Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as Senator from Illinois and was the 44th President of the United States. On Saturday Night Live, he has been impersonated by Fred Armisen for more than 30 times until May 12, 2012 and by Jay Pharoah from September 15, 2012 and Obama himself made a cameo during the "Halloween Party" cold opening sketch on the November 3, 2007 episode where he also started the show by uttering the famous line, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!". He also made a pre-taped cameo during the April 1, 2023 episode hosted by Quinta Brunson. Brunson had a pre-taped video of Obama she showed, where he talked about the importance of teachers.
Obama was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was born to Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan economist, and Ann Dunham, an American anthropologist originally from Kansas. His mother and father divorced in 1964, when Barack was three years old, and Dunham married Lolo Soetoro. Obama spent part of his elementary school education in Indonesia. After attending both Columbia and Harvard, Obama moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became a community organizer, and later a state senator.
Obama served in the US Senate from 2005 to 2009. He was elected President in 2008, alongside his running mate, future President Joe Biden, and became the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States. Obama successfully ended the Great Recession, and later signed the Affordable Care Act (nicknamed "Obamacare"), and legalized same-sex marriage. Obama was re-elected in 2012, and left office in 2017. He was succeeded by Donald Trump.
Obama's first-term actions addressed the global financial crisis and included a major stimulus package, a partial extension of George W. Bush's tax cuts, legislation to reform health care, a major financial regulation reform bill, and the end of a major US military presence in Iraq. Obama also appointed Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the former being the first Hispanic American on the Supreme Court. He ordered the counterterrorism raid which killed Osama bin Laden and downplayed Bush's counterinsurgency model, expanding air strikes and making extensive use of special forces while encouraging greater reliance on host-government militaries.
After winning re-election by defeating Republican opponent Mitt Romney, Obama was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. In his second term, Obama took steps to combat climate change, signing a major international climate agreement and an executive order to limit carbon emissions. Obama also presided over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other legislation passed in his first term, and he negotiated a nuclear agreement with Iran and normalized relations with Cuba. The number of American soldiers in Afghanistan fell dramatically during Obama's second term, though U.S. soldiers remained in Afghanistan throughout Obama's presidency.
During Obama's terms as president, the United States' reputation abroad and the American economy improved significantly, although the country experienced high levels of partisan divide. Obama left office on January 20, 2017, and continues to reside in Washington, D.C. His presidential library in Chicago began construction in 2021. Since leaving office, Obama has remained active in Democratic politics, including campaigning for candidates in various American elections. Outside of politics, Obama has published three bestselling books: Dreams from My Father (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2006) and A Promised Land (2020). Rankings by scholars and historians, in which he has been featured since 2010, place him in the middle to upper tier of American presidents.
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