Brarack Obama with Parents

Welcome Obama for America:                      

Obama
President elect, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle wave to supporters during his election night rally at Grant Park in downtown Chicago, Ill. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (Michael Macor / The Chronicle)

10 yrs? - 1971?

Circa 1971 -- Stanley Ann Dunham, that is; mother to Barack Hussein Obama

3 yrs ? - circa 1964

This 1960's photo provided by the Obama presidential campaign, shows Obama with his mother Ann Dunham. Dunham met Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr. from Kenya, when both were students at U of Hawaii

10 yrs - 1971 (Dec)

Obama Sr. returned only once to visit his son in Indonesia. This visit, when the junior Barack Obama was 10, was the last time he saw his father.

circa 1945

This undated photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows his maternal grandparents Stanley and Madelyn Dunham in Cambrige, Mass., during World War II

gay barack obama ripped

barack obama beach bay watch

Obama Family2

Malia, Michelle, Sasha, and Barack

The Obama Family

18 yrs - 1979

Barack Obama, then known as Barry, sits with the Ka Wai Ola literary magazine staff in the 1979 Punahou School yearbook

Hillack O'Clinton [hillary clinton and barack obama face]

President Obama packed symbolism, ceremony and action in a whirlwind first day in office that began with a prayer service at the National Cathedral and ended with a closed meeting with military commanders at which he directed a reassessment of U.S. strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, a key campaign promise.

MORE NEWS

Possible bird remains found in downed jet's engine 01.21.09

Senate confirms Clinton as secretary of state 01.21.09

Sources: Obama to order Guantanamo closed 01.21.09

Despite a round of 10 inaugural balls that had Obama and first lady Michelle Obama returning to the White House around 1 a.m., the new president was up at dawn, issuing executive orders, calling Middle East leaders, appearing at public events and retaking the oath that was flubbed at his inauguration.

He seemed intent on riding his soaring poll numbers and public hunger for change to get his presidency off to a fast start, knowing that the first few months of a new administration are historically its most productive.

He telegraphed sharp breaks in policy and style from the Bush administration. Many seemed aimed both at appeasing a liberal base that has grated at his centrist Cabinet choices and at setting new standards of ethics and transparency to thwart a return of cynicism among the public. He is expected to move today to begin closing the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror detainees.

In between, Obama held discussions with economic advisers on how to rework the $700 billion bank rescue program to address an alarming new outbreak of distress among some U.S. banks. It amounts to the equivalent of doing engine work on a plane in flight. Obama advisers have been looking at alternatives for how to use the $350 billion remaining of the bank rescue fund known as TARP that ultimately could require more infusions from Congress.

Many things at once

Through it all, Obama demonstrated that, as he once coolly admonished former rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during the campaign, a president can handle more than one issue at a time. He held an open house at his new residence, attended the swearing-in of White House staff and took 10 minutes alone to read a note left to him from former President George W. Bush at his desk in the Oval Office titled "From #43 to #44."

Washington has mostly returned to normal as maintenance crews worked through the night to remove road barriers and clear the heaps of trash that covered the downtown.

Lucky visitors to the open house included volunteers and people selected by Internet lottery to promote the theme of openness and accessibility.

Obama told one guest, "Enjoy yourself, roam around," adding, "Don't break anything." Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, held a similar open house at the vice presidential home at the Naval Observatory.

Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential memoranda focused on increasing openness and improving ethics in the executive branch. Those froze the pay of White House staff earning more than $100,000 a year, restricted lobbying by officials who leave the administration, broadened compliance with open-records rules and lifted Bush's restrictions on presidential records.

Obama said he aimed at "establishing firm rules of the road for my administration and all who serve in it and to help restore that faith in government." He said administration officials should "never forget we are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege."

Republicans engaged in early skirmishes over Cabinet nominees, but the pushback seemed more like efforts to demonstrate their relevance than any coherent strategy to respond to the new landscape.

Repudiated in back-to-back elections and facing a public, including many in their own party, that is coalescing around the new president, some Republicans are moving into a classic opposition mode, while others, like McCain, are clearly aiming to work with Obama to influence and shape legislation rather than block it.

A handful of Republican senators mounted impotent and admittedly symbolic offensives against three of his top Cabinet appointees, Treasury-secretary designate Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Attorney General-designate Eric Holder. Clinton was confirmed 94-2 later in the day after Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, blocked a move to confirm her by unanimous consent. Cornyn voted for her after questioning conflicts of interest posed by foreign donations to the foundation run by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Go to page: Home