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The buyers, according to the Cook County clerk, are Maurice and Robyn-Ashley Taylor. The Taylors have not responded to phoned and emailed requests for comment.

The Taylors do not appear to have filed any building permits or plans yet for the 7,500-square-foot site, where previous owners reportedly planned to build a house of about 8,000 square feet.

This is the lot that gained some infamy after the Chicago Tribune reported in 2006 that political influencer Tony Rezko and his wife bought it on the same day in 2005 that then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama bought the house next door.

The Obamas house is a six-bedroom, roughly 3,700-square-foot house built in 1916 on Greenwood Avenue. Its lot was about 15,500 square feet, approximately the size of five standard Chicago lots, until it went on the market in 2005 as two separate parcels, the northern one containing the house and the southern one unbuilt.

According to the Tribunes 2006 report, Obama said his family's real estate broker brought the house to his wife's attention. He said he discussed the house with Rezko but isn't sure how Rezko began pursuing the adjacent lot. But Obama raised the possibility that he was the first to bring the lot to Rezko's attention.

The Obamas bought the northern portion, including the house, for $1.65 million in June 2005. At the same time, Rita Rezko paid $625,000 for the southern portion.

My understanding was that (Rezko) was going to develop it, Obama told the Tribune in 2006.

The Obamas later bought one-sixth of the Rezko lot, 1,500 square feet along the property line, for $104,500, and Rezko footed the $14,000 cost of building a fence between the properties, the Tribune reported.

Detractors of Barack Obama believed the transactions showed that Obama was more closely allied with Rezko than he let on. In 2008, Rezko, who had been a fundraiser for Obama and other politicians,was found guilty of 16 counts of fraud, money laundering and bribery. Obama was not implicated.

Rita Rezko sold the lot, in its reduced size, in December 2006 for $575,000. With the $104,500 from the Obamas, her proceeds totaled $679,000, a profit of $54,000.

That buyer sold the lot in March 2008 for $675,000 to John and Marjorie Poulos,who planned to build an 8,000-square-foot home on the site.

About 18 months after buying the lot, the couple listed it at $1.3 million. It was on and off the market a few times over subsequent years, coming down to an asking price of $699,000 in March 2019.

At the $699,000 sale price after owning it for 13 years, the sellers made $24,000, or about 3.5%, not counting their carrying costs. This low profit is one sign the Taylors did not buy the site as an investment but to build on it. Maurice Taylor is in finance, and Robyn-Ashley Taylor is an attorney.

The property was not actively listed at the time of the sale. Carlos Sanchez, the Bloom/Sanchez Realty agent who represented the lot in 2019, told Crains the owners sold the lot on their own in December. Crains could not reach John or Marjorie Poulos.

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The Obamas may be seeing a new home next to theirs in Kenwood - Crain's Chicago Business

The First Lady, a ten-episode miniseries on Showtime, desperately wants to convince you that it is a chamber piece. Scarcely does the camera go wide; it observes the East Wing of the White House in medium closeup, shrinking the domain of the Presidents spouse down to a miserable tableau of dour furniture and even more dour facial expressions. This is a straightforward dramatic metaphordomestic interior as psychological interiorand it might have been effective if the script demonstrated an interest in its protagonists inner lives. But it does not. The show wont let Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama, who are played by Gillian Anderson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Viola Davis, respectively, be anything but handsomely wounded victors.

The miniseries, cooked up by Aaron Cooley, a first-time creator, and showrun by Cathy Schulman, with all ten episodes directed by Susanne Bier, is an odd failure. It has a halting structure and a maudlin view of history that make the show feel dated. Early on, it dawns on you that the project is very anti-Ryan Murphy. When middle-aged Hollywood goddesses are gathered, our minds are thrust to that auteurs precinct, where, for better or for worse, the mature performer is the rebel muse and historical incident is a putty plaything. In contrast, Cooleys cast has been sealed in an enclosure, given no freedom to roam beyond the barrier of impersonation. Style, too, has been banished. The First Lady refuses any hint of irony, satire, glamour, or scandal. I, too, can tire of the showy po-mo aesthetics of historical fictions these days, but that doesnt mean the answer is to abdicate the insertion of perspective.

If The First Lady does have a perspective, its a mannered one, a fait accompli: the idea that Americans have an insatiable fascination with the paradox of the First Spouse, she who is proximate to power though officially endowed with none. As Eleanor Roosevelt, dismayed to have not been given an official position in her husbands Cabinet, laments, the First Lady position is not a job but, rather, her circumstance. The show makes First Ladydom both generic and somehow cosmic, a kind of condition passed on from Administration to Administration, a mark placed on fifty-three Eves.

The creators have chosen their three subjects carefully; a feminist gloss sticks on them. The nature of these First Ladies does not mesh with the expectations of the role. Eleanor is the visionary, in the closet in more ways than one; initially, she can evince her genius as a diplomat only through ventriloquism, feeding her husband his best lines. Betty is exhausted with the fakery of political life; an iconoclast, and the last Republican wife before the onslaught of the Reaganite far right, she thumbs through The Feminine Mystique and dances uninhibitedly to Harry Nilsson. Michelle, as we know well, has a disdain for the equivocation necessary to keep the political engine going. Shes also, as the First Black First Lady, the unspoken justification for the series: the ne plus ultra of its gurgling optimism. Virtually every shred of dialogue is aphoristic. First Ladies and their teams are often the vanguards of social progress in this country, Betty writes in a letter to Michelle, at the beginning of the Obama Administration. That argument is specious at best, though theres nothing wrong with the show allowing a fictionalized Betty to impart her belief. The problem is that The First Lady doesnt dare to stray from her viewpoint.

In its attempt to tell three histories, the show scrambles the chronologies of its subjects White House tenures as well as their larger biographies. There are flashbacks nested in flashbacks; a second suite of actors play the women and their husbands when they were young. Two time lines, which span more than a century of activity, are tenuously anchored by theme. The writers have fabricated resonances, but these only elide the specificity of each womans life. It serves none of these figures, and certainly not the viewer, to insinuate equivalence between a young orphaned Eleanor (Eliza Scanlen), sent to boarding school in Britain; a young Michelle (Jayme Lawson), facing institutional racism on the South Side of Chicago; and a young Betty (Kristine Froseth), a dancer who trained under Martha Graham, and whose dreams of stardom were thwarted by a bad first marriage and by alcoholism.

On occasion, The First Lady offers insights into the eccentricity of political marriage. Thats not to say that any of the Presidents are well written or capably performed. Kiefer Sutherland, Aaron Eckhart, and O-T Fagbenleas FranklinD. Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, and Barack Obama, respectivelystruggle to give life to waxen cartoons of ironic emasculation. Still, scenes of compromise stand out amid the two-dimensionality. Andersons pursed mouth (even tighter than the mouth she uses for Margaret Thatcher, on The Crown) breaks when her character discovers correspondence between her husband and his longtime mistress; it breaks, too, in the company of Eleanors own lover, the reporter Lorena Hickok (Lily Rabe). The Roosevelts marriage is a dtente, an alliance between political operators. Pfeiffer and Eckhart, meanwhile, give the Fords a sexual chemistry that feels daring; when Gerald pardons Richard Nixon, his decision disturbs the couples emotional universe. Davis and Fagbenle, as the Obamas, are the least successful pairing. Their relationship is filtered only through racial insecurity, with Michelle as the real-talk bully to Baracks dreamer. Playing Michelle is clearly a burden for Davis. How do you summon a living titan, a figure who already plays herself so well? The actor ultimately relies on mimicry, and makeupa parody of two-thousands corporate glam, with the thin eyebrows and the glossed lips. The First Lady is not ready to puncture the hip grandiosity of the Obamas, instead leaving the couple hazy and ill-defined. Its an offensive navet, considering how artfully the Obamas have crafted their modern legend.

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Throughout the show, extraordinary eventsPearl Harbor, Watergate, the Sandy Hook shootingare rendered as catalysts for personal growth. Anna, what happened? Eleanor asks her daughter, after rushing into the West Wing. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, Anna responds. How bad? Very bad. But, on the other hand, the tragedy gave Eleanor an opportunity to address the frightened populace, so, as the series seems to imply, not all bad? After a few minutes of this, we are jolted to another lady, another dilemma. Encouraging her husband to stand up to his white liberal base, Michelle Obama speechifies, Weve been called nigga in every way possible. For once, lets be the niggas. The rushed tempo has a way of caricaturing what is meant to be serious.

Sometimes you ought to allow a bad-wig costume drama to be a bad-wig costume drama. The triumphalist vibe of The First Lady penetrates every element of its world, down to the major-chord score. This sort of big-name vehicle, reeking of Hollywood hubris, can sometimes take on cult-classic status owing to its concentration of bad performances from great actorsor, as in the case of The First Lady, its one good performance amid a sea of middling ones. If such status is conferred on this show, itll be because of Michelle Pfeiffer. Anderson and Davis are regulars on the grandstanding-bio-pic circuit, so they have a bag of tricks to pull from when giving flesh to myths. Pfeiffer is acting in a different milieu altogether. When she speaks the wretched dialogue, she tempers the awkwardness, adding a sigh, a pause. Her Betty Ford is a study of the womans fears and attractions, a suggestive riff on themes of addiction, frustrated freedom, and wifely melancholy. When Bettys compulsions spin out of control, and her family stages an intervention, Pfeiffer nudges the script away from the written psycho-biddy mania, deciding to show us, instead, controlled rage. Its real.

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The First Lady Is a Bad-Wig Costume Drama - The New Yorker

Weve got innovators and artists public servants, rabble-rousers, athletes, renowned character actors, like the guy from Space Jam,continued Obama during the ceremony. Other winners included the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Robert de Niro.

Jordan is hailed as one of the greatest to ever grace the sport of basketball. With numerous records under his belt, he continues to contribute to the sports development around the world.

Also Read: Michael Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq.. were all better than Scottie Pippen in 90s: NBA Twitter reacts as Bulls forward claims medias role in robbing him of DPOY

Jordan won 6 NBA titles in his career, with 11 straight All-Star Teams in that time. Jordan also won 5 MVP Awards and 10 scoring titles in a dominant Bulls era with Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. However, Jordan left the sport to pursue a career in baseball, before making his return after a short hiatus.

He eventually retired in 2003, ending his career with the Washington Wizards. Jordans career scoring average stands at 30.1 PPG, the highest average in history, ahead of Wilt Chamberlain at 30.0 PPG. With an impressive stat line, few would argue that his dominance across both floors was among the best ever.

But, in todays generation, he is sure to face stern competition from LeBron James of the LA Lakers. The two have undoubtedly become the faces of the competition in their 75-year history. Only time will tell if James will ever surpass the legacy of Jordan, but one thing is certain the debate will never end!

Also read:Michael Jordan may not be the GOAT but he is the greatest practice player of all time: Former Bulls teammate, BJ Armstrong, dishes on His Airnesss greatness during practices

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More than just a logo, more than just an Internet meme": Michael Jordan is the butt of a joke from Former... - The Sportsrush

The scene that unfolded inside a Northport McDonalds might be among the most 80s thing documented and preserved on YouTube.

President Ronald Reagan was fresh off a rollicking rally at the University of Alabama that featured him parading around with the universitys mascot, Big Al. As the presidential motorcade left the area, Reagans entourage stopped at a McDonalds. Inside, the president walked up to the counter and ordered himself lunch that included a Big Mac placed inside a beige Styrofoam container, an order of French fries and a tea.

The total cost: $2.46.

I just thought as long as we had this opportunity, wed do this, Reagan said, during an October 15, 1984, visit that is documented online by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

About a quarter-century later, President Barack Obama engaged in a so-called Sweet Tea summit with a host of Republicans including Gov. Bob Riley and Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon.

The dining choice for that June 14, 2010, presidential visit was Tacky Jacks Seafood in Orange Beach.

It was right after the beer summit in Washington, D.C., Kennon recently recalled. We said we needed a Sweet Tea summit.

The purpose of the Obama trip was to engage with Alabama officials following the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill that threatened the Gulf Coasts economy.

Obamas dinner table ordered up crawfish tails, royal reds, fried pickles, crab claws, two seafood salads and the eaterys popular Mexican Garbage with extra cheese.

The tab: $95.80, with tip.

Preserving visits

The two dining experiences, occurring in different eras and under different circumstances, illustrate the unique aspects of a presidential visit to Alabama.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to make an appearance in Alabama on Tuesday to a Lockheed Martin manufacturing plant in Pike County near Troy.

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The purpose of the trip is to highlight the Javelin missile that is built at the Pike County operations. The Javelin is a popular anti-tank device utilized by the Ukrainians to fight off the Russian invasion, now in its third month.

There is no hint that Biden will make any impromptu stops while he is visiting Alabama.

President Ronald Reagan takes a bite out of a Big Mac on Monday, Oct. 15, 1984 in Northport, Alabama, after addressing the students at the University of Alabama. On his way to the airport, the President decided to satisfy his hunger with a stop at McDonalds. (AP Photo/Lana Harris)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Neither Reagans McDonalds stop nor Obamas visit to Tacky Jacks were pre-advertised, but both events did not happen on a whim. The U.S. Secret Service inquired about possible restaurants in Orange Beach ahead of Obamas visit, eventually landing on Tacky Jacks. Reagans visit occurred hours after Secret Service agents arrived to the McDonalds and began scoping out the scene, according to a 2006 account by the late Tuscaloosa News journalist Tommy Stevenson, the only local reporter at the restaurant that day.

Both events, however, created memories that are long-lasting. At the since-renovated McDonalds in Northport is a bronze bust of the Gipper inside a glass case near the restaurants bathrooms. The display also includes a picture of Reagan eating his Big Mac with a plaque that reads, President Reagan ate here.

At Tacky Jacks is a framed newspaper article that commemorated Obamas visit.

It was during a time of very severe uncertainty, said Ken Kichler, CFO of Tacky Jacks, who recalls restaurant employees becoming aware of the presidents visit 15 minutes before the motorcade arrived.

Our businesses were impacted, Kichler said. We were struggling with working through the federal relief program, and we believed the visit was very helpful in getting the Alabama Gulf Coast the help it needed from the government at the time.

In the years to come, the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council was formed, and subsequent settlements with BP resulted in billions of dollars funneled into the state. Money is still being allocated to this day on environmental-related projects through the Recovery Council.

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University and a longtime observer of Alabama state politics, said that presidential visits to Alabama because of the changing nature of the media over the years have increasingly been staged to be national news.

He noted that Bidens visit is simply to highlight the Javelin manufacturing at Lockheed Martin.

Alabama, since at least President John F. Kennedys famed visit to Huntsville, has been an attractive stopping point for presidents. Selma bridge crossings, for instance, have drawn large crowds and presidential entourages: Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama have all paid visits to the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Tuskegee University has also been a popular spot for presidential visits. The university has been welcoming presidents since William McKinleys 1898 visit. The most recent presidential visit to Tuskegee was in 2006, where President George W. Bush visited with students who were researching nanotechnology prompting his call of Congress to offer permanent tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development.

Kennedy tours the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, 1962 and 1963

President John F. Kennedy visits Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., on May 18, 1963.

With global space race well underway, Kennedy made two stops to Huntsville where he toured the flight center at Redstone Arsenal. The first occurred on September 11, 1962. The second visit occurred on May 18, 1963, nearly six months before his assassination in Dallas.

Kennedys second visit was part of an Armed Forces Day celebration. He delivered a speech before 10,000 members of the arsenals workforce.

Earlier in the day, Kennedy visited the Tennessee Valley Authority and delivered a speech in Muscle Shoals.

Huntsville was not as big as it is today, Brown said, referring to a city that had a population of 76,000 people in 1960 (todays population is over 215,000 residents). That was a big deal when the president came to our state. He was making a commitment that in this decade (the 1960s), well put a man safely on the moon.

Former Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer, in a 2013 interview with WAFF-TV, recalled the Kennedy visits as memorable because of the presidents support of the space race.

JFK believed in the space program, and he wanted us to be the first in some recognitions because it was great for a leadership of a country to be able to brag on the brain power and the effort that does into things, Spencer told the TV station.

JFKs Huntsville visit is seen as a key moment that solidified the city as the Rocket City and cemented the presidents relationship with Dr. Wernher von Braun over their shared goal of landing a man on the moon.

Storm damage

Touring storm damage

President Barack Obama with his wife Michelle toured the massive tornado devastation in Tuscaloosa and Holt Elementary School Friday April 29, 2011. The President was joined by a large number of state officials. President Obama With Gov. Robert Bentley (center ) and wife Dianne on a tour of Tuscaloosa tornado damage. (Joe Songer).

A common presidential visit to Alabama is whenever a storm causes widespread devastation.

A few visits stand out in recent years:

President Bill Clinton, during an April 15, 1998, visit, surveys the storm damage in Pratt City after deadly tornadoes swept through Birmingham, Ala. (file photo)

President Jimmy Carter visits Mobile to survey damage from Hurricane Frederic on September 19, 1979. (Press-Register archives)

Reagan revolution

Reagan was serenaded with large crowds and happy Republicans in the 80s during his multiple visits to the state.

He is also the only U.S. President to deliver a speech before a joint session of the Alabama Legislature.

That occurred on March 15, 1982 and allowed Reagan to lay out his economic and public positions of less federal government intrusion, and more attention paid to state and local affairs.

President Ronald Reagan gives a speech before a joint session of the Alabama Legislature on March 15, 1982, in Montgomery, Ala. Governor Fob James and Lieutenant Governor George McMillan are sitting behind Reagan. For the full text of the speech, visit: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40019737

He received a rousing applause for citing his administrations interests in completing the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project and shared a story about visiting a University of Alabama football practice coached by famed Paul Bear Bryant wearing a tuxedo.

Reagan said he had to go to a black-tie affair immediately after attending the practice.

I dont think its ever happened before, Reagan said about his attire at a Bryant-coached practice. To make it worse, it was raining.

Reagan also made a crucial visit to Montgomery before the 1986 elections. A New York Times headlines of that September 18, 1986, visit reads, Reagans visit Lifts Alabama GOP.

Reagan was in Montgomery to rally in support of Jeremiah Dentons Senate candidacy. Denton, a Republican, narrowly lost that Novembers election to conservative Democrat Richard Shelby

Ive been to this great state so often Ive been thinking of having Air Force One wired to play, Sweet Home Alabama, Reagan said.

Brown said that Reagans presidency coincided as the Republican Party began its ascension in Alabama. Shelby would switch political affiliations about eight years later, in 1994.

By the time Reagan came along, the Republican Party was in its formative time and early stages of becoming the dominate party in the state, Brown said. It had a lot of energy at that time. Reagan realized that. He did generate huge crowds.

Trump and the NFL

Alabama state Republican Senator Luther Strange walks to embrace President Donald Trump during the senator's rally at the Von Braun Civic Center September 22, 2017 in Huntsville, Alabama. -(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Trumps visit to Lee County to inspect the tornado-ravaged communities was among the very few trips he made while he served in the Oval Office.

Trump, who enjoyed strong support in presidential elections in Alabama, drew large crowds during campaign events and rallies, including one that occurred last year in Cullman. The most notable rallies occurring pre-2016 election were in Mobile and Madison.

Trumps most memorable Alabama appearance as president occurred on September 22, 2017, in Huntsville. Trump made an appearance in support of former Senator Luther Stranges campaign against then-Republican frontrunner Roy Moore.

The appearance occurred before the GOP runoff, which Moore won before he lost the Dec. 12, 2017, general election against Doug Jones.

Trump, during his speech, famously quipped that NFL owners should fire players who kneel during the National Anthem. The remarks sparked backlash among professional athletes, among others. On-field protests continue to this day.

Other notable appearances

President Gerald Ford, right, tries on the houndstooth hat that was handed to him by Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, left, as Ford arrived for a visit in Mobile on Sept. 26, 1976. Not only did Bryant give Ford his famous hat to wear, he endorsed him for re-election. "Now we're out past midfield and headed for the other goal," said Bryant in his political pitch. (file photo)

Former First Lady Laura Bush, left to right, former President George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama and U.S. Congressman John Lewis listen to speakers at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge Saturday, March 7, 2015, during the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala. (file photo)

President George W. Bush signs autographs for Alabama State Parks workers during Thursday's speech at Oak Mountain State Park during a visit in June 2001. (file photo).

Increased polarization

While most presidential visits, over time, have featured a bipartisan coalition of guests, an increasing amount of criticism has been directed at presidents who are venturing into a state controlled by politicians of the opposite party.

Obama, for instance, was criticized for touring the Tuscaloosa tornado damage in what some said was a diversion of attention from the cleanup and recovery activity that was underway.

At Tacky Jacks in 2010, Kennon said he was frustrated with what he felt was starting off to be a photo op for the Democratic president.

It hacked me off, Kennon said. I said we need to sit down and have a talk.

President Barack Obama sits with Orange Beach Mayor, Tony Kennon during an unannounced visit to Tacky Jack's, a restaurant in Orange Beach, Ala., as he visits the Gulf Coast region affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill Monday, June 14, 2010. (file photo)

The dinner last for about an hour. Kichler, Tacky Jacks CFO, said that Obama also spent time meeting with Tacky Jacks employees and diners who were at the restaurant.

Kennon, who was seated next to Obama, said he can remember snipers on the building, adding that its an eerie feeling to have someone with a scope rifle (aimed) at your back.

But the dinner went on without any incident, as Obama dined with the Republican politicians.

Biden likely will not have a similar chance to do so. Alabamas Republican politicians have confirmed in recent days that they will not be at Tuesdays event at Lockheed Martin.

In other words, dont expect a Sweet Tea Summit repeat.

The whole political environment has become so rancid that people cant just be respectful and show some degree of common decency, Brown said. This (visit) doesnt have anything to do with electoral politics in Alabama. It has to do with the president wanting to highlight weapons of the Defense Department designed to help the people in Ukraine.

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Big Macs and Tacky Jacks: Revisiting memorable presidential visits to Alabama - AL.com

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Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States. His story is the American story values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he became the first African American to hold the office. The framers of the Constitution always hoped that our leadership would not be limited to Americans of wealth or family connections. Subject to the prejudices of their timemany of them owned slavesmost would not have foreseen an African American president. Obamas father, Barack Sr., a Kenyan economist, met his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, when both were students in Hawaii, where Barack was born on August 4, 1961. They later divorced, and Baracks mother married a man from Indonesia, where he spent his early childhood. Before fifth grade, he returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents and attend Punahou School on scholarship.

In his memoir Dreams from My Father (1995), Obama describes the complexities of discovering his identity in adolescence. After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University, where he studied political science and international relations. Following graduation in 1983, Obama worked in New York City, then became a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, coordinating with churches to improve housing conditions and set up job-training programs in a community hit hard by steel mill closures. In 1988, he went to Harvard Law School, where he attracted national attention as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Returning to Chicago, he joined a small law firm specializing in civil rights.

In 1992, Obama married Michelle Robinson, a lawyer who had also excelled at Harvard Law. Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the U.S. Senate in 2004. At the Democratic National Convention that summer, he delivered a much acclaimed keynote address. Some pundits instantly pronounced him a future president, but most did not expect it to happen for some time. Nevertheless, in 2008 he was elected over Arizona Senator John McCain by 365 to 173 electoral votes.

As an incoming president, Obama faced many challengesan economic collapse, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing menace of terrorism. Inaugurated before an estimated crowd of 1.8 million people, Obama proposed unprecedented federal spending to revive the economy and also hoped to renew Americas stature in the world. During his first term he signed three signature bills: an omnibus bill to stimulate the economy, legislation making health care more accessible and affordable, and legislation reforming the nations financial institutions. Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, financial reform legislation, and efforts for consumer protection. In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2012, he was reelected over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 332 to 206 electoral votes. The Middle East remained a key foreign policy challenge. Obama had overseen the killing of Osama bin Laden, but a new self-proclaimed Islamic State arose during a civil war in Syria and began inciting terrorist attacks. Obama sought to manage a hostile Iran with a treaty that hindered its development of nuclear weapons. The Obama administration also adopted a climate change agreement signed by 195 nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming.

In the last year of his second term, Obama spoke at two events that clearly moved himthe 50th anniversary of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Our union is not yet perfect, but we are getting closer, he said in Selma. And thats why we celebrate, he told those attending the museum opening in Washington, mindful that our work is not yet done.

The Presidential biographies on WhiteHouse.gov are from The Presidents of the United States of America, by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey.

Learn more about Barack Obamas spouse, Michelle Obama.

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Barack Obama - The White House