Obama entered politics in 1997 as an Illinois State Senator, where he was noted for gaining bipartisan support for legislation on reforming ethics and health care laws and sponsored laws benefiting low income workers and for welfare reform. In 2004 he ran for, and won, the seat of junior US Senator from Illinois in a landslide election and drew national attention for his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

During his time in the Senate, Barack Obama sponsored legislation on immigration, weapons reduction, governmental transparency, consumer protection, and foreign policy. He was known as one of the more liberal voices in the Senate and one of its more powerful members. From its beginning, Obama was one of the few public and vocal dissenters to the Iraq War in Congress.

In February 2007, Obama entered a crowded field of Democratic nominees for President, promoting a platform of ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health coverage. By the spring of 2008, the field had narrowed down to Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton, a Senator from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton, highlighted her experience and moderate agenda, while Obama concentrated on creating hope with a message of change, employing the mantra ‘Yes, we can.’

Barack Obama s campaign ignited the popular imagination in a dramatic way, garnering support and record breaking donations through the revolutionary use of modern media. His campaign s usage of the internet created grassroots fervor and produced an unprecedented flood of small donations. This populist tide allowed him to secure the Democratic nomination for President. It also gave him the momentum to defeat, along with running mate Senator Joe Biden, the Republican ticket of Arizona Senator John McCain and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. The American public chose the optimism and change of the Obama/Biden ticket over the experience and fiscally conservative platform of their Republican counterparts, sending Democratic majority into Congress along with them.

Obama responded decisively to America s growing fiscal crisis. Within the first 100 days of becoming the United States first African American President, he initiated and signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an ambitious $787 billion program designed to stimulate the economy. With mounting opposition from the Republican Congressional minority that began with the stimulus plan, Obama also launched a sweeping new budget and oversaw the reorganization of GM and sale of Chrysler, 2 of the Big 3 automakers and backbones of American industry. During the summer of 2009, President Obama turned his focus to universal health coverage, proposing the passing of a plan by the middle of August.

After graduating from Yale Law, Hillary Rodham joined the Nixon impeachment inquiry staff and married Bill Clinton in 1975. They moved to Arkansas, where she taught at the University of Arkansas Law School and joined the Rose Law Firm, eventually becoming partner. During her legal career, Hillary was twice listed as one of the 100 most influential attorneys in America by the National Law Review.

Bill Clinton was elected Governor of the State of Arkansas, serving a total of three terms. During the 12 years Hillary spent as Arkansas First Lady, she chaired the boards of many children s groups while managing to maintain her law career, raise her daughter, and perform the official duties of supporting her husband.

In 1993, Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the United States. Hillary was active in both his campaign and in his administration, being asked to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform by her husband early in his Administration. She was not successful in passing the reform, but she was implemental in passing the State s Children s Healthcare Initiative Plan (CHIP). These were unprecedented moves for a First Lady and it engendered a great deal of criticism from the conservative press and the public. It was the beginning for a barrage of negative publicity for the First Lady, who many felt was taking too active of a role in her husband s presidency. Sympathy and public opinion swung her way, however, with her handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

In 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for, and won, a seat as a US Senator from New York, making her the first former First Lady to ever win national elected office. In the Senate, she initially supported the Bush Administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War. Hillary subsequently opposed the administration on its conduct of the war, and on most domestic issues. She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006.

In 2008, Hillary ran for President of the United States, winning more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history. After a very close run, in the end she narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Senator Barack Obama. After Obama s win in the general election, she was asked by him to become his Secretary of State and is the first former First Lady to serve in a president’s cabinet. She is becoming known on the world stage as a tough, but fair, diplomat.