Barack Obama's rise in politics from his first step into the public sphere to being elected State Senator of Illinois.

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In a Path to the Podium video, see the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama. Learn that in 2004, Obama's keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention catapulted him into the spotlight. In 2007, Obama announced his own candidacy for the President of the United States. Obama's rejection of the war in Iraq energizes his support base, but his youth and inexperience prove to be worrisome for others. Learn that in 1961, Obama was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii. When Obama was only two years old, his father left; later his mother remarried and they moved to Indonesia. When Obama was ten, he returned to the United States to live with his grandparents, where his elite education began. Obama went on to study political science in Columbia University and then attend Harvard Law, where he becomes the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama meets his future wife Michelle Robinson at a Chicago law firm; they marry in 1992 and go on to have two daughters. In 1996, Obama runs for state senate and wins. He then runs for U.S. Senate in 2000, but does not win. The 2004 Democratic National Convention put Obama back on top, where Americans are seeing him today.

Follow Barack Obama's political journey from his early years to the White House.

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama is elected the 44th president and becomes the first African-American chief executive of the United States. In his victory speech, President Obama remarks that "change has come to America."

Barack Obama speaks at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and is launched onto the national political stage. After winning a seat in the US Senate, he enters the Democratic race for the White House.

A look at the events of Barack Obama's childhood and youth that influenced and shaped him into the person he is today.