Campaign2012
Barack Obama
Officially declared candidacy
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan, “change you can believe in" could easily be the metaphor for his short but explosive political career. The question is whether Obama has been able to convert that catchphrase into sweeping change of the federal government. The president’s reelection will likely depend on it.
During his first year in office, Obama saw his approval ratings sink and the loss of the Democrats filibuster-proof 60-seat Senate majority with the triumph of Scott Brown (R) in Massachusetts. But in March 2010, the president managed to rally the troops and pass historic health-care reform legislation expanding coverage to 32 million Americans and outlawing certain insurance company practices like refusing to cover those with preexisting conditions. "This is what change looks like," Obama proclaimed post-vote.
But the president headed into 2010 with several hurdles to implementing his legislative agenda, which included a major financial regulatory reform package and a jobs bill. At the start of that year, he assumed a more populist tone and proposed a spending freeze in his 2011 budget for discretionary spending, along with a tax on big banks to calm public furor over large compensation packages.
Though those initiatives seemed designed to channel a middle course, they angered the president's liberal base, which wanted the public option included in the health-care measure. Obama's left-flank was also irate about a December 2009 decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
The president paid in the 2010 midterm elections that saw the rise of the tea party and the loss of the House majority to Republicans and the seizing of six Senate seats by the GOP.
Despite those setbacks, the former community activist and one-term Illinois senator has already ushered in change in a variety of ways: through his race as the nation’s first African-American president, and through his potentially revolutionary political tactics that involved reaching out to average citizens through the Internet in unprecedented ways.
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced he intended to run for reelection to a second term in 2012 with a low-key video on his web site, which touted the slogan "Are You In?"
His reelection may be influenced by the successful May 2011 U.S. raid to capture and kill al-Qaeda leader and the man behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the world's most-wanted terrorist, Osama bin-Laden. bin Laden was found hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Key Campaign Moments for Obama
Obama on Issues
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Economic policy
When Obama first won the presidency in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, he touted a bipartisan approach to politics, but struggled to get support...
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Energy policy
As president, Obama has advocated renewable energy sources as a way to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and pushed to reduce the effects of climate...
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Foreign Policy
In his 2008 campaign, Obama pledged to end America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The following year he ordered a 30,000 troop "surge" to Afghanistan...
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Health Care
Only a few months after taking office, Obama and his team began the push for an overhaul of the American health-care system that Obama had promised in...
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Medicare Reform
Obama has said American cannot recover from its economic crisis without getting financial control of entitlement programs including Medicare. Obama did...
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Social Issues
Obama pledged to defend abortion rights and backed a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Though...
Obama Coverage
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I believe that gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country.
The Washington PostJune 23, 2011 -
We must embrace America’s singular role in the course of human events, but we must also be as pragmatic as we are passionate, as strategic as we are resolute. When threatened, we must respond with force — but when that force can be targeted, we need not deploy large armies overseas.
Politico.comJune 22, 2011 -
Today, the single most serious economic problem we face is getting people back to work,” Obama said. “And even though we’ve added more than 2 million private sector jobs over the last 15 months, I’m not satisfied. Not until everyone who wants a good job that offers a little security has one. Not until empty storefronts in town are open for business again.”
Politico.comJune 13, 2011
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I don't want the new breakthrough technologies and the new manufacturing taking place in China and India. I want all those new jobs right here in Indiana, right here in the United States of America, with American workers.
NPRJune 13, 2011 -
I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs.
Huffington PostApril 13, 2011
Barack Obama Elsewhere
