Souza/White House

49 years ago today our President, Barack Obama, was born. Today he is celebrating his birthday, without wife Michelle, in Chicago.

When asked what he will do to celebrate Obama responded that he will have dinner with friends later this evening.

As far as getting a birthday cake, that was nixed too by the secret service. Obama joked while speaking at the AFL-CIO labor federation meeting this morning that although a birthday cake would have been nice, the secret service did not let him acccept a cake from the FL-CIO head.

Why is Obama alone on his birthday?

Wife Michelle Obama and his youngest daughter Sasha are vacationing in Spain and paying an official visit Sunday to King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia at their summer home on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

The First Lady and daughter are joined  by close family but did not reveal more details than that.

Barack Obama turns 49 years old today. He was 47 when he took office 18 months ago.

Happy Birthday President.

10.) “Strange how a single conversation can change you. Or maybe it only seems that way in retrospect. A year passes and you know you feel differently, but you’re not sure what or why or how, so your mind casts back for something that might give that difference shape: a word, a glance, a touch.”

My Thoughts-Obama reflects on how the smallest moments in life can have the biggest impacts. He sees how a few words from a friend, confidant, or even a stranger can completely alter the way you think and act for the better. He expresses the importance of listening to people for in-depth information and enlightenment that can’t be found in simple reflective thought.

9.) “You got these $10,000-a-plate dinners and Golden Circles Clubs. I think when the average voter looks at that, they rightly feel they’re locked out of the process. They can’t attend a $10,000 breakfast and they know that those who can are going to get the kind of access they can’t imagine.”

My Thoughts-President Barack Obama sees the wrongness of these types of events. He realizes that they allow the wealthy of the United States to influence policy makers because of the size of their bank accounts. The majority of American’s cannot afford such access and thus a minuscule percentage of American’s are the ones who do get a say in how policies are made.

8.) “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.”

My Thoughts-In this 2002 quote, Obama clearly states his opposition for invading the Middle East. Much as the rest of the nation would soon find out, Obama expressed his views that the war was not necessary, but was instead a money grab, unintelligent, and a power move by the neoconservatives led by former President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

7.) “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America.”

My Thoughts-Obama stresses the need to end the mentality of separation in America. He realizes that people tend to break off into racial groups and that has an effect on American politics as well as society and economy. Obama urges the nation to be united just as the name suggests it already is.

6.)“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. … Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

My Thoughts-Obama advocates progression here. He makes it clear that routinely working for money and materialism is not the way to live. Obama says that a meaningful life is one that touches others and improves life for everyone. Obama sees that the world is not a place of “Me, myself, and I,” but instead a place of “We, them, and us.”

5.) “War might be hell and still the right thing to do. Economies could collapse despite the best-laid plans. People could work hard all their lives and still lose everything.”

My Thoughts-President Obama admits that we can’t know what the future holds. Obama alludes to the need to retain optimism and still work hard despite the lack of knowing about what the outcome will be. This serves as a continuation on the old adage that we must prepare for the best, but expect the worst.

4.) “All the money in the world won’t boost student achievement if parents make no effort to instill in their children the values of hard work and delayed gratification.”

My Thoughts-The president is aware that throwing money at a problem isn’t the way the fix it. An example is the wealth of California, but the poor education in the state. Obama sees it as the duty of the parents and mentors of America to instill value in the children and to teach them that everyone has to work to reap benefits.

3.) “This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation — the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.”

My Thoughts-Obama has faith in the future of America. While present day politicians have disputes and disagree on issues, Obama sees more openness in the youth of the United States. Obama can see through history that change for the better does not come overnight. Obama realizes that the progression towards equality, stability, and success takes time and often it will only come with the next generation and not the current.

2.) “I am reminded every day of my life, if not by events, then by my wife, that I am not a perfect man.”

My Thoughts-As President Barack Obama goes about his daily life, he often encounters situations where he can’t simply fix the problems presented to him by a quick decree. He quips that even on his best days, when he comes home at night, he’s just like every other American father and husband, trying to do a job with no manual where he isn’t perfect. With this statement, the president of the United States shows his humility and realizes that he is just one man.

1.) “Contrary to the rumors that you’ve heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the planet Earth.”

My Thoughts-President Obama shows off his sense of humor as he satirically comments on persistent rumors that he wasn’t born in America as well as making it clear the problems he is set to fix will not be fixed in one swift stroke because unlike Jesus Christ, Obama was not born in a manger.

Source of Quotes-Wikiquote

Obama later moved back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham.  His mother later died of ovarian cancer in 1995.  Barack graduated with honors from Punahou Academy in 1979.  Being only one of three black students from his school, and coming from a multiracial heritage, Obama became conscious of racism and struggled to reconcile with his heritage.  In his teen years, Barack admitted to using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine.  After graduating from high school, Barack attended Occidental College for two years in Los Angeles, and then transferred to Columbia University in New York studying political science where he later graduated in 1983.  After college, Barack Obama worked in New York for Business International Corporation and NYPIRG.  In 1985, he moved to Chicago where he worked as a community organizer for low-income residents and for the public housing development in the city’s South Side.

In 1988, Barack travelled to Kenya for five weeks and met his paternal relatives for the very first time.  Later that year, Obama entered Harvard Law School where he became the first African American to be elected as the editor of the Harvard Law Review, and was later elected president of the journal in his second year.  Such an accomplishment gained much national media attention which gave Barack the opportunity to write his personal memoir.  The memoir was later published in 1995 titled Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, and even won a Grammy for the audio version of the book.  Obama later graduated magna cum laude in 1991.

While a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, Obama met his wife Michelle in 1988.  They later married in 1992 and had two daughters, Malia (born in 1998) and Sasha (born in 2001).

Barack returned back to Chicago where he practiced as a civil rights lawyer for the firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland.  He also spent twelve years teaching constitutional law as a professor at University of Chicago Law School.  Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat, and was elected in 1996 from the south side neighborhood of Hyde Park.  During his term he expanded early childhood education programs and health care services for the poor.  He also created a state earned income tax credit for the working poor.  Obama also worked with the law enforcement officials to require videotaping interrogations and confessions in all capital cases after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent.

In 2000, Obama made an unsuccessful run for the Democratic primary in the U.S. House of Representatives to Bobby Rush.  As an early opponent to President George W. Bush’s push for war in Iraq after the 9/11 attacks as a state senator, Obama made clear that although the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a bad person, Iraq posed no imminent threat to the United States.

As the war began in 2003, Obama decided to run for the U.S. Senate.  By 2004, Obama won by 52% in the Democratic primary.  That summer he delivered the keynote speech for John Kerry in the 2004 Democratic National Convention, emphasizing the importance of unity and also criticizing Bush’s administration’s policies.  After the convention, Barack returned to his U.S. Senate bid in Illinois where he debated against former presidential candidate Alan Keyes on the issues of abortion, stem cell research, tax cuts, school vouchers, and gun control.  By November 2004, Obama set the largest electoral victory in Illinois by receiving 70% of the vote compared to Keyes 27%.

During his stay in office, he expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia and also worked on creating a website tracking all federal spending.  On the Senate floor, Obama was the first to speak up about issues such as the avian flu, the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and alternative energy development.

Barack published his second book in October 2006 titled The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.  In 2007, Barack announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.  With a tight battle against former first lady and U.S. Senator of New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama became the presumptive nominee in June 2008.

Barack Obama will be officially sworn in tomorrow January 20th, 2009 as the President of the United States of America.  As our forty-fourth President, he will be the first African American to take the role.