Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. He attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before he served in the Illinois Senate from 1997-2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992-2004. He announced his campaign for U.S. senate in January of 2003. After a primary victory in March of 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July of 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November of 2004 with 70% of the vote. He is the Democratic candidate for the 2008 election.