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America's First Black President Essay

Decent Essays

For many years, American Presidents were viewed as being white and powerful leaders. Why were they only white? Is it because Americans felt Blacks were not smart enough to run a country on their own? African Americans were viewed as less dominate people and have been discriminated because of the color of their skin. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States making him the first black president ever. In this paper, I will discuss how Barack makes a change and if America can accept him as our first black president. Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu Hawaii. He is of mixed parentage: his father, a black African born in Kenya, while his mother, a white American that came from Kansas. …show more content…

He is the first African American to in history to run on a major ticket. In the beginning of his campaign a lot of people questioned his authority and wanted to know could he handle the responsibilities of a president for such a big country. “ I want to know how deep is your love for the people, what kind of courage have you manifested in the stances that you have and what are you willing to sacrifice for. This is the fundamental question. I don’t care what color you are. You see, you can’t take black people for granted just cause your black”. (C.West) These questions just made Obama a much stronger person and he continued to fight.

Obama portrayed himself as the candidate of change. His slogan was “Change we can believe in”. His Republican opponent was Sen. John McCain. To make sure that his campaigns and speeches would help him win the election, Obama began fundraising and broke previous records for presidential primary and general campaigns. The campaign avoided using public campaign funds, and raised all of its money privately. They had raised more than $650 million itself. (H.Cooper) He also had television advertisements that ran in 18 states including traditionally Republican states such as Alaska and North Carolina. (J.Harwood) His campaign spent $27 million on advertisements against McCain and Republican National Committee’s combined a total of $24.6 million. (J.Rutenberg)

Since this election was so important and very

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