I'd like to meet:
A Senator from Illinois; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; received a B.A. in 1983 from Columbia University, New York City; worked as a community organizer in Chicago, Ill.; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1991; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago.Obama became a civil rights lawyer and taught constitutional law in Chicago. His advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for seven years.In 2003, Barack launched an improbable race for the Senate. Even with many primary contenders and a budget six times smaller than his opponent’s, Barack won a landslide victory; he stood out alone among the major candidates, opposing the war in Iraq. Obama is the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history and the only African-American currently serving in the Senate.Barack Obama's Focus & Achievements: Senator Obama has helped pass major measures designed to combat the international trafficking of nuclear weapons, promote the use of alternative fuels, and open up the budget process to greater public scrutiny. Throughout these efforts, he’s brought Democrats and Republicans together. Before entering politics, Obama wrote Dreams from My Father, a memoir. The audio edition earned a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Obama then earned a $1.9 million deal for three more books. The first, The Audacity of Hope, published in 2006, has remained high on the New York Times Best Seller list since its publication.On January 16, 2007, Senator Barack Obama announced that he was taking the first step toward becoming a candidate for the 2008 presidential election by forming an exploratory committee. Supporters are enthralled by his values, insights, and ability to work successfully across party lines, we are excited about the promise of refreshing change. Skeptics, on the other hand, point to his limited political career and question his ability to take on the daunting challenges (e.g. Iraq, ongoing threat of terrorism, a deeply divided country) that are sure to face the new president.In response, Obama has said, "...challenging as they are, it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the smallness of our politics. America's faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that's what we have to change first. We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans."