeable ap- valued in campaign oratory. A clean break with the that traditionally voted Republican in the gen- T ary, cementing a lead in delegates Clinton never peal across traditional political lines. “Obama’s past, not merely a return to better days, was the prom- eral election. This approach capitalized on the again could catch. voting record is one of the most liberal in the ise most prized. Democratic Party’s system of proportional rep- Senate,” she observed, “but he has always ap- resentation — awarding convention delegates in An Obama Presidency pealed to Republicans, perhaps because he speaks each state in rough proportion to a candidate’s about liberal goals in conservative language.” share of the vote — as opposed to the Republi- Barack Obama is the among the youngest U.S. cans’ system of awarding most or all convention presidents. Born at the tail end of the 1946-1964 “In his view of history, in his respect for tra- delegates to the winner in each state. baby boom generation, he is also the first presi- dition, in his skepticism that the world can

Obama, third from right, at a televised debate Obama campaigns in the small Celebrating his Super Tuesday victories Barack and Michelle Obama at a rally on June 3, 2008. Barack Obama, far with six other candidates for the Democratic town of Peosta, Iowa. Obama with supporters, February 5, 2008. Primary victories that day assured enough convention right, with Joe Biden, far nomination for president, November 2007. won the Iowa , held on delegates to win the Democratic nomination. left, and their wives at the Democratic January 3, 2008. Debating with chief rival, Senator Hillary Clinton. Talking with reporters on his campaign plane. National Convention, August 28, 2008.

8 9 Barack Obama’s Vision for the Future Excerpts from “The American Moment,” Remarks to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, , 2007

believe that the single most important job of any President is to protect the American people. And I am equally convinced that doing that job effectively in the will require a new vision of American leadership and a new conception of our — a vision that draws from the lessons of the past, but is not bound by outdated I thinking. In today’s globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the se- curity of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in , it’s America’s problem too. When poor villagers in Indonesia have no choice but to send chickens to market infected with avian flu, it cannot be seen as a distant concern. When religious schools in teach hatred to young children, our children are threatened as well.

Whether it’s global or disease, dramatic or the proliferation of weapons of mass annihilation, the threats we face at the dawn of the 21st century can no longer be contained by borders and boundaries. merica is the country that helped liberate a continent from the march of a madman. We are the country that told the brave people of a divided city that we were Berliners too. * * * * * We sent generations of young people to serve as ambassadors for peace in countries all over the world. And we’re the country that rushed throughout Asia for the victims Aof a devastating tsunami. any Americans may find it tempting to turn inward, and cede our claim of leader- ship in world affairs. Now it’s our moment to lead — our generation’s time to tell another great American story. So some- I insist, however, that such an abandonment of our leadership is a mistake we must day we can tell our children that this was the time when we helped forge peace in the . Mnot make. America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them That this was the time when we confronted climate change and secured the weapons that could without America. We must neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission — destroy the human race. This was the time when we brought opportunity to those forgotten corners we must lead the world, by deed and example. of the world. And this was the time when we renewed the America that has led generations of weary travelers from all over the world to find opportunity, and liberty, and hope on our doorstep. We must lead by building a 21st century military to ensure the security of our people and advance the security of all people. We must lead by marshalling a global effort to stop the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons. We must lead by building and strengthening the partnerships and alliances necessary to meet our common challenges and defeat our common threats.

And America must lead by reaching out to all those living disconnected lives of despair in the world’s forgotten corners — because while there will always be those who succumb to hate and strap bombs to their bodies, there are millions more who want to take another path — who want our beacon of hope to shine its light their way. Above, Barack Obama addresses the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, April 23, 2007.

10 11 rian and professor of communications at University in . “She is bright, she is articulate, and she has professional experiences Meet the Obama Family in management.” The Obamas hope that their enthusiasm for Michelle Robinson worked hard in school and public service and their extensive professional landed a spot in the Princeton University class experience and achievements will help them of 1985. After earning an undergraduate degree in sociology with a minor in African-American studies, she attended Harvard Law School.

Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson met in 1989 when she, then an associate at the Chicago, Illinois, law firm Sidley & Austin, was assigned to mentor Obama, who was a summer intern.

The future president asked her to attend one of his community organizing sessions in Chicago. She accepted and attended a meeting, where she told that he spoke to participants about closing the gap between “the world as it is, and the world as it should be.” Above, Michelle Obama speaks at the Democratic National Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama contin- Convention, August 25, 2008. Below, The Obamas traveled ued to date, and the couple married in 1992. The together during much of the presidential campaign. Obamas share a passion for public service and deal with the challenges ahead. Behind Barack have devoted much of their adult lives to careers Obama’s desire to be president and have a posi- in the public sector. tive impact on the world are his young daugh- ters, Malia, born in 1998, and Sasha (short for After leaving the corporate law practice where Natasha), born in 2001. The girls are the young- The Obamas enjoy an Independence Day parade in Butte, Montana, July 4, 2008. From left are Michelle, Sasha, Barack, and Malia. they met, Mrs. Obama held several positions est inhabitants of the White House since Amy in Chicago government, and she was founding Carter, who was nine years old when her father, executive director of Pub- Jimmy Carter, was elected president in 1976. he Obamas are the first African- not supposed to be here, standing here. I’m a American family to move into the statistical oddity. Black girl, brought up on the lic Allies — Chicago, an “My life revolves around White House. South Side of Chicago. Was I supposed to go organization that encour- ages young people to pursue my two girls,” then Senator to Princeton? No. … They said maybe Harvard public service jobs. Most Obama said in a Father’s Day President Barack Obama and his Law was too much for me to reach for. But I recently, she served as vice speech at a Chicago church. Twife, Michelle, are well aware of the historic went, I did fine. And I’m certainly not supposed president of community and “And what I think about is significance of his election and what it means to be standing here.” to many Americans. In her campaign stump external affairs at the Uni- what kind of world I’m leav- versity of Chicago Medical ing them. What I’ve realized speech, Mrs. Obama often mentioned a 10-year- The was born Michelle Robinson old girl she met in a South Carolina beauty shop Center. is that life doesn’t count for and raised in a working-class family in Chica- who told her that if Barack Obama were elected much unless you’re willing to go, Illinois. Her father worked at the munici- president, “it means that I can imagine anything “She certainly seems to be do your small part to leave our pal water department and was a Democratic for myself.” someone who would take children — all of our children precinct captain, while her mother was a stay- advantage of the podium the — a better world. That is our “She could have been me,” Mrs. Obama told at-home mom who took care of her and her White House affords her,” ultimate responsibility as Newsweek magazine. “Because is, I’m older , Craig. said Dr. Myra Gutin, histo- fathers and parents.” 12 13 Vice President Joseph Biden

During his Senate career, Biden compiled a agreed. Biden voted for the final Senate resolu- mostly liberal record. Although he is well liked tion authorizing a U.S. invasion of Iraq, whereas by Republicans and has worked across party Obama (not yet in the Senate at the time) spoke lines, he mostly has supported his own party. out against it. For example, according to the Washington Post, in his last two years in the Senate, Biden voted Prior to voting for the final resolution, however, with Democrats 96.6 percent of the time. He “is Biden worked with Republican Senator Richard widely seen as a liberal-minded internationalist,” Lugar of to pass a resolution authoriz- wrote Michael Gordon in . “He has emphasized the need for diplomacy but has been prepared at times to back it with the threat of force.”

In his early years in the Senate, Biden concen- trated on domestic issues, particularly civil liber- ties, law enforcement, and civil rights. He be- came a member of the Judiciary Committee in 1975 and was its chair from 1987 to 1995. Biden’s most significant legislative accomplishment dur- ing this time was the landmark Violence Against Women Act (1994), which he authored. It pro- vides billions of dollars in federal funds to ad- Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, left, with presidential nominee Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, August 28, 2008. dress gender-based crimes. But Biden sometimes departed from the conventional liberal view. He count my role in helping to end was a strong advocate, for example, of tougher Senator Biden, seated at right, with fellow members of the and is a graduate of Law Senate Judiciary Committee, August 1986. genocide in the Balkans and in se- School in New York. drug sentencing laws. He also opposed busing curing passage of the Violence to achieve racial integration of schools while un- ing military action only after the exhaustion of Against Women Act as my proudest The turning point of Biden’s political career derlining his commitment to civil rights. diplomatic efforts. Biden voted to authorize “Imoments in public life.” So wrote then Senator the war after that resolution was rejected. But came when he was first elected to the U.S. Sen- Joseph R. Biden, the vice president of the Unit- ate, representing , in 1972, when he was A Perspective he also voted against an amendment that would ed States, in his 2007 autobiography Promises to have required the Bush administration to seek 29 years old. A few weeks before he was sworn Keep: On Life and Politics. Biden distinguished himself in the Senate in for- further authorization before invading Iraq. By into office, his wife and daughter were killed eign affairs. He was a member of the influential 2005, Biden called his vote on Iraq “a mistake.” in an automobile accident. His two young sons Key to understanding this self-appraisal is Biden’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1975 In a joint appearance in Springfield, Illinois, af- background. He is an Irish Catholic, born un- survived the accident but were seriously injured. and its chair from 2001 to 2003 and from 2007 ter Obama selected Biden as his running mate, der modest circumstances in 1942 in Scranton, a (Biden remarried in 1977, a union that produced until 2009. Barack Obama was assigned to this Obama said Biden is “an expert on mostly working-class city in northeastern Penn- a daughter.) Another calamity occurred in 1988 committee after he was elected to the Senate in whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the sylvania. His mother was a homemaker; his fa- when he was diagnosed with two potentially fa- 2004 and got to know Biden well as they worked middle class.” Obama also called Biden “a power- ther, a car salesman. The family moved to the tal brain aneurysms. His recovery was long and together. Obama headed the Europe subcommit- ful critic of the Bush-McCain foreign policy and a state of Delaware when Biden was 10. He was painful. He was absent from the Senate for seven tee, formerly chaired by Biden. On a key foreign voice for a new direction that takes the fight to the the first in his family to obtain a college degree months, bedridden much of that time. policy issue, however, Obama and Biden dis- terrorists and ends the war in Iraq responsibly.”

14 15 I do solemnly swear to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, U.S. Senators, from left, John Kerry, Joseph Biden, and Charles Hagel in , Pakistan, February 2008. and to the best of my ability, uring his time on the Senate Foreign Biden’s most significant foreign policy accom- Relations Committee, Biden traveled plishment, according to most observers, was his preserve, protect and defend the Dwidely overseas and is on first-name effort to combat hostilities in the Balkans during terms not only with many foreign leaders, but the . Biden was said to be an influential Constitution of the United States. also with their deputies and top aides — as well voice urging the Clinton administration to take as opposition leaders. He has dealt with such action against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. So help me God. In their Springfield appearance, Obama said that significant issues as , nuclear prolif- Biden “helped shape policies that would end the eration, NATO enlargement, superpower rivalry, U.S. Presidential Oath of Office killing in the Balkans.” Specifically, Biden urged and U.S. relations with the Third World. He also intervention to stop ethnic cleansing of Muslims has been a strong advocate of the Global AIDS in Bosnia. He later supported the NATO bomb- Initiative and an early supporter of international ing campaign to force to leave . efforts to rein in carbon emissions and green- house gases. (Biden first drafted climate control Biden has twice run for the presidency — in 1988 legislation two decades ago.) He also has gen- and again in 2008. Both times he was unsuccess- erally backed treaties. The long-term ful. The Obama campaign said that Biden was selected as a running mate for many reasons but senator has taken a particular interest in Africa. prominently cited the Delaware senator’s exper- He was an early critic of the apartheid regime in tise and record on foreign policy. Biden is the . In Darfur, he has advocated stron- first Catholic vice president and the first vice ger action to stem the bloodshed there. president from Delaware.

Photos All photos © AP Images except: Front cover: Courtesy of the Office of U.S. Senator Barack Obama. Front & back cover (insets): U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Page 4 (left): Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Production Executive Editor George Clack. Managing Editor Anita N. Green. Contributors Domenick DiPasquale, David Pitts, Kelly Bronk. Editor Rosalie Targonski. Designer Tim Brown. Photo Researcher Ann Monroe Jacobs.

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