Happy birthday to the 44th US president, Barack Obama! LIFE celebrates his 60th birthday with a special issue on his inspiring life, work, and living legacy. For more photos and info, check out: BarackObama Obama60th
SEE DETAILSBarack Obama entered the Oval Office on his first full day as President, January 21, 2009.The following is from the introduction toFrom that first stunning address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, the speech that launched him into national consciousness, Barack Obama made clear his yearning for a new kind of politics that would galvanize a fresh generation of voters.
As he was the first African American president this country has seen, his presence and power in the White House were symbolic as well as actual, his identity embodying a part of our national identity that was messy and not easily defined. “Because of the very strangeness of my heritage and the worlds I straddled,” Obama wrote, “I was from everywhere and nowhere at once, a combination of ill-fitting parts, like a platypus or some imaginary beast.
Still, he refused to cast himself as only a “Black president” and was intent on being a bridge that could unite us all. In many ways, he did just that. Obama consistently won white voters, claiming nine states in 2008 that had voted Republican in 2004. His presidential campaigns registered thousands of young people and people of color—new voters who previously had been disengaged. Many white citizens of traditionally red rural districts cast their ballots for him.
Among Obama’s environmental actions, the Paris Agreement often gets top billing, but there is more to his record on climate change, according to political journalist Jonathan Darman, who in amagazine Q&A cited “tough EPA constraints on coal, a meaningful accord with China to cut emissions, serious stimulus spending on clean energy, new emissions standards for cars and trucks.” Darman added, “History may well reveal that Obama showed more personal courage on this issue than any other.
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Opinion: Barack Obama at 60: Why he mattersBarack Obama's enduring power is his ability to allow us to imagine ourselves as a better country, society and people. As a young state senator, presidential candidate, and commander in chief, Obama called America to be its aspirational best, Peniel E. Joseph writes.
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Michelle Obama Shared a New Photo of Barack, Malia, and Sasha to Mark Barack's 60th Birthday“Of all of your accomplishments, I know that being a present, loving father to our girls tops them all.”
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Michelle Obama Celebrates Barack Obama's 60th Birthday in a Loving Instagram Tribute'Thank you for never letting the weight of the world get in the way of being a wonderful husband and father,' she wrote.
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Barack Obama Scales Back 60th Birthday Party After Covid-19 CriticismFormer President Barack Obama is scaling back his planned 60th birthday party this weekend at his Martha’s Vineyard vacation home in the wake of criticism from conservatives and as the nation confronts rising Covid-19 cases
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‘It’s Been Hard Opposing Barack Obama’As the Obama Foundation prepares to break ground on its new presidential center, a group of local activists continues to put up a legal fight.
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