Obama's introduction

Open classification: Democratic Party, presidential primary election

[Simplified] Obama

[Traditional] Obama

Senator barack obama.

Obama profile

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Full name: Barack? Hussein? George W. Barack Hussein Obama (translated as Obama in Hong Kong and Taiwan)

Political Party: Democratic Party

Public office: Illinois senator (first elected in 2004)

Illinois senator (1997-2004)

Occupational background: 1993-2004, miner Barnhill &; Lawyer, Galland Law Firm (Chicago, Illinois)

Birthday:1961August 4th.

Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii

Address: Chicago, Illinois

Education: Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, 65438-0983.

199 1 received the doctor of law degree from Harvard Law School.

Marital status: 1992 married with two daughters.

Religious belief: United Christian Church

Activity Home Page: www.barackobama.com

(As of the third quarter of 2007) campaign funds raised: 80.26 million dollars; Cost: USD 4,465,438+USD 700,000.

Works: Fearless Hope: Reflections on Regaining the American Dream [2006];

A dream from my father: a story about race and heredity [1995].

Brief introduction of Obama's life

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Obama was born in Hawaii, USA. His father is an international student from Kenya and his mother is a white man from Kansas, USA. Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard University, and 1996 was elected to the Illinois Senate for the first time. In 2004, he was elected to the Illinois Senate for the first time, becoming the fifth black senator in the history of the US Congress and the only one in this Congress.

In July 2004, the Democratic Party held a national congress, and Obama was assigned to give a "keynote speech" the next day. The so-called "keynote speech" refers to the democratic party's program and policy declaration, which is usually published by the party's promising political stars. 1988 The keynote speaker was Clinton, then governor of Arkansas. Obama lived up to expectations. He personally wrote the speech and delivered an impassioned speech. In his speech, he proposed to eliminate party differences and racial differences and realize the dream of "one America."

The 45-year-old Obama's speech was very charming, and his bright smile won many people's hearts. Compared with the black predecessors who intended to run for president in the past, Obama was the first rising star to win national support in the polls before the primary election, and became the opponent of Hillary Clinton, one of the popular candidates for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2008.

In just over two years, Obama set off a whirlwind in the political arena, and some even compared the "Obama phenomenon" with former President Kennedy's strong popularity of 1960 to enter the White House.

However, there are also many blacks who have no sense of identity with Obama. Critics also think that he is a little too young to run for president, and Obama still has a lot of room to work hard.

Participate in the next presidential election

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Black senators from the Democratic Party of the United States are preparing to participate in the next presidential election.

On June 6th, 2007, 65438+20071October 6th, Senator barack obama, a black American Democratic Party, announced his intention to run for the presidency in 2008. On the same day, he submitted relevant documents to the US federal election agency and set up a committee to evaluate the feasibility of his participation in the presidential election.

In a statement on his website 16, Obama said that he has been considering whether to participate in the 2008 presidential election for months, but whether to participate will not depend on media propaganda and personal ambition. In the past six years, the decisions made by the federal government and neglected problems have put the United States in a very unsafe situation. The United States is caught in an "unfortunate and costly" war, which should not have been launched, but the leaders in Washington cannot cooperate in a pragmatic way.

Barack obama, an African-American senator from Illinois, has a big advantage among black voters. At present, in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, candidate Obama defeated Hillary Clinton by a significant advantage to win the South Carolina primary. So far, Obama's vote rate is 55%, much higher than Hillary and Edwards. This victory is reasonable, because in the Democratic primary election in South Carolina, black voters accounted for almost half of the eligible voters, and the topic of race has been frequently discussed in South Carolina recently. In addition, Obama recently declared that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and did not vote for sending troops to Iraq like Hillary.

More than 200 years ago, in the American election, Lincoln could only take a carriage tour to speak; Seventy or eighty years ago, in order to win, Roosevelt could use loudspeakers to publicize; In the Kennedy era, it became normal to speak in front of thousands of audiences on TV.

Now, in the 2008 US election, both barack obama and Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and John McCain of the Party are scrambling to establish personal websites, publicize platforms, broadcast campaign advertisements, release real-time news and collect public opinions.

Anchor Du applied for an interview with the Obama campaign team, but received an email inviting donations: "Your support is more important than ever, please donate $25, and the website is ..."

A senior expert in Silicon Valley commented: "Candidates who can make full use of the potential of the Internet will stand out in the presidential election." The New York Journal also recognizes this: "In 2008, the key factor that determines the outcome of the presidential election is not who knows more about politics, but who knows more about the Internet."

As the most open and democratic media form, the Internet has been deeply involved in the political affairs of election.

Obama, a 47-year-old black idol, played the banner of "innovation" and "dream" with the advantages of civilian background and complex experience, and became the most user of internet tools under the handsome face of sunshine.

With the strong impetus of WEB2.0, will Obama become "President 2.0"?

The first part: the network "gold" master.

Hillary and Obama

According to the data released by the US Federal Election Commission, of the $36 million donations Obama received in June this year, $28 million was raised through the Internet, and 90% of the donations were below $ 100.

Unlike the traditional model of holding campaign rallies and fund-raising dinners, most of these small donations received by Obama are spontaneous online transfers.

This should be a signal.

The US Congress stipulates that each person's donation to the presidential candidate should not exceed $2,300. Therefore, American presidential candidates must strive for as many donors as possible in order to overwhelm other opponents in fundraising.

As early as the primary election in the first quarter of 2007, he tried his hand. Known as a "rookie", he made a blockbuster: through the Internet, he received 654.38 million donations, twice as much as Hillary! The amount of donations also exceeded Hillary. Since then, Obama has owned an "Internet ATM".

Time magazine commented: "Obama 100 may come from thousands of ordinary supporters, but the data that can't be seen on the books will be reflected in the votes in the future. People are expecting such a surprise. "

According to the data, Mark GoLoenborg, a venture capital expert in Silicon Valley, helped Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry raise money in California in the 2004 general election.

Mark Loenborg, together with former California Auditor-General and Steve Wesley, one of the founders of Yi Bei, and other network elites, helped Obama to build official website (BarackObama.com) into an activity center for his supporters. As long as you register on the website, you can get an online instant notification called "MyObama" to learn more about Obama's dynamics.

Obama's personal campaign website

Fans can enter their own zip codes on the website, get a list of Obama's campaign information in the region, and join groups supporting Obama accordingly.

"These parties have attracted great interest from the community," Loenborg said. People donate money online as soon as they go home. These people have never participated in an election campaign before. "

In contrast, Hillary Clinton, Obama's party rival, has set up a similar "zip code location" function on her official website to gather and develop supporters, but the effect is far less than Obama's.

The reason is that Obama has entered the WEB2.0 era.

The second part: "Christians in the era of 2.0"

Obama and his campaign team used WEB2.0 technology in the election. When you open his website, you can see that there are a lot of elements of web2.0-mainly blue and white tones, and blue surrounds news content, creating an ocean-like feeling;

Make the "donation" link into a small red bar, which is obvious but not abrupt. The header lists detailed classified information such as text news and videos;

The most critical campaign contents such as "Search for Activities", "Appeal", "Register to Vote", "Volunteers" and "Obama Blog" are placed in the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the hinge respectively.

At the bottom are maps of Obama supporters and links to his content on Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and other websites.

Through the distributor map, supporters can easily contact each other, and they can also exchange information, set up blogs and hold online parties on the website.

Enthusiastic fans, through My space and other dating sites, actively canvassed for Obama-an enthusiastic "fan" named Joe Anthony, relying on his own efforts, actually gathered 6.5438+0.6 million people to support Obama!

And e-mail-anyone who has registered on the website will receive an e-mail every day to keep abreast of all the relevant information about Obama and the election. For example, if Obama's debate is being broadcast live, they will ask you to watch it immediately.

Occasionally, Obama and his team create tension-when Hillary donated $5 million to the campaign, the Obama campaign immediately sent a message saying that we must catch up quickly. In less than 24 hours, people donated a full $8 million to Obama.

Unlike Obama, Hillary paid more attention to traditional media-she held a community meeting on hallmark Channel, which was watched by about 250,000 viewers. But the effect is far less than Obama's-black eyed peas made a beautiful MTV based on Obama's speech, and the online viewing is close to one million every day!

"This is the Internet age, and Obama knows that people who often surf the Internet and have time to comment online are not rich, because most rich people don't have that much time, and they won't condescend to argue with the poor," said an Obama supporter. "If you judge by the number of supporters, Obama will undoubtedly win."

Part III: Cheers for "Obama Girl"

What makes Obama even more happy is that there are many videos supporting him on the Internet, which caused a great sensation and gathered a lot of popularity for him.

At first, some busybodies spoofed Hillary as the boss, but later she was hit by a hammer. Finally, the address of the Obama campaign website appeared.

Then, 26-year-old model Eetingue filmed a short film for Obama in a sexy style. After uploading to YouTube, it was very popular, with more than 5.4 million hits, and was selected as one of the top ten short films of YouTube.com, People magazine and Newsweek in 2007.

Eetingue and Obama have never met, and they haven't decided who to vote for. "If there is a chance to meet, I want to meet his wife and family first. I want to tell Mrs. Obama that I will not take her place. These short films are just for fun. " Eetingue said.

Of course, because of these short films, Eetingue herself became popular, and many newspapers and TV stations came to see her and asked her for an interview.

In June 5438+10, this hot and sexy "Obama girl" appeared again, put on superman's clothes and became "Obama woman" to cheer for Obama.

Obama supporters

This kind of entertaining and funny short film has brought widespread popularity to Obama, so his speech has also become popular on the Internet.

The data shows that the video of his speech in Philadelphia has been played on Youtube more times than all TV channels combined.

Steve Grove, who is in charge of news and political content on Youtube, said that the video of Obama's speech in Philadelphia has become the most watched video of political figures in Youtube history.

Therefore, Obama and other candidates have an extra position-cameraman, whose job is to edit campaign highlights and put them online to create momentum for the election. "You know, a small mistake on the Internet may make them lose a few points of support, which is also their biggest headache."

The fourth part: the embodiment of "American Dream"

"The best thing about him (Obama) is that he knows how to give full play to his civilian advantages and attract more young people and a large number of non-mainstream people who have been neglected by politics through various media such as mobile phone text messages, internet, blogs and books." A media commented like this.

This really tells the reason why Obama is widely concerned: life and experience.

Like thousands of netizens, Obama is the child of an ordinary person-he 196 1 was born in Hawaii, his father, Barack Barack Obama Sr, is a Kenyan black economist, and his mother, Dunham, is a white female teacher.

Shortly after marriage, Obama Sr. left his wife and children and went to Harvard University to study for a doctorate. After graduation, he and another American woman returned to Kenya and became his third wife.

Dunham, on the other hand, married a manager of an Indonesian oil company at the age of 6 and divorced four years later. After staying in Jakarta for four years, Obama returned to Hawaii and lived in a small apartment with his grandparents.

"At that time, like any desperate black youth, I didn't know the meaning of life." In his autobiography "My Father's Dream", Obama wrote, "Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana ... I hope these things can dispel the problems that plague me and blur those too sharp memories."

Obama said that his parents' repeated marriages brought him seven half-brothers and sisters, one of whom was from China.

This background did not stop Obama from climbing-after graduating from Columbia University, he first worked in a poor community, earning only $65,438+$3,000 a year.

Later, he was admitted to Harvard Law School, became a lawyer after graduation, and then went into politics and became a state senator. In 2004, he became the only black member of the Senate.

In the whole Senate, he is the only one who needs to file his own tax returns. In order to get the money for running for the Senate, his family even took out the apartment as collateral.

Of course, these stories make people feel sad, but they think that Americans-who come from the bottom and rely on their own efforts to succeed step by step-are simply real and vivid "American Dream" stories!

A website editor who interviewed him said: I am not surprised that he (Obama) is so popular on the Internet. He is only 46 years old-young enough to win over most people in the Internet generation. He went deep into social networking sites in his early days and won the favor of young people in online voting, which may benefit from his early training.

For more than a year, thousands of young people from all over the United States-mostly students-responded to Obama's call for change and came to participate in Obama's campaign. One detail is that there are too many volunteers who signed up to provide services for Obama's campaign in Iowa, and Obama's team could not arrange accommodation for them!

Part V: Black Boys in the Internet Age.

Black Boys in the Internet Age

This young supporter made Obama. Most of them are under the age of 20, which not only has great influence on the first-time voters of 17 and 18, but also has appeal on the internet.

What they value is that Obama, who succeeded through personal efforts, has his own shadow and pinned the spirit of the Internet-freedom and openness, and everyone can speak freely.

A netizen of Baidu Post Bar wrote: "Everyone has his own dreams and ideals. How are they realized? Obama is an example! "

Another bar friend said, "I don't understand his policies, but I think he is so handsome, elegant and passionate that he can be said to be the best writer in American politics ..."

Perhaps, no presidential election in the United States has been so vigorous through the Internet as it is today, and no "grassroots" candidate like Obama has received a lot of support through the Internet.

Of course, the Obamas heard not only support, but also sharp opposition-more often, they can't control how their information is spread online and how it is interpreted by the public.

In mid-March, ABC News exposed a set of controversial videos, which were shot by Wright, pastor of Trinity United Christian Church to which Obama belongs. The media also found that the pastor declared in his first sermon after 9. 1 1 that the United States should suffer from terrorism.

This gives Obama a big problem. He had to publish an article "My Faith and My Church" and give a 40-minute speech on race.

Correspondingly, at the stage when Wright's video became popular on the Internet, Obama's support rate continued to decline, but after his clarification articles and speeches were widely broadcast, his support rate began to rise.

Obama logo

This, perhaps, is the charm of the internet-all people are equal and true, and they gain democracy in disputes.

Ben McLean, a senior analyst at eMarketer, believes that "in ancient Greece, citizens not only had the right but also the obligation to participate in national decision-making. Today, candidates must directly answer political questions raised by the Internet. This way is the origin of returning to democracy. "

Then, it remains to be seen whether Obama, a black boy in the internet age, can finally win this election that highlights the power of the internet.

Recent situation of Obama (Obama leads Hillary by 10% in the polls, and leads by double digits for the second time)

The latest poll released by Gallup Poll Center on the 9th shows that US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continues to widen the gap with rival Hillary Clinton. At present, Obama leads Hillary's 4 1% by 5 1%.

This is the second time that Obama has achieved a double-digit lead after leading Hillary Clinton by 52% to 42% in the opinion poll on March 29.

According to the "Central News Agency" report, Gallup analysis pointed out that Hillary Clinton's decline in this round of polls should be influenced by the exposure of her chief election strategy adviser supporting the free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia, and when the Clintons announced the tax data of the past eight years last week, it showed that their property had increased by more than $6,543,800+in the past eight years.

In terms of bipartisan competition, Obama has widened the gap between the lead and the party's prospective presidential candidate John McCain, but it is still within the sampling error. At present, Obama's support is 46% and McCain's is 44%.

If the Democratic Party is qualified by Hillary against McCain, the two will be tied with 46%.

Obama's faith

Southern Weekend

□ Wu Li

What people need most is not the representation of others, but self-expression. They should actively participate in the local decision-making process that actually affects their daily lives. In this kind of participation, they can express their wishes and learn to be responsible and mature citizens. Obama's practice of taking root in the community expresses this idea.

In the 2008 US presidential election, a dark horse emerged-47-year-old black Democratic candidate barack obama. Three years ago, when Obama ran for the Illinois Senate, he was still a small player in the national political arena, but now he has become the biggest opponent of former first lady Hillary Clinton's party primary election. Hillary's husband has been president for eight years and Hillary herself has been a senator for seven years, which is deeply rooted in the Democratic Party. However, Obama actually raised more money than Hillary in the first half of this year, although the total amount of campaign deposits in the bank is still slightly higher than Hillary. Obama's growing fame has also pushed his two books to the bestseller list: his autobiography "Father's Dream" (first edition 1995, reprinted this year) and "Fearless Hope" (published at the end of last year), which clarified his political views.

In Obama's autobiography, what is most relevant to the current campaign is his activities in the black community of Chicago. The most surprising thing is that Obama, who was originally not religious, became a believer in the process of serving the community. How a well-educated modern intellectual views religion and belief has become an interesting chapter in Fearless Hope.

Obama's mother is white and his father is black. His grandfather originally lived in Kansas, near the Illinois border. Grandpa went to Hawaii in the west to escape the monotonous life in the town. Obama's father is from Kenya, Africa. He met his mother in Hawaii when he was studying in the United States. My mother studied structural anthropology and went to Indonesia to do field work after graduation. My father returned to Kenya to practice his ideal of saving the country. Obama studied in Indonesia when he was a child and returned to Hawaii when he was ten years old, and was raised by his grandparents. His experience is very different from that of ordinary African-Americans, but Obama has always had the desire to "return to the basics" and felt that he should move back to the black community and truly become a member of the black community.

After graduating from Columbia University, Obama worked in a consulting firm on Wall Street for two years, but decided to give up his high salary and attractive future and join the community to serve the people. From 65438 to 0985, a civil rights organization in Chicago hired Obama as a community organizer.

After World War II, political science professors and socialist theorists in various countries began to consider a thorny issue: to what extent should people participate in state management? Social surveys have repeatedly shown that there are more class, racial and gender prejudices in the lower classes. Historical lessons have repeatedly proved that the lower class people lack rational thinking ability, and their political behavior is often influenced by feelings. Especially in countries that have not established a solid democratic tradition, people are easily deceived by careerists who incite national chauvinism, and as a result, a new Hitler-style dictator is elected like the Germans, which brings great disasters to themselves and other nations. However, restricting people's right to vote is also a kind of autocracy. Open elections may lead to chaos and new autocracy; Banning elections is autocracy in itself, so where is the way out for democracy?

The mainstream thinking on this issue can be summarized in one sentence: what people need most is not the representation of others, but self-expression. To put it simply, the most important thing is not to "go among the masses". For example, if someone asks the masses to elect themselves, after being elected, he will propose a minimum wage bill in parliament to make the poor earn more money. The most important thing is to "come from the masses" and let the masses express their needs. This demand is not necessarily to raise the minimum wage. Maybe people in town A want their children to have a good school and a good future. In town B, the most important thing may be to get rid of the habit of gambling, otherwise even if the income increases, the living standard will not improve. The problems in towns A and B are local and cannot be solved by the adjustment of national policies-the underclass people who lack political experience do not need to participate too much in national politics. They should actively participate in the local decision-making process that actually affects their daily lives. In this kind of participation, they can express their wishes and learn to become responsible and mature citizens. Democracy needs to be based on community democracy.

These ideas were later combined with the urban community research of sociology and developed into various community theories which are very popular in the fields of politics, sociology and cultural criticism (the definition of "community" here is not limited to administration). Obama's practice in Chicago is actually the application of this theory.

Obama has worked in the community for three years, and his efforts have paid off. Every street has mass organizations; Engaged in several community garbage removal activities; Forcing the Chicago Housing Authority to repair the houses of the poor (these houses are allocated to the poor by the municipal government, so there are also housing authorities in the United States to manage these public houses); Compulsory urban construction departments to improve residential roads and lighting; Organize community youth to meet with employers; Carry out "big brother" activities for middle school boys (a male adult takes care of a boy from a single-parent family), and so on. Obama has become a minor celebrity in the local area, and he is often invited to attend seminars to express his views on various social issues.

Obama changed the community, and the community changed Obama. First, Obama found his own community, and he became a black man in Chicago. When Obama temporarily left Chicago to study law at Harvard, his classmates initially thought that he was black in the Midwest of the United States, but they could not see that he was a mixed-race and there was no trace of his overseas experience. Obama was melted by the black community in Chicago.

Another big change for Obama is that he has found faith.

Obama's community building needs an organizational foundation, so he mainly cooperates with church priests. The church is actually the "white road" in the black area (the underworld is of course a gangster). Churches also provide places for meetings and activities. But these churches are generally in decline. /kloc-the civil rights movement in the 1960 s broke down racial barriers, and it was illegal for white homeowners not to sell their houses to black people because of their skin color. So wealthy blacks moved to middle-class communities in the suburbs. With the immigration of the middle class, black areas have become more and more poor.

More serious than poverty is mental loss. Struggling out of the predicament requires a value system: family stability, respect for knowledge, self-discipline, hard work, sympathy, helpfulness and so on. The church can provide such value. Those blacks who follow the values of the church have become doctors, teachers, accountants and civil servants, and they can afford to buy houses in the suburbs. Because all the backbone of the church has moved away, the golden rule of uniting members, I am my brother's keeper (I am my brother's guardian) and the lamb who feeds the Lord (the lamb who helps raise the Lord), has gradually lost its appeal in the black community.

During the three-year community activities, people often ask Obama a question: capable black people like you are rare anywhere. Universities and big companies are eager to catch you hanging on the wall as a trophy of racial equality. Why do you want to stay here and kill your talents on trivial matters? Community residents doubt whether Obama can hold on.

The community residents who work with Obama are also Christians, mostly retired workers and elderly housewives. Obama asked them: why don't you live a quiet life at home after retirement, but you have to come out and ask for it? They replied, "We do not believe. One of them has time; Second, they have experience. They still remember the story that Martin Luther King substituted blacks into the Bible and Jews fought for freedom and liberation, which set off a storm in which blacks used the Bible language to fight for freedom and liberation. They once chanted the slogan "Wetooare made in God'simage" with black priests, and they still want to prove that black people also have the ability to manage themselves.

Obama's mother is an anthropologist. She studies religion as a cultural phenomenon. There are Bible, Koran and even Buddhist scriptures at home. Obama attended Catholic schools and Islamic schools in Indonesia. When he arrived in Chicago, he was not a Christian. But in the process of perfecting and integrating into the community, Obama finally realized that in order to persist and gain the trust of community residents, it needs the guidance of faith.

Protestantism has various sects, and Obama later chose a church with professionals as members. What moved Obama was their vow to encourage success, but resolutely abandon the "middle class attitude" after success-mainly referring to moving out of the black community with some money, as if they were better than those who stayed.

The church also taught Obama a very touching way of speaking in America. When intellectuals talk about racial equality, they may quote the famous words in the Declaration of Independence. Even these well-known sayings of Americans are more attractive to blacks with low education than the simple and direct image of "we are also black priests shaped by God".

199 1 year, Obama graduated from Harvard, returned to Chicago, got married and gave birth to two daughters, and really took root in the black community for a long time. In 2004, he won the election and entered the Senate, becoming the third black senator in American history. Under the impetus of Obama and others, starting from 1999, the Chicago municipal government started the renovation plan of 15, demolishing old houses in southern black areas, rebuilding high-standard apartments, attracting the middle class to return and forming new communities for all income families.

Obama was one of the main speakers at the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination convention. It was this shot that made him famous in the party and almost overshadowed presidential candidate John Kerry. One third of the speech is in Mandarin, and the great Senator Kerry will lead us from victory to victory. But Obama mainly elaborated on the internal goals of the Democratic Party. He quoted the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. We hold the following truth to be self-evident: all men are created equal, and the Creator endowed them with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He even quoted the Latin motto E pluribus unum, which was engraved on the American national seal. But American friends attending the meeting said that what really touched the audience was religious language. When Obama announced that "it is this basic belief-I am the guardian of my brothers and sisters-that makes America America", the eyes of the delegates were moist. Then they whispered: I am my brother's guardian-in Genesis, Cain was punished by God for not taking good care of his brother Abel. Therefore, successful professionals should stay among poor brothers, and you have the responsibility to protect them. This is your belief.

On June 3, 2008, Obama won more than 2 1 18 delegates at the Democratic National Convention. This means that he will be firmly nominated for the Democratic presidential nomination and become the first African-American major political party presidential candidate in American history.