Candidate Profile Project

With the large number of candidates campaigning to become the next president, it can be difficult to distinguish various candidates from on another. Using Online NewsHour information available at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2008/index.html along with other Internet and primary sources, answer each question below and create a candidate profile that describes one of the people campaigning to be president. Be prepared to share your candidate profile with classmates, and stage a mini-debate.

Group Members:
Paris F.
Anthony K.
Anna L.



Research Questions

1. The candidate I am profiling is:
   Barack Obama
   


2. The political party this candidate represents is:
   The Democratic Party



3. What other political offices has this person had in his/her career, if any?
   Barack Obama was a Senator in the United States Senate from 2005-present and is the 5th black U.S. senator in history. Also, he was a Keynote Speaker during the 2004 Democratic National Convention and was previously the senator of the Illinois State Senate from 1996-2004.
   


4. What prior political and leadership experience does this candidate have that makes him/her qualified to be the next president?
   Other than his political experience being what qualifies him to be the next president, he has taken leadership roles in many organizations. Those being the following:
   
   Member, Trinity United Church of Christ, present
   Center for Neighborhood and Technology
   Chicago Annenberg Challenge
   Cook County Bar
   Cook County Bar Association Community Law Project
   President, Harvard Law Review
   Board Member, Joyce Foundation
   Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law
   Leadership for Quality Education
   Board Member, Woods Fund of Chicago.
   


5. What is this candidate's point of view on major issues, such as:




1. The Iraq War
   Problem: Many people have a misunderstanding about the surge, and that the reason why additional troops were put in Iraq in 2006 was to press the Iraqi leaders to come up with a solution and a compromise so that American troops can leave at the end of the year, but it has not happened and though the levels of violence was significantly reduced in Iraq, it placed an incredible strain in American economy which led to 40% of the Army and the Marine Corps weapons are in need of repair and make it harder for American troops to respond to other needs.
   
   Plan: As people are skeptical to the true intentions of most candidates, Barack Obama has disapproved of the war since it was started in 2001, and he consistently voted against the war. He plans to immediately remove 1-2 brigades each month, and expects to have all combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. His only plan with the military is to keep a few troops to protect our embassy and diplomats and he will use those troops to carry attacks on al Qaeda if necessary. He also states that he will press Iraqi leaders to come up with a solution as fast as possible and that he will make it clear that the Americans are leaving and that they will pay 2 billion to provide for the Iraqi refugees and the displaced.
   
   
2. National Security

Problem: On his campaign website, its states that, “Five years after 9/11, our country is still unprepared for a terrorist attack. From improving security for our transit systems and chemical plants, to increasing cargo screening in our airports and seaports, the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission have been underfunded and ignored. The 9/11 Commission gave the government five F's and 12 D's on the implementation of its recommendations. Senator Obama is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and has supported efforts to base homeland security spending on risk rather than pork-barrel politics. He has also introduced legislation to strengthen chemical plant and drinking water security and to enhance disaster preparedness.”

Plan: Barack Obama plans to increase our homeland security in the most efficient way possible. He plans to keep track of nuclear and chemical plants, increasing the security and defense to those plants, and to do the same with our water supplies. He stresses that the water supplies are critical to our security, and that it has not gotten enough federal funding to be adequately protected. He also plans to increase reserves for disaster relief funds to ensure that if a disaster strikes, whether it is a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.


3. Education
   Problem: The goal of the law was in the right, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers. Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
   
   Plan: Obama's comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan will provide critical support to young children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama's plan places key emphasis at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten. Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state "zero to five" efforts and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school. Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding and improve quality for both. will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families. Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.
   
4. Health Care
   Problem: Because the cost of health insurance is rapidly rising, the majority of the American population is either uninsured or underinsured. Statistics show that 47 million Americans, as well as 9 million children fit in this category. Aside from that, there is not enough money being spent on spreading awareness and prevention towards public health such as obesity and other chronic diseases.
   
   Plan: In regards to uninsured Americans, Obama plans to have a health insurance that has guaranteed eligibility for everyone. It will also have affordable premiums, comprehensive benefits, easy enrollment, and portability and choice which will enable Americans to move from job to job without jeopardizing their health care coverage. Also, Obama will set up a National Health Insurance Exchange to help people who want to purchase a private insurance plan as well as have employers contribute to their employees. However, employers will have to contribute an amount that would be substantial enough to help their employee have health insurance, whether it is through benefits or increased payroll.
   


5. The Economy
   Problem: There are various problems with America’s economy, and that the biggest is that the middle class are failing to move up on the social ladder.
   
   Plan: Senator Obama plans to give better tax relief, and plans to create a universal mortgage credit for Americans, and it will help more that 10 million American’s become land owners, through the equaling of the scale of the home mortgage rates. Houses today are being sold in the favor of the better off because they itemize or put on a list of deductable taxes. Barack Obama plans to remove the tipped scale to create a housing market where people further down the social ladder can afford homes as well.
   


6. Taxes
Problem: Taxes I think are serious in our day now because so much of our money goes into taxes. 1 third of our paychecks go out to taxes, the reason its an issue is because the things bush spends our taxes on like the war in Iraq. When in reality many people want the money to go to better things whether it be a cure for aids or helping families in need.

Plans: Barack has many plans when it comes to this issue because it is such a huge issue and by that I mean there are many forms of taxation and these are the things that Barack wants to do for some of those issues: Provide a “Making Work Pay” Tax Cut for America's Working Families, Create a Universal Mortgage Credit, Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less Than $50,000, Enable Millions of Americans to Complete Tax Returns in 5 Minutes, Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit, Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit



7. Global Warming
   Problem: The facts are that America uses 20 million barrel’s of foreign oil a day and that it had cost 500 billion dollars in the year 2006. Also climate change is causing numerous problems from rising water levels, deteriorating ecosystems, and greater differences in temperature around the world.
   
   Plan: Senator Obama’s plans are to reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and stop deforestation and/or research ways to capture carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. He also plans to invest over a 150 billion dollars in 10 years to invest in environmentally friendly fuels. He also plans to put in effect various incentives, prizes, and government funding to help America eliminate their need for foreign oil
   


8. Nuclear Weapons
   Problem: Since 9/11, terrorism has been the biggest threat to America. But as of now, the threat of a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon and the spread of nuclear weapons to dangerous regimes are the gravest. Obama has taken bipartisan action to secure nuclear weapons and materials.
   
   Plans: Obama will secure all loose nuclear materials in the world within four years. While we work to secure existing stockpiles of nuclear material, Obama will negotiate and assure that a verifiable global ban is made on the production of new nuclear weapons material. By doing so, this will deny terrorists the ability to steal or buy loose nuclear materials. Obama plans to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so that countries such as North Korea and Iran that break the rules will be automatically faced with strict international sanctions. Obama has a goal of a nuclear weapon-free world. He will start doing so by seeking dramatic reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material while also setting a goal to expand the U.S. & Russian ban on intermediate- range missiles so that the agreement is global.
   


9. Immigration
   Problem: The number of illegal immigrants has risen by 40% since the year 200 and it is estimated that more than half of a million illegal immigrants come each year. Also since the immigration bureaucracy is so overwhelmed, the process in which it takes to apply is a very prolonged one it forces immigrants to wait.
   
   Plan: Other than wanting to secure the border through the use of technology, Obama proposes to fix the broken immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants so as to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill. However, he wants to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens as well as promoting development in Mexico’s economy to decrease illegal immigration.
   
   
10. Gay Marriage
    Problem: Gay marriage is a serious topic because the LGBT community has been fighting for the right to do so for a long time. The reason being that if you were married and something happens to the other person there area many things that come with being married and when they are not it makes things complicated for example if you were married some of the benefits that come with it are Married couples are permitted to give an unlimited amount of gifts to each other without being taxed. Many married people are entitled to financial benefits relating to their spouses, such as disability, pension and social security benefits.
    
    Plan: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples equal legal rights and privileges as married couples, including the right to assist their loved ones in times of emergency as well as equal health insurance, employment benefits, and property and adoption rights. Obama also believes we need to fully repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions.
    
    

Biographical Summary
Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961 on the island of Oahu in Hawaii to a Kenyan father and a Caucasian mother from Kansas. Most of his youth was spent with his grandmother in Hawaii and attended the esteemed high school, Punahou Academy. During his teenage years he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his biracial heritage. After graduating from high school he attended the prestigious schools, Occidental College and Columbia. Right after college, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to work as a community organizer in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago. Here, Obama worked with poor families on the South Side to get improvements in public housing and also fought for a program to keep at-risk children from dropping out of school. However, he had to leave his job to pursue a law degree at Harvard Law School where he became President of the Harvard Law Review. He then returned back to Chicago to install a new program called Project VOTE where it helps people register to become voters. Soon after that Obama was elected to the Illinois state Senate in 1996, when Democrats were in the minority. He proposed hundreds of new law with those being universal health care, strict gun control and expanded welfare, but were turned down by the Republican leadership. He did pass some laws in restricting the gifts that Illinois politicians could accept from lobbyists called the Gift Ban Act and also helped create the Illinois' "KidCare" program, which provided health care to children in families that did not qualify for Medicaid. When Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate he cooperated with Republican Senator Richard Lugar to study the dangers of nuclear proliferation and pass laws meant to keep nuclear material from falling into the hands of terrorists.

"Barack Obama Biography." 2007. 24 Jan. 2008 .

My Point of View
Judging from Obama's point of views towards the issues going on today in our country, I htink that he would make a great possible candidate for our country despite his length, or lack of experience compared to his competitors. If he were to be the winner of the Democratic Party, I would definitely vote for him. His plans are definitely capable of being successful, I believe. He is a strong person who holds up to his values and is a well-spoken person who is open-minded and is very willing to listen to both sides to comes up with a fair decision.

Paris's Point of View
I want Borack Obama in office and these are reasons why. African American people today sadly still are abused for their race whether it is racial profiling or becoming a president. One of the things that are amazing to me is how far African American people have come since slavery ended. Not only is the fact that he’s black make me want to vote for him I also love his views on current problems in America. One being what he thinks about Iraq. He wants to get our troops out of their and go about the situation in a more civilized manner by vactually talking. I think he wants what is good for the people and I respect that the most.

Anthony's Point of View
I believe that Barack Obama has the greatest plan for America’s future, though some parts of his plans are somewhat weak such as the homeland security plans, his plans to balance out America through the removal of troops in Iraq, the making of a fair housing market, seems to be do-able. I think that his greatest asset is that he can back up his most crucial arguments for his campaign such as his disapproval of the Iraq war since he was senate; he also has a lack of experience, though that is a double edged sword. His lack of experience can make him weaker in handling situations that arise, but it could also help as well since he would not be influenced with any past experiences, just like a clean slate.