The 44th president's two terms, from recession stimulus to the Paris Agreement
Barack Obama served as the 44th US president from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017, the first African American and the first Hawaiian-born holder of the office. His first two years produced the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd–Frank financial reforms; his second term included the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement.
An Illinois Democrat, Obama declared his candidacy on February 10, 2007, clinched his party's nomination in June 2008 and chose Senator Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. On November 4 he defeated Republican John McCain with 365 electoral votes and 52.9 percent of the popular vote, against 173 and 45.7 percent, while Democrats kept control of both chambers of Congress. His Cabinet included his defeated rival Hillary Clinton at State and kept Robert Gates at Defense from the Bush administration.
In his first week Obama ordered the Guantanamo detention facility closed within a year and banned coercive interrogation methods such as waterboarding, though the camp stayed open throughout his presidency. The first bill he signed, on January 29, 2009, was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which loosened time limits on pay discrimination suits, and a February reauthorisation of the Children's Health Insurance Program widened coverage from 7 million to 11 million children. On February 17 he signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in response to the Great Recession; it passed largely on Democratic votes, with three Republican senators in support.
Health reform through the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, and the Dodd–Frank overhaul of financial regulation were joined by repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Abroad, Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan, cut nuclear arsenals through the New START treaty with Russia and ended US military involvement in the Iraq War. Osama bin Laden was killed in Operation Neptune Spear, a raid Obama ordered, and he backed military action in Libya under UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which contributed to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Re-elected over Mitt Romney in 2012, he began his second term on January 20, 2013. His administration filed briefs asking the justices to overturn bans on same-sex marriage, which became legal nationwide after Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. Overseas he answered ISIL's advances with interventions in Iraq and Syria, imposed sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and normalised relations with Cuba. Of his three Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were confirmed, while Merrick Garland, named after Antonin Scalia's death in 2016, received neither a hearing nor a vote from the Republican-majority Senate. Donald Trump succeeded him after defeating Hillary Clinton.
Source: Presidency of Barack Obama
