Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, and grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of the actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. Aniston's father is a Greek American, born Yannis Anastassakis, on the island of Crete, Greece, while her mother is of Italian-Scottish descent and was born in New York City. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick (older) and Alex Aniston (younger). Aniston's godfather was the actor Telly Savalas, her father's best friend. She lived in Greece for one year as a child with her family, and they later relocated to New York City. Her father has appeared in the soap operas Days of our Lives, Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow. Aniston attended the New York Rudolf Steiner School and graduated from Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She worked in Off Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave. She supported herself with several part-time jobs, including working as a telemarketer and bike messenger. In 1989, she moved to Los Angeles, California.

Aniston moved to Hollywood and was cast in her first television role in 1990, starring as a regular on the short-lived series Molloy and in the TV movie Camp Cucamonga. She also co-starred in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of the 1986 hit movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The series, however, was quickly canceled. Aniston then appeared in two more failed television comedy shows, The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred on Quantum Leap, Herman's Head, and Burke's Law. After the string of canceled shows, along with her appearance in the critically derided 1992 horror film, Leprechaun, Aniston considered giving up acting. Aniston's plans changed, however, after auditioning for Friends, a sitcom that was set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall line-up. The producers of the show originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courtney Cox was discovered to be best suited for the part of Monica. Thus, Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She played the character of Rachel from 1994 until the show ended in 2004.

The program was successful and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained wide renown among television viewers. Her hairstyle at the time, which became known as the "Rachel", was widely copied. Aniston received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last two seasons of Friends, as well as five Emmy nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), including a win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. According to the Guinness World Book of Records (2005), Aniston (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the tenth season of Friends.

Jennifer Aniston was cast in a Heineken commercial which was later banned due to branding issues. Later, in 1994, Microsoft invited Aniston, along with Friends co-star Matthew Perry, to shoot a 30-minute promotional advertisement for their new operating system, Windows 95. She gained critical acclaim for her performances in The Object of My Affection (1998), a comedy drama about a girl who falls for a gay man,[20] and in the low-budget 2002 film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The latter film opened in relatively few theaters—under 700 in total—taking $14M in the U.S. box office. In late 2005, Aniston appeared in two major studio films, Derailed and Rumor Has It.

In addition to her career as a TV actress, Aniston has enjoyed a successful film career. Her biggest box office success to date was her appearance in 2003's Bruce Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title character Jim Carrey. Aniston then starred in the 2004 film, Along Came Polly opposite Ben Stiller. In 2006, Aniston appeared in the low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival, received a limited release. Aniston's next film, The Break-Up, which was released on June 2, grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend, despite lukewarm reviews.

In 2007, Aniston guest starred in an episode of Courteney Cox Arquette's series Dirt. Aniston played Arquette's snobby rival Tina Harrod. In addition to acting, Aniston has also directed a hospital emergency room-set short film named Room 10, starring Robin Wright Penn and Kris Kristofferson; Aniston has noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who directed a short film in 2006.

Forbes listed Aniston as the 10th richest woman in the entertainment industry for the year 2007. She is behind such powerhouses as Oprah Winfrey, J. K. Rowling, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Jennifer Lopez and is ahead of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Olsen twins. Aniston's net worth is approximately $110 million. Aniston was also included in the annual Star Salary Top 10 of trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter for 2006. According to Forbes in October 2007, Aniston was the top-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry. In 2008, Aniston landed the seventeenth spot on Forbes Celebrity 100 list based on "earnings and fame." Forbes listed Aniston's earnings as $27 million.

Aniston appeared in the third episode of Season 3 of NBC's 30 Rock playing Liz Lemon's old college roommate who stalks Jack Donaghy.

Aniston appears naked in a series of photographs that are published on the cover and inside pages of the January 2009 issue of GQ. She tells the magazine that she feels more comfortable today than she did in her twenties or early thirties. "I'm healthier. I'm more at peace in my mind and with my body," Aniston says.

On December 25, 2008, Marley & Me, in which Aniston starred alongside Owen Wilson, was released. It set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales.It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed #1 at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. As of February 15, 2009 its total worldwide gross was $161,608,269.

Her next film in wide release, He's Just Not That into You, opened in February 2009. The movie made $27.5 million, ranking #1 at the box office in its opening weekend. While the film received mixed reviews, Aniston along with Jennifer Connelly, and Ben Affleck are often praised by critics as being the stand-outs in the film.

As of 2009, Aniston's movies have grossed $806,211,361 domestically.

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming science fiction/action film due for release on June 24, 2009. It is the sequel to 2007’s Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, the most important of which is Egypt.

The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay met his shooting date with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting from May to November 2008 predominantly took place in the United States, including the majority of scenes set in outside countries, a minimum of which was conducted in those actual nations.


Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth. The evil Decepticons need to capture him for information.The climactic battle takes place at the Giza pyramid complex, where a temple is located within. Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will show the Transformers who visited Egypt before the pyramids were built, and “all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons’ masterplan.” Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those Ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.

This time, the story finds Sam and Mikaela under attack by the evil Decepticons because of something Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth.

To acquire this knowledge, the invading Decepticons need to capture Sam instead of kill him. Meanwhile, the U.S. military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots to fight back the villains’ attack.

Some of the most important newcomers are in the robot cast: Decepticons Soundwave, a fearsome communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers. And on the Autobots’ side is Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots.

here is the preview:

More on oficial website.

Megan Fox

Megan Denise Fox was born on May 16, 1986 in Rockwood Tennessee as the younger of two daughters. Known as one of the fastest rising young stars in Hollywood, this olive-skinned beauty has French, Irish and Native American ancestry, which contribute to Megan’s one-of-a-kind exotic looks. She is best known for her role as Faith Ford’s on-screen daughter, Sydney Shanowski in Hope & Faith and Mikaela Banes from Transformers film.

Megan grew up in a very poor household, but this did not stop her parents from encouraging her interest in arts at an early age. At age 5, Megan started to attend drama and dance classes. The Fox family left Oak Ridge and moved to Port Saint Lucie Florida when Megan was 10 years old. With her parents’ support and her dedication, Megan never stopped her training, even while she was completing school. By the time she was 13, Megan began to do some acting, but it was in modeling that her beauty and talent became the talk of town in the entertainment industry. Megan Fox won multiple awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head Islands, South Carolina, even though she was only 5”4 in height and was considered short for the runway.

With her modeling awards, Megan decided to pursue acting and eventually moved to Los Angeles. Producers saw Megan’s potential instantly and by 2001, Fox made her film debut in the straight-to-video release starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie, “Holiday in the Sun” where she played Brianna Wallace. She then graced the world of TV when she grabbed a role in a low-key soap opera, “Ocean Ave.” and continued to attract a small following after appearing in a single episode of comedy series, “What I Like About You” in 2003.

In 2004, Megan Fox went back into the big screen and joined a group of female teens, including Lindsay Lohan, in the “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”. She then had a small role in the TV movie, “Crimes of Fashion” and a guest appearance in “Two and a Half Men”, three episodes in “The Help” and the TV movie, “Crimes of Passion”. Megan later on grabbed a 29-episode deal on the sitcom “Hope & Faith” with Kelly Ripa.

The more Megan Fox received TV exposure, the more Hollywood took notice of her star potential. By 2005, Megan Fox was featured in a 5-page spread in the November issue of FHM, along with her fellow female actresses. In 2006, FHM named Megan #68 in the magazine’s popular “100 Sexiest Women in the World” list for the year.

Throughout 2007, Megan has been featured in some of the top men’s magazines in the industry, including the March issue of FHM, June issue of GQ, July issue of Maxim and September issue of Arena. She also joined the list of Askmen.com’s “2007 Most Desirable Women”, ranking #37. From #65 in 2007, the stunning Megan Fox has been honored FHM’s #1 “2008 Sexiest Women in the World”, beating Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel to the top spot. She also ranked #16 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list.

In 2007, Megan Fox’s biggest break to date came when she was cast in the highly anticipated film, Transformers. Megan played Kylea, the love interest of lead actor Shia LaBoeuf’s character Sam Witwicky, as they tried to save the world and the group of alien robots from the evil decepticons. She later became part of the cast of “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”, alongside Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges. In the movie, Megan Fox portrays a young Hollywood star named Sophia Maes, who gets her first taste of fame in a biopic of Mother Theresa.

In 2009, Fox appear in Diablo Cody’s “Jennifer’s Body”, alongside Adam Brody and Amanda Seyfried. Megan would also appear in the sequel of Transformers “Revenge of the Fallen” after director Michael Bay told Fox to gain 10 pounds stating that he “doesn’t like skinny girls”. She also signed on for one more Transformers sequel.

Megan Fox is very well known for the number of tattoos on her body. In 2008, she had nine tattoos, which Megan admits that she gets them whenever she has “a feeling about anything”. One of her tattoos is a poem located at her ribcage with the phrase "There once was a little girl who never knew love until a boy broke her heart". She also has “Brian” on her right hip, a ‘star & moon’ symbol on her right ankle, a symbol for strength on her neck and a double-wave circle pattern on her left wrist.

The most popular of Megan’s tattoos are the quote from the Shakespeare play King Lear on her right shoulder with the words “We will all laugh at gilded butterflies” and a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her right arm. Megan explained that Monroe reminds her of “how Hollywood can chew you up and spit you out”. Fox also plans to add more tattoos to her collection of body art in the future.

Since 2006, Megan has been engaged with actor Brian Austin Green, known for Beverly Hills 90210 and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Fox and Brian are both animal lovers with nine animals living with them in Los Angeles. These include four dogs – a Boston terrier named China, a Pomeranian dog named Sid Vicious, a Bulldog named Spanky and a cairn terrier named Sullivan; two birds named Roxy and Bowie; two cats – a Bangal cat named Rosh and an Abyssinian cat named Luna; and a pig.

Aside from being a sexy young icon in Hollywood, Megan Fox loves to read comic books and play video games. She is a huge Def Leopard, Van Halen and Nirvana fan and loves many rock bands. Megan is friends with Kellan Rhude, Jennifer Blanc, Michael Biehn and Amanda Seyfried and calls Transformers co-star Shia LaBeouf as one of her favorite people ever.

Sexy Mayra Verónica

Verónica was born in Havana Cuba in August 20, 1980. In 1984 she came to the US with her mother (Mayra Rodriguez), leaving behind her family including her father (Arturo Aruca) and sister (Giselle Guzman). Her father came a year later and reunited with Veronica and her mother, while her sister was unable to meet them until thirteen years later. Mayra grew up with barely any money, and food was difficult to access. Veronica has spoken about her difficult childhood, and is since estranged from her father and unwilling to reconcile. As a child Veronica wittingly made her way through ballet school, by finding paying clients (other girls from her school who could afford the training) and survived very difficult circumstances at home. In Junior High her body began changing, she got her now famous curves, and began noticing the effect she had on boys was anything but usual.


Her first boyfriend at the age of 15 was an artist of the same age who often painted her in little to no clothing. She continued school and after joining a local beauty pageant(she was 3rd princess or runner up) she met a photographer who would do all the pictures for the event, and noticed the photographer did not have much of an interest in the winner or any of the other girls but was instead captivated by Mayra's photos and kept inviting her to his studio for free sessions. From this Mayra obtained her first modeling book and was signed by a local agent in Miami. This local agent sent her out for an audition for a local TV entertainment news show "Miami Hoy"(at the time Mayra was at Florida International University majoring in Psychology and Theater) she did not know much about being a reporter but figured she could act like one. She got the part and began as a correspondent and after a job well done was promoted to celebrity reporter and Host for the program. Here she got the opportunity to meet and interview celebrities like Donald Trump, Oscar de la Renta, Hugh Heffner, Dennis Rodman, and many more... throughout this time Veronica also traveled to NY to continue acting training at the famed Lee Strasberg Institute to fine tune her craft...until the station (owned by Media One) was bought out by AT&T and later closed.


During this time Veronica also managed to land a made for TV movie called the Suitor and fit in commercial campaigns for Nike, L'Oréal, Coca Cola, and more. Veronica then got a call from the Univision station, a new show was to begin hosted by Don Francisco, the top rated talk show host on the Network...and they wanted her to be their only model, but there was one catch. Due to her ample curves, her last appearance on screen for the day would entail her backside presence on camera before turning around to face the camera. Veronica did it gladly. Once the show aired, the model with the great backside became the talk of latins everywhere, so much so that even the American press got involved. FHM magazine, the top men's magazine of the time,contacted Veronica's publicist to ask for a feature spread on their magazine. Veronica agreed and after much mail requesting her return she went on to do the cover of the FHM exclusive collection book, which included top sex symbols of the decade, such as Pamela Anderson, Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra etc. and other covers for FHM, Maxim, Edge, Smooth, SSX, Smoke, Blackmen's, Open your Eyes and more.


Her popularity on such covers made her website at the time one of the top requested websites with over 4 million hits biweekly. With this came many emails from soldiers stationed in Iraq asking for her posters and by now famous calendars. Veronica had her management send in a care package of approximately 5000 posters and it wasn't long before the marines named her favorite pin up girl for the US marines and the USO asked her for a tour with our troops.The tour was a special Thanksgiving tour with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:General Cartwright, actor Wilmer Valderrama,comedian Russell Peters, traveling to six countries in six days, including Iraq, Afghanistan,Germany, Turkey, Africa, and Greenland. The troops' response was overwhelming and although Veronica had decided not to do any more calendars, she quickly changed her mind and decided to do one in 2008 dedicating all proceeds to the USO. Upon her return from the tour she was asked to appear on FOX's Bill Oreilly and was quickly named a modern day Betty Grable.


During her time with the Univision Network, Veronica had the opportunity to meet top ranked music producers who collaborated with her on her first music album. It was titled Vengo Con To' (Im coming at you with everything) It was also a popular time for the reggaeton music movement and Veronica's album included as its first single "Vengo con to" which was later quoted by King magazine: "Mayra Veronica's moaning make Madonna's Erotica sound like bubblegum pop...chew on that Daddy Yankee" The song soared to number one on the top station in the country, in New York and the video, banned from Latin Television because her curves seemed too much for TV. Europe did not seem to mind and Mayra signed a deal with a German Label for the release of the album there.


The album's popularity landed Veronica a large deal with Universal Motown who put out a second single from the album, titled "Mamma Mia" which also did very well on radio. It wasn't until the third single "Es Tan Dificil Olvidarte" dedicated to the fallen troops,which was redone by Jose Miguel Velazquez ,that Veronica's voice was recognized by Billboard making her top 20 on the Pop Contemporary charts. Veronica continued her work with the troops by visiting the wounded at camp Lejeune, and was then asked by the New York Stock Exchange to ring the NASDAQ bell in Time Square on July 2, 2008 for Fourth of July week. Veronica decided to bring awareness to two of the organizations for which she's an advocate and spokesperson,The USO and UNICEF, and brought them to the bell ringing ceremony.Veronica is now working on her first English release through Universal Motown.

Elected President Barack Obama

Barack Obama was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Ann Dunham, a European American from Wichita, Kansas of English and Irish descent. Obama's father was Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student. The couple married on February 2, 1961; they separated when Obama was two years old and divorced in 1964. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Soeharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the family moved to Indonesia. There Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, such as Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School, until he was ten years old.

He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for five years, and then in 1977 went back to Indonesia, where she worked as an anthropological field worker. She stayed there most of the rest of her life, returning to Hawaii in 1994. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.
Of his early childhood, Obama has recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind." In his 1995 memoir, he described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his "greatest moral failure."

Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was mature for his age, and that he sometimes attended college parties and other events in order to associate with African American students and military service people. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. He worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000. His achievements included helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, and elected president of the journal in his second year. During his summers, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990. After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.

Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.

Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of ten and seven hundred volunteers; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain's Chicago Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.

Obama served for twelve years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching constitutional law. He was first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. He also joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.

Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
Political career

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the General Election, and reelected again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.

In mid-2002, Obama began considering a run for the U.S. Senate; he enlisted political strategist David Axelrod that fall and formally announced his candidacy in January 2003. Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun not to contest the race launched wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates. Obama's candidacy was boosted by Axelrod's advertising campaign featuring images of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and an endorsement by the daughter of the late Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator for Illinois. He received over 52% of the vote in the March 2004 primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather's experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government's economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War and highlighted America's obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity, saying, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Though it was not televised by the three major broadcast news networks, a combined 9.1 million viewers watching on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and C-SPAN saw Obama's speech, which was a highlight of the convention and confirmed his status as the Democratic Party's brightest new star.

Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004. Two months later and less than three months before Election Day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan. A long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes established legal residency in Illinois with the nomination. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.

Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005. Obama was the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He was the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus. CQ Weekly, a nonpartisan publication, characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007, and the National Journal ranked him as the "most liberal" senator based on an assessment of selected votes during 2007. In 2005 he was ranked sixteenth, and in 2006 he was ranked tenth. In 2008, Congress.org ranked him as the eleventh most powerful Senator. Obama announced on November 13, 2008 that he would resign his senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session[clarification needed], to focus on his transition period for the presidency. This enabled him to avoid the conflict of dual roles as President-elect and Senator in the lame duck session of Congress, which no sitting member of Congress had faced since Warren Harding.

Legislation

Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act. Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, and the Coburn–Obama Transparency Act, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending. On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama, along with Senators Thomas R. Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain, introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.

Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee. Obama is not hostile to Tort reform and voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, neither of which have been signed into law.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008. He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

Committees

Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before he became President of Palestine, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi condemning corruption in the Kenyan government.

2008 Presidential Campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The choice of the announcement site was symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care.

During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations. On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.

A large number of candidates initially entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. After a few initial contests, the field narrowed to a contest between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, with each winning some states and the race remaining close throughout the primary process. On May 31, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat all of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegates at the national convention, each with a half-vote, narrowing Obama's delegate lead. On June 3, with all states counted, Obama passed the threshold to become the presumptive nominee. On that day, he gave a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7. From that point on, he campaigned for the general election race against Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.

On August 23, 2008, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Obama's former rival Hillary Clinton gave a speech in support of Obama's candidacy and later called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation as the Democratic presidential candidate. On August 28, Obama delivered a speech to the 84,000 supporters in Denver. During the speech, which was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide, he accepted his party's nomination and presented his policy goals.

After McCain was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, there were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain in September and October 2008. In November, Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote and a wide electoral college margin. His election sparked street celebrations in numerous cities in the United States and abroad.

President-elect of the United States

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173 and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Chicago's Grant Park, Obama proclaimed that "change has come to America".

Inauguration

On January 8, 2009, the joint session of the U.S. Congress met to certify the votes of the Electoral College for the 2008 presidential election. Based on the results of the electoral vote count, Barack Obama was declared the elected President of the United States and Joseph Biden was declared the elected Vice President of the United States. Obama is scheduled to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States at noon EST (17:00 UTC) on January 20, 2009, in an inaugural ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.