Talk:Barack Hussein Obama/update

On this page we'll attempt to update the Barack Obama article - incorporating what we already have with some more recent information.

Ideas

Structuring

This is what I feel should be the general sectioning of the article - I think with an article that we have this much information on, what we mostly need to do is use "See also:" pages rather than go into major details.

Early life U.S. Senate career (with a note on opposition to the Iraq War - which should be followed up on in the presidential primary race) U.S. Senate career Radical endorsements, support, and get out the vote efforts (better language?) Use of filibuster and obstructionism Voted agaist debt ceiling increase Presidential election (things to cover: experience question, jeremiah wright, PUMA) Primary race National election

Presidency Domestic policy Popular Bills (Zadroga, lilly ledbetter fair pay act) Economic plan Stimulus plan Health care The Gulf oil spill Foreign policy Commander-in-Chief Iraq Afghanistan Libya/The Obama Doctine Don't Ask Don't Tell

Ideology (mentioning pro-abortion stance, other things not mentioned above) References See also External links

Rob I've bolded two section that I wonder if they should be sections alone; I do 100% agree that they should be mentioned in the text; are you set on them being sections? If so I'll yield--IDuan 00:58, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

Leave bold for now & let's see what develops; Recovery is ambiguous; while total output (GDP growth) has recovered, we've seen several polls just over the past week where 60-70% of respondents still think the US is in recession (despite the fact GDP growth has recovered over the past year and half). Likewise, it certainly has not been a "jobs recovery". I'd suggest this needs a better name. Rob Smith 01:15, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

I very much agree - that's a misleading section title - I think what I meant was "Proposed Recovery" - or "Recovery Plan". The latter sounds a little better to my ears. I made a few edits below - I'm gonna hold off on doing anything else till you get a chance to take a look and add things.--IDuan01:22, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

I've replaced Recovery with Stimulus, perhaps "Stimulus and budget". Also, Don't Ask Don't Tell seems a little wierd under "Wartime"; is it there solely cause it's a military subject? It could just as easily fit under Idealogy as well (I' not just trying to be argumentative....) Rob Smith 01:40, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

Hmm. Very true. No I think it's definitely a legitimate question. I HAD been thinking that Ideology would just cover what wasn't addressed in the prior sections (since certainly we'd discuss his economic ideology in the "Economic plan" section) - so, yes, I had just placed it under wartime solely because its a military subject. But it is probably more apropos to homosexual rights. I am worried that Ideology will become a bucket of worms, so to speak, only in that it'd be weird to just have a section for DADT under it, so then we'd have to have a super-section for "Homosexual policy", and then super-sections for everything else, making the article very long. I leave it up to you.--IDuan 01:45, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

Alternatively, we can just leave it as is for now. I'm updating the Obama administration article right now, too. That one is structured , "Economic policy", "Foreign policy", etc. Wartime leader is something new. Perhaps, Commander-in-Chief? that would encompass DADT as well as ongoing military operations. Rob Smith 02:08, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

I like that. It's broader and works well. Nice.--IDuan 02:29, 3 May 2011 (EDT)

I took a look at the Wikipedia page on Obama - and I actually like how they organize his presidency - into Domestic policy and foreign policy. I'm going to make some changes to reflect that. I think in the long run it'll actually limit the number of sections we need--IDuan 18:15, 4 May 2011 (EDT)

The actual article

Barack Hussein Obama
44th President of the United States From: January 20, 2009-Present
Vice President	Joe Biden
Predecessor	George W. Bush
Successor	Incumbent (no successor)
U.S. Senator from Illinois From: January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
Predecessor	Peter Fitzgerald
Successor	Roland Burris
Information
Party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
Religion	Described in this article

Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States. Overcoming a short political career, Obama defeated Republican nominee John McCain for the presidency in 2008, campaigning on promises of "change" after an unpopular administration headed by George W. Bush. In effect, that change has been an embrace of Socialism and liberal policies perhaps before unseen by the White House.

Immediately after entering office, Obama was faced with a recession - one of the most severe since the Great Depression. By in large, his economic policies to combat the recession have, to date, ranged from ineffective to counterproductive. Also on the domestic front, Obama passed a highly controversial health care bill in 2009 that was approved only along party lines. In foreign policy Obama has escalated the Afghanistan War - perhaps to success when on May 1st he announced that the United States had killed September 11th mastermind and terrorist Osama bin Laden - while also initiating (via the United Nations) a conflict with Libya and ending combat operations in the War in Iraq.

Illinois State Senate career

File:O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson.jpg

Obama speaking at the October 2002 rally in Chicago organized by Carl Davidson. "[H]e is a brutal man who butchers his own people," nevertheless Obama opposed "dumb wars".

Obama entered the Illinois Senate promising change to a corrupt system. He mixed often radical votes with more pragmatic agreements. Possibly one of his most radical votes was against requiring medical care for aborted children who survive the procedure - in fact the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council ascribed him a 100% rating for his consistently pro-choice votes. He was criticized for using the statehouse as a stepping stone for a more illustrious career: Steven J. Rauschenberger, a Republican, said prior to Obama's election as president: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”

The statehouse was majority Republican, so the Senator was sometimes forced to compromise. He formed allegiances across party lines to pass campaign finance reform that banned most gifts by lobbyists, prohibited spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and required electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports. Obama also helped pass a so-called “driving-while-black bill”, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor racial profiling.

U.S. Senate career

Following a failed campaign for the House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004; he won the seat after liberals obtained the release of the confidential and personally embarrassing divorce records of his opponent, Jack Ryan, forcing him to end his campaign and be replaced by the out-of-state candidate Alan Keyes.

Presidential Election

Main article: Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign

Democrats began calling for an Obama candidacy after liberals lauded his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech.

Campaign to be the Democratic nominee

The race for the Democratic ticket originally seemed Hillary Clinton's to lose, but was ultimately a close race between Clinton and Obama. Clinton would take a slim advantage in the popular vote, while Obama would carry significantly more states and territories. Obama's advantage with super-delegates over Clinton was about 2-to-1. Obama was able to attract the support of liberals by pointing out that he had come out against the Iraq War "from the beginning" whereas Clinton had voted in favor of the war in 2002.

Campaign for the Presidency

Obama campaigned against Senator John McCain in the general election. To the chagrin of Clinton supporters, he selected Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate, whereas McCain selected Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin.

Presidential career

Main article: Obama Administration

Domestic policy

Popular bills

Obama's first act of office was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - effectively nullifying the Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which ruled that Ledbetter had to have filed a pay discrimination suit within 180 days of the first time Ledbetter was payed less than her male peers; the law made corporations subject to suit within 180 days of each time the employee was unfairly paid.

Economic plan

See also: Obamunism

Stimulus

Main article: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Health care

Main article: Obamacare

Gulf oil spill

Main article: Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster

Foreign policy

Commander-in-chief

Iraq

Main article: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Afghanistan

Main article: Afghanistan War

Libya

Main article: Libyan uprising 2011

Don't Ask Don't Tell

Main article: Don't Ask Don't Tell

Candidate Obama promised to repeal a policy that originated in the Clinton era that prohibited inquiries into military personnel's sexual orientation while also barring "out" homosexuals from serving in the military. Liberals expressed anger when time passed and no effort to repeal the law was seen; in fact, Obama's justice department filed a brief arguing against the Supreme Court granting a writ of certiorari to a gay soldier challenging the law (the writ was not granted). In response, the soldier, James Pietrangelo II, a former Army infantryman and lawyer, said, “[Obama's] a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar. This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people."

On December 15th, 2010, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to repeal the law - it passed a day later by a vote of 250-175; it passed the Senate three days later 65-31. Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22nd.

The Pentagon itself could not immediately implement the repeal and questioned whether it would hurt combat readiness. Senator John McCain, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, opposed the bill, saying "It may be premature to make such a change at this time and in this manner, without further consideration of this report and further study of the issue by Congress – for of all the people we serve, one of our highest responsibilities is to the men and women of our armed services, especially those risking their lives in combat.”

Ideology

Main article: Political positions of Barack Obama

See also

• Barack Hussein Obama
• Obama birth certificate controversy