Barack Obama Inaugural Tickets

President Barack Obama has brought a voice of change to American politics. As the first African American president, Obama is known for the inspiration he gives others and his refreshing views on American society.

During Obama's first term, he had many accomplishments including passing the health care reform, passing the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ending the war in Iraq and eliminating Osama bin Laden.

Obama's other accomplishments include boosting fuel efficiency standings that will help to nearly double vehicle fuel economy by 2025; expanded wilderness and watershed protection by designating more than two million acres as wilderness and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers; improved nutrition in schools by doubling the amount of fruits and vegetables students get, as well as requiring that only whole grains are served under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010; expanded stem cell research; and killed the unsuccessful F-22, which saved four billion dollars.

By winning a second term, President Obama assured that the changes he made in his first term will remain. Over his second four-year term, Obama plans to reduce the deficit, revise laws on immigration, overhaul the tax code and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

Four years before Barack Obama took office, he emerged on the national political scene with a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. This keynote address, which was reserved for an up-and-comer in the Democratic Party, brought him national attention. Later that year he was elected as a senator from Chicago.

During his tenure in the Senate, Obama focused his efforts on promoting greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also worked on legislation concerning climate change, nuclear terrorism, lobbying and electoral fraud. In 2007, Obama announced his presidential candidacy, pledging to withdraw American troops from Iraq, work towards energy independence and promote universal health care. During his first four years in office, he did all that and more.

Obama was born in Hawaii and traveled the world with his mother before settling down in Chicago as a community organizer as director of Developing Communities Project, a church-based organization on the city's south side. He then attended Harvard Law School in Boston where he became the first African American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

After graduating Harvard, Obama returned to Chicago where he held a number of jobs in community organizations and penned the book "Dreams from my Father" in 1995. Obama won a seat in the Illinois Senate in 1996 and moved to the U.S. Senate in 2005. In 2007, he announced his presidential candidacy in front of the Illinois Old State Capitol, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "house divided" speech.