有一種美國夢,叫做我想當總統

                                          

美國，是一個不同於世界上任何國度的獨特存在。雖然在很大程度上，美國繼承了英格蘭文化的獨特氣質和傳統，但它同時也是共享多元文化的世界熔爐。而美國的文化，就是來自英國、歐洲和世界各地的人們，在北美新大陸的沃土中、共同播撒的文化基因，交融演化、而開出的絢麗花朵。但不得不強調的是，美國人身上的最顯著的基因，依然來自英國清教徒。在亨廷頓看來，這些基因分別是：新教信仰、個人主義、英美普通法、代議制政府、對私有財產的保護，以及英語，這也是美國人的所謂國民認同national identity，而所有這些代表美國的元素，均來自於英國。

Scholars have explored the American Dream theme in the careers of numerous political leaders, including Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln. The theme has been used for many local leaders as well, such as José Antonio Navarro, the Tejano leader (1795–1871), who served in the legislatures of Coahuila y Texas, the Republic of Texas, and the State of Texas.

In 2006 U.S. Senator Barack Obama wrote a memoir, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. It was this interpretation of the American Dream for a young black man that helped establish his statewide and national reputations. The exact meaning of the Dream became a partisan political issue in the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Political conflicts, to some degree, have been ameliorated by the shared values of all parties in the expectation that the American Dream will resolve many difficulties and conflicts.

先驅者

A key element of the American Dream is promoting opportunity for one's children, Johnson interviewing parents says, "This was one of the most salient features of the interview data: parents—regardless of background—relied heavily on the American Dream to understand the possibilities for children, especially their own children." Rank et al. argue, "The hopes and optimism that Americans possess pertain not only to their own lives, but to their children's lives as well. A fundamental aspect of the American Dream has always been the expectation that the next generation should do better than the previous generation."

Hanson and Zogby (2010) report on numerous public opinion polls that since the 1980s have explored the meaning of the concept for Americans, and their expectations for its future. In these polls, a majority of Americans consistently reported that for their family, the American Dream is more about spiritual happiness than material goods. Majorities state that working hard is the most important element for getting ahead. However, an increasing minority stated that hard work and determination does not guarantee success. Most Americans predict that achieving the Dream with fair means will become increasingly difficult for future generations. They are increasingly pessimistic about the opportunity for the working class to get ahead; on the other hand, they are increasingly optimistic about the opportunities available to poor people and to new immigrants. Furthermore, most support programs make special efforts to help minorities get ahead.

In a 2013 poll by a YouGov, 41% of responders said it is impossible for most to achieve the American Dream, while 38% said it is still possible.

2020年美國大選，新任副總統卡拉馬哈裡斯。

在一波三折的2020美國大選中，哈裡斯身上的標籤格外引人矚目：

非裔、印度裔、黑人、女性

這幾個標籤加起來，似乎與美國副總統這幾個字相去甚遠。

The aspirations of the "American Dream" in the broad sense of upward mobility has been systematically spread to other nations since the 1890s as American missionaries and businessmen consciously sought to spread the Dream, says Rosenberg. Looking at American business, religious missionaries, philanthropies, Hollywood, labor unions and Washington agencies, she says they saw their mission not in catering to foreign elites but instead reaching the world's masses in democratic fashion. "They linked mass production, mass marketing, and technological improvement to an enlightened democratic spirit ... In the emerging litany of the American dream what historian Daniel Boorstin later termed a "democracy of things" would disprove both Malthus's predictions of scarcity and Marx's of class conflict." It was, she says "a vision of global social progress." 

但創造歷史的，往往就是挑戰現狀的先驅者：

她是第一位擔任加州總檢察長的非洲裔女性，是美國歷史上第一位南亞裔美國參議員，如今，成為第一位填補副總統職位的非裔和亞裔女性。

Kamala Devi Harris is an American politician and attorney who is the vice president-elect of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, she is set to assume office on January 20, 2021, alongside President-elect Joe Biden, having defeated incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the 2020 election. She will be the United States' first female vice president and the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history. Harris will be also the first Asian-American and the first African-American vice president, as well as the first nonwhite vice president since Charles Curtis, who served under Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933.

個人故事

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that he has selected Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, fulfilling the hopes of her supporters who have long boosted her as a 「dream」 addition to an eventual Biden ticket.

But the pick doesn’t come without baggage. The pair’s brutal clashover Biden’s record on race during the first Democratic debate last summer has left some of his key advisers still smarting over what they describe as a lack of remorse for the sharp attack. Harris has also faced criticism for her record on criminal justice, and she has been admonished by some as too politically 「ambitious,」 a label some have decried as sexist.

1964年10月20日，哈裡斯出生於加利福尼亞州奧克蘭， 她的父親是牙買加經濟學家唐納德·哈裡斯（Donald Harris），在史丹福大學教書，母親是癌症研究者和活動家什亞馬拉·戈帕蘭（Shyamala Gopalan）。

Kamala在印度語中的意思是「蓮花」，同時也是印度教女神拉克希米（Lakshmi）的別名，代表著賦予婦女以權力。母親給哈裡斯取名「Kamala」，來向她們的印度血統所致敬。

Before she was elected to the Senate in 2016, Harris spent 26 years as a prosecutor in her home state of California, rising through the ranks to become district attorney in San Francisco before being elected state attorney general in 2010.

But her lengthy prosecutorial record is both one of her most prominent credentials and the source of distrust among liberals who scoffed at Harris identifying herself as a 「progressive prosecutor.」

Since the campaign, however, Harris has emerged as one of the leading voices in Congress on criminal justice reform, co-authoring Democrats』 sweeping police reform legislation earlier this summer in the wake of national protests over police brutality.

雖然家庭背景良好，哈裡斯仍然早早讓自己獨立起來，從小學開始，就自己坐校車安排上學放學時間。

 

母親因工作搬到加拿大蒙特婁後，13歲的哈裡斯沒有因為異鄉人的身份而放棄自己的權利，因為公寓禁止兒童在草坪上玩耍，哈裡斯和姐姐就在公寓樓前組織小夥伴舉行了示威，抗議這個規定並取得成功。

 

哈裡斯先後拿到霍華德大學政治學和經濟學的本科學位，以及加州大學黑斯廷斯分校的法律學位。

隨後，她在奧克蘭擔任副地方檢察官（1990-98年），因起訴幫派暴力、販毒和性虐待案件而聲名鵲起。

 

哈裡斯一步步晉升，打破女性職業的天花板，2004年成為地方檢察官。

 

Harris lobbed one of the most forceful attacks of the primary at Biden when she went after his record on school desegregation and busing, as well as his warm words for segregationists in Congress.

In the immediate aftermath of the viral exchange, it appeared to propel Harris to the front of the crowded primary field, though the political boost was ultimately short-lived when Harris acknowledged she had essentially held the same view on busing as he did. The attack also made her the target of backlash from Biden’s allies — and as recently as March, Biden’s wife Jill described the moment as 「a punch to the gut.」

But Harris has been a loyal Biden surrogate since she endorsed him back in March, hosting fundraisers and roundtables with the vice president and his wife and defending him on television.

2010年，她以不到1%的優勢勉強當選為加州司法部長，是第一位擔任這一職務的非洲裔美國人，女性。

 

上任後，她表現出了強烈的政治獨立性。被歐巴馬稱為「全美最美女檢察官」的哈裡斯，卻拒絕了來自總統巴拉克歐巴馬（Barack Obama）政府的壓力。哈裡斯的專業能力還表現在著作《聰明的犯罪》，這本書被認為是處理犯罪累犯問題的典範。

 

The senator formed a close relationship with Biden’s late son, Beau, when he served as the Delaware attorney general while Harris was attorney general of California. In her 2019 memoir, Harris called Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, an "incredible friend and colleague," and wrote that she sometimes spoke with the younger Biden as many as multiple times a day in difficult moments.

Biden and his allies have cited Harris』 friendship with Beau as a key reason her debate broadside stung as much as it did.

「I wasn’t prepared for the person coming after me the way she came after me. She knew Beau, she knows me,」 Biden told CNN last year.

「Our son, Beau, spoke so highly of her and you know, and how great she was,」 Jill Biden said at the same fundraiser where she lamented Harris』 debate blow.

Not long before the debate moment, Harris had marked the fourth anniversary of Beau’s death on Twitter, writing: 「I still miss him.」

2017年，哈裡斯宣誓就任美國加州參議員，任職期間，一直以犀利強勢的風格而聞名。

喬治·弗洛伊德在2020年被殺後，哈裡斯一直奔走在前線，聲討美國黑人面臨的不公。她提出了名為《治安正義法案》的警察責任立法，成為社會公正改革的主要倡導者。

 

2020年，哈裡斯作為拜登的競選夥伴加入民主黨陣營，如今，她創造了眾多美國歷史上的第一：

第一位以黑人和南亞裔身份擔任副總統的人；

第一位女性副總統；

第一位畢業於黑人大學的副總統。

 

Her mother Shyamala was the daughter of an Indian diplomat and worked as a cancer researcher, while Harris』 father Donald was born in Jamaica and taught economics at Stanford. The pair met during civil rights protests at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They divorced when Harris was 7, and Harris and her sister Maya were raised by their mother, whom the senator has cited as a foundational influence in her life.

Once she arrived in the Senate in 2017, Harris wasted no time raising her national profile, going viral for her grillings of White House appointees from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Attorney General William Barr, to CIA Director Gina Haspel.

In May, Harris campaign surrogate Bakari Sellers posited that Harris』 elite interrogation skills would be put to good use on a Biden ticket.

「What I would take from that for choosing a vice president is she’s a really skilled debater,」 he said of her debate confrontation with Biden, 「and she』d kick Mike Pence’s ass.」

競選之路

Kamala Harris, in full Kamala Devi Harris, (born October 20, 1964, Oakland, California, U.S.), American politician who was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2016 and began her first term representing California in that body the following year. She was the first Indian American to serve as a U.S. senator as well as the second African American woman. Harrispreviously was the state’s attorney general (2011–17).Shortly thereafter Harris announced that she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. From the outset she was seen as one of the leading contenders, and she drew particular attention when, during a primary debate, she had a contentious exchange with fellow candidate Joe Biden over his opposition to school busing in the 1970s and 』80s, among other race-related topics. Although Harris’s support initially increased, by September 2019 her campaign was in serious trouble, and in December she dropped out of the race. She continued to maintain a high profile, notably becoming a leading advocate for social-justice reform following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, an African American who had been in police custody. Her efforts silenced some who had criticized her tenure as attorney general, alleging that she had failed to investigate charges of police misconduct, including questionable shootings. Others, however, felt that her embrace of reform was a political maneuver to capitalize on the increasing public popularity of social change. As racial injustice became a major issue in the United States, many Democrats called on Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee, to select an African American woman—a demographic that was seen as pivotal to his election chances—as his vice presidential running mate. In August 2020 Biden chose Harris, and she thus became the first Black woman to appear on a major party’s national ticket.

我是美國選出的第一任女性副總統，但不會是最後一個.

此刻，所有小女孩，收到一個清晰的信號，這是一個充滿可能性的國家。

帶著雄心追夢，懷著信念領導。我們會一路為你鼓掌加油。

看到世界能給女性的「更多」，不僅是就業，而是出頭的機會。拋開政見，於任何人而言，都是積極正面的意義。

希拉蕊還在 Twitter 上寫道，「這是一張創造歷史的門票」。

這個「創造歷史」的意義，不僅在於 56 歲的 Kamala Harris 成為了美國歷史上第一位女副總統。

同時，作為牙買加非裔和印度裔移民的後代，她也是第一位黑人副總統和第一位亞裔副總統。

也就是說，Harris 的勝選，在打破「玻璃天花板」的同時，也正在為美國的性別平等和種族平等翻開新的篇章.

Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American attorney, author, and the current District Attorneyof San Francisco. She was first elected in 2003, defeating incumbent district attorney Terence Hallinan, and was re-elected in 2007. She is currently a candidate for California Attorney General in the 2010 California state elections. If elected, she would be the first woman

Harris was born in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of a Tamil Indian mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist, who immigrated to the United States from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 1960, and aJamaican American father, Stanford University economics professor Donald Harris.Harris attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and received a Juris Doctor (JD) from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989. She is a honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

亞裔、非裔、女性，這三個 Harris 的身份標籤，讓她被不少國內外媒體稱為「政治正確的武器」。

但實際上無論什麼原因，Harris 的政治資歷、行事作風和執法經驗都是她被選擇的重要原因。

辯論場上，Harris 出了名的反應敏捷且強悍，具備出色的演講思辨能力，熟悉總統競選活動的內容和節奏，知道如何應對來自媒體和對手的質疑與批評。

拜登絲毫不掩飾自己對 Harris 的讚賞和尊重，在 Twitter 稱讚她是一名「無所畏懼的鬥士」和「美國最優秀的公職人員之一」。

Harris served as Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California from 1990 to 1998. She then became Managing Attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. In 2000, San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne recruited Harris to join her office, where she was Chief of the Community and Neighborhood Division, which oversees civil code enforcement matters. The Los Angeles Daily Journalrecognized Harris as one of the top 100 lawyers in California. Harris serves on the board of the California District Attorney's Association and is Vice President of the National District Attorneys Association.Harris ran unopposed for re-election in 2007. She Was called a front-runner in her campaign being nominated to beAttorney General of California in 2010, and on June 8, 2010, she received the Democratic nomination for California Attorney General. In 2009, Harris wrote ''Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer.'' Harris looks at criminal justice from an economic perspective, attempting to reduce temptation and access for criminals. The book goes through a series of "myths" surrounding the criminal justice system, and presents proposals to reduce and prevent crime. One such program, "Back on Track" was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a model program for the state. Initially, there were issues with removing illegal immigrants from the program, including an incident involving Alexander Izaguire, who was later arrested for assault. it was revised to address this concern. 

2010 年，Kamala Harris 成為加州歷史上第一位女性總檢察長。

在這期間，歐巴馬還評價她是「美國最漂亮的女性檢察長」。

2016 年，她打敗多位強勁競爭對手，成功當選加州聯邦參議員。成為美國國會參議院歷史上第一位印度裔女性議員和第二位非裔女性議員。

2019 年，Harris 宣布參加 2020 年美國總統選舉（後於 12 月退選）。

十幾年前，她便已經踏上了「創造歷史」的道路。

Harris is personally opposed to the death penalty, but has said that she would review each case individually. Her position was tested in April 2004, when police officer Isaac Espinoza was murdered in the Bayview district. Harris announced that she would not seek the death penalty for the man accused of his killing. The decision sparked protests from the police officers union, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and others. Those who supported the decision not to seek the death penalty included actor Mike Farrell, San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammianoand Sophie Maxwell, in whose Bayview district the murder occurred. The jury found the convicted killer, David Hill, guilty of only second degree murder despite the prosecutor, Harry Dorfman, seeking a first degree murder conviction. The defense argued that Hill thought Espinoza was a member of a rival gang attacking his territory and was able to persuade the jury that the murder was not premeditated. Hill was given the maximum sentence for the conviction, life without the possibility of parole. Ramos had arrested just a month earlier with a gun that had been used in a murder, but Kamala Harris' office had declined to press charges, and he was released back onto the streets. On September 10, 2009 Harris announced she would seek "life in prison without the possibility of parole," rather than the death penalty in the Ramos case. A judge has recently dismissed a lawsuit by the family against the city of San Francisco that claims the city contributed to the deaths of Danielle Bologna’s husband, Anthony Bologna, and two of their sons, through its sanctuary city policy.Harris believes that life without possibility of parole is a more efficient, and cost effective, punishment. 

開創性故事

While these statistics represent only trial convictions, she has also closed many cases via plea bargains. When she took office, she took a special interest in clearing some of the murder caseload from the previous administration. Harris claimed that the records were less than optimal from the previous administration, and worked to get convictions on what she could. That meant that out of the 73 Homicide case backlog 32 cases took deals for lesser charges such as manslaughter or took pleas to other crimes such as assault or burglary while the murder charges were dismissed.However, critics argue that San Francisco sends fewer people to jail per arrest than other counties throughout the state. The San Francisco DA's incarceration rates are among the lowest in the entire state of California--fully 10 times lower than in San Diego county, for example. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "roughly 4 of every 100 arrests result in prison terms in San Francisco, compared with 12.8 out of 100 in Alameda County, 14.4 of 100 in Sacramento County, 21 of 100 in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, 26.6 of 100 in Fresno County, 38.7 of 100 in Los Angeles County and 41 of 100 in San Diego County." Police also note that lenient sentencing from San Francisco judges also plays a role in this.While police have credited Harris with tightening loopholes in bail and drug programs that defendants exploit, they have also accused her of being too deliberate in her prosecution of murder suspects. Additionally, in 2009 San Francisco prosecutors won a lower percentage of their felony jury trials than their counterparts at district attorneys' offices covering the 10 largest cities in California, according to data on case outcomes compiled by officials at the San Francisco Superior Court as well as by other county courts and prosecutors. (Officials in Sacramento, the state's seventh-largest city, did not provide data.) Harris' at-trial felony conviction rate that year was 76 percent, down 12 points from the previous year.

除了以上這些，這次大選還有一件具有開創性的事。

就是新任總統拜登讓「副總統先發言」開了先河。要知道，在總統勝選演講上，副總統通常是沒有發言機會的。

2008 年，拜登成為歐巴馬的競選搭檔並當選副總統時，就沒有上臺發言。

2016 年，彭斯作為川普的競選搭檔，也沒有上臺發表副總統勝選演講。

.

Harris 不僅有了這樣的機會，還是以當選副總統的身份，在拜登之前首先發表勝選演說。

Harris has created a special Hate Crimes Unit as San Francisco District Attorney. She has focused on hate crimes against LGBT children and teens in schools. She convened a national conference to confront the "gay-transgender panic defense", which has been used to justify violent hate crimes. Harris supports same-sex marriage in California and opposed both Proposition 22 and Proposition 8.In 2004, The National Urban Leaguehonored Harris as a "Woman of Power" and she received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the National Black Prosecutors Association in 2005. In her campaign for California Attorney General, she has received the endorsements of numerous groups, including the abortion rights EMILY's List, California Legislative Black Caucus, Asian American Action Fund, Black Women Organized for Political Action, Mexican American Bar Association, South Asians for Opportunity, and the National Women's Political Caucus.

Harris 身穿白色西裝向 100 年前的女權主義者致敬，1920 年，憲法保障了婦女的投票權。

她說，「今晚，我想起了她們的奮鬥，她們的決心，以及擺脫過去包袱，展望未來的力量。我站在她們的肩膀上。」

In interviews with Matt Lauer on The Today Show and local KGO-TV, Harris argued for treating "habitually and chronic truancy" among children in elementary school as a crime committed by the parents of truant children. She argues that there is a direct connection between habitual truancy in elementary school and crime later in life. She has received the endorsement of the California Federation of Teachers. and has prosecuted several industries and individuals for pollution, most notably U-Haul, Alameda Publishing Corporation, and the Cosco Busan oil spill. She has also advocated for strong enforcement of environmental protection laws.

在一次次的競選中，Harris 從不避諱自己的少數族裔身份，並引以為傲。如果你要問 Kamala Harris 是為什麼或如何走到今天，她會回答：

「Shyamala Gopalan Harris 是一切的原因」。

媽媽是一切的原因。

在Kamala Harris 2018 年出版的自傳「The Truths We Hold我們秉持的真理」中，她寫道，「我的母親十分清楚她在撫養兩名黑人女兒，也知道她的第二祖國會把妹妹瑪雅和我視作黑人女孩，她下定決心要讓我們成長為自信的黑人女性。」

Shyamala總是教導她：不要讓任何人擺布你。

The judge concluded that prosecutors had failed to fulfill their constitutional duty to tell defense attorneys about problems surrounding Deborah Madden, the now-retired technician at the heart of the cocaine-skimming scandal that led police to shut down the drug analysis section of their crime lab. Harris' office has been unable to vouch for the reliability of Madden's work and has dismissed more than 600 drug cases since the scandal became public in February. Madden testified at trials before leaving the lab in December. Under a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Brady v. Maryland, district attorneys are obligated to provide defense attorneys with information in their possession about prosecution witnesses that could be used to challenge their credibility.Massullo wrote that top drug prosecutor Assistant District Attorney Sharon Woo's November 19 memo about Madden to Russ Giuntini, Chief Assistant District Attorney, and Jeffrey Ross, head of the criminal division, showed that prosecutors "at the highest levels of the district attorney's office knew that Madden was not a dependable witness at trial and that there were serious concerns regarding the crime lab". The failure by Harris' office "to produce information actually in its possession regarding Madden and the crime lab is a violation of the defendants' constitutional rights," Massullo wrote. The Judge said that the prosecutors had the "duty to implement some type of procedure to secure and produce information relevant to Madden's criminal history." But Massullo said her repeated requests that prosecutors explain why they did not have such procedures were met with "a level of indifference." However, Judge Massullo refused to dismiss any cases, saying that all cases must be considered individually.

拜登在 Instagram 發文鼓舞大家支持 Harris 時寫：為她投票，是為讓全國的小女孩都能看到自己，知道她們也可以做到。

在這一天，世界張開懷抱告訴你，無論什麼性別：

永遠都不要質疑你自己的價值和能力，

你配得上每一個幫助你追逐和實現夢想的機會。

On May 26, 2010, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a San Francisco coroner's supervising toxicologist, Ann Marie Gordon, vouched for blood-test results in drunken-driving cases for two years before prosecutors told defense attorneys that a Washington state court had labeled her as a "perpetrator of fraud" while running that state's toxicology lab. San Francisco prosecutors began telling defense attorneys about Gordon's past after the Chronicle reported earlier in May 2010 that scores of police officers had criminal arrests or misconduct cases that were never called to defendants' attention before trials. Prosecutors are obligated to provide potentially exculpatory information about their witnesses to the defense under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Harris has prosecuted numerous financial crimes throughout her career, particularly those affecting elders, those involving use of high-technology, and identity theft. She has indicated that as attorney general she would crack down on predatory lending and other financial crimes.

San Francisco Police Department drug lab technician Deborah Madden admitted to taking amounts of cocaine from evidence samples in the police department's crime lab. The testing unit of the police department lab was shut down on March 9, 2010. Since then, hundreds of drug cases have either been dismissed or discharged due to evidentiary requirements. While Harris' office was aware of troubling issues at the police department's drug lab months before the issue became public, the entire scope of the issues did not become clear until Madden was exposed for removing drug samples. The police department later widened the investigation into their crime lab to include cases that were already prosecuted.On May 4, 2010, the San Francisco Chroniclereported that a number of felony convictions were in jeopardy when it was revealed that the prosecuting attorneys did not disclose criminal backgrounds for relevant San Francisco police officers before testifying. On May 20, 2010, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled that prosecutors had violated defendants' rights by failing to disclose damaging information about the police drug lab technician.

創造歷史

Victoria Claflin Woodhull, later Victoria Woodhull Martin (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927) was anAmerican leader of the woman's suffrage movement.

In 1872, Woodhull was the first female candidate forPresident of the United States. An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of free love, by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce, and bear children without government interference.

Woodhull went from rags to riches twice, her first fortune being made on the road as a highly successful magnetic healer before she joined thespiritualist movement in the 1870s. While authorship of many of her articles is disputed (many of her speeches on these topics were collaborations between Woodhull, her backers, and her second husband, Colonel James Blood), her role as a representative of these movements was powerful. Together with her sister, she was the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and they were among the first women to found a newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, which began publication in 1870.

At her peak of political activity in the early 1870s, Woodhull is best known as the first woman candidate for the United States presidency, which she ran for in 1872 from theEqual Rights Party, supporting women's suffrage and equal rights. Her arrest on obscenitycharges a few days before the election for publishing an account of the alleged adulterous affair between the prominent minister Henry Ward Beecher and Elizabeth Tilton added to the sensational coverage of her candidacy. She did not receive any electoral votes, and there is conflicting evidence about popular votes.

維多利亞·伍德胡爾（Victoria Woodhull）

1872年，報紙出版商、華爾街經紀人、女性參政的激進主張者維多利亞·伍德胡爾競選美國總統。她是第一位競選總統的女性，而且比女性獲得投票權早了半個世紀。

當年伍德胡爾33歲，沒有達到當總統的法定年齡要求，這也是除了性別之外她與時任總統尤利西斯·格蘭特競爭時面臨的另一障礙。伍德胡爾是那個年代的名人，代表的黨派是平等權利黨，還提名廢奴主義者弗雷德裡克·道格拉斯為副總統。

道格拉斯從未承認提名，伍德胡爾也沒有認真競選。

Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (October 24, 1830 – May 19, 1917) was an American attorney, politician, educator, and author. She was active in working for women's rights. The press of her day referred to her as a "suffragist," someone who believed in women's suffrageor voting rights. Lockwood overcame many social and personal obstacles related to gender restrictions. After college, she became a teacher and principal, working to equalize pay for women in education. She supported the movement for world peace, and was a proponent of temperance.

Lockwood graduated from law school in Washington, D.C. and became one of the first female lawyers in the United States. In 1879, she successfully petitioned Congress to be allowed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, becoming the first woman attorney given this privilege. Lockwood ran for president in 1884 and 1888 on the ticket of the National Equal Rights Party and was the first woman to appear on official ballots.

貝爾瓦·洛克伍德（Belva Lockwood）

1884年，貝爾瓦·洛克伍德被提名為總統候選人。

1884年，律師貝爾瓦·洛克伍德再次指出法律禁止女性投票存在明顯漏洞，因為「法律中並無條文禁止女性被投票」。

加州報紙老闆瑪麗埃塔·斯託提名洛克伍德代表平等權利黨競選總統。斯託也加入洛克伍德共同競選，兩人獲得了美國男性選民1000萬選票中的5000票。

Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass (February 14, 1874 – April 12, 1969) was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. Bass was probably the first African-American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States; she published the California Eagle from 1912 until 1951. In 1952, Bass became the first African-American woman nominated for Vice President, as a candidate of the Progressive Party.Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass was born in Sumter, South Carolina, on February 14, 1874, to Hiram and Kate Spears. She was the sixth child of eleven. When she was twenty years old, she moved to live with her brother in Providence, Rhode Island, where she worked for the Providence Watchman. Spears worked for the Providence Watchman for about ten years.

She moved to California for her health and ended up working at the Eagle. In 1912, a new editor Joseph Bass joined the Eagle. Bass had been one of the founders of the Topeka Plaindealer. He shared his concern with Spears about the injustice and racial discrimination in society.

夏洛塔·巴斯（Charlotta Bass）

 

1952年，巴斯代表進步黨與哈利南合作競選，是第一位成為副總統候選人的黑人女性。

1952年，夏洛塔·巴斯對共和黨和民主黨都很「失望」，因為兩黨對女性和黑人的權利都不夠關注。

當時巴斯是黑人報紙《加州鷹報》（California Eagle）的老闆，代表進步黨加入了文森特·哈利南的競選，成為第一位黑人女性副總統候選人。兩位進步派人士的競選對手是艾森豪-尼克森組合。

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 –May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S Representative(1940-1949) and a U.S. Senator (1949-1973) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of theUnited States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she is perhaps best remembered for her 1950 speech, "Declaration of Conscience," in which she criticized the tactics of McCarthyism.

Smith was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election, but was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski was sworn in for a fifth term. To date, Smith is ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate. (If Susan Collins, who holds Smith's former Senate seat, completes her current term, she will tie Smith for that title.)

瑪格麗特·蔡斯·史密斯（Margaret Chase Smith）

 

瑪格麗特·蔡斯·史密斯創下了數個第一。身為共和黨政治家，她是第一位當選眾議員的女性、第一位當選參議員的女性，也是出席共和黨全國代表大會的第一位女性，「由此獲得多數黨提名參與大選」。

1964年大選中，緬因州參議員史密斯輸給了巴裡·戈德沃特。

談到競選美國總統時，史密斯說：「我沒有什麼幻想，也沒有錢，但我會堅持到底。如果有人一直說你做不到什麼事，就有點想試試。」

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress, and represented New York's 12th Congressional Districtfor seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States, and the first woman ever to run for theDemocratic Party's presidential nomination.

Chisholm's legacy came into renewed prominence during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, whenBarack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton staged their historic 'firsts' battle – where the victor would either be the first major party African-American nominee, or the first woman nominee – with observers crediting Chisholm's 1972 campaign as having paved the way for both of them.

In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Shirley Anita St. Hill was born on November 30, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrant parents from the Caribbean region. She had three younger sisters, two born within three years after Shirley, one later. Their father, Charles Christopher St. Hill, was born in British Guiana, lived in Barbados for a while, and then arrived in the United States via Antilla, Cuba, on April 10, 1923, aboard the S.S. Munamar in New York City. Their mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York Cityaboard the S.S. Pocone on March 8, 1921. Her father worked in a factory that made burlapbags and her mother was a seamstress and domestic worker.

雪莉·奇澤姆（Shirley Chisholm）

 

眾議員雪莉·奇澤姆1972年競選總統，也經常被稱為在政治上為黑人婦女開闢道路的標誌。

當時她是紐約州女議員，是1969年入選國會的第一位黑人女性，也是國會黑人核心小組和全國女性政治核心小組的創始成員。1972年她爭取民主黨提名時，競選口號是「不被收買也不受指使」。當年最終由參議員喬治·麥戈文獲得提名。

Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink(竹本 まつTakemoto Matsu, December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was anAmerican politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third generation Japanese American and member of the Democratic Party. She also was the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing Hawaii's first and secondcongressional districts. While in Congress she was noted for co-authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act.

Mink was the first woman not of European ancestry and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was also the first woman elected to Congress from the state ofHawaii, and became the first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election, where she stood in the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate. From 1978 to 1981 Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action.

On August 30, 2002, Mink was hospitalized in Honolulu's Straub Clinic and Hospital with complications from chickenpox. Her condition steadily worsened, and on September 28, 2002, Mink died in Honolulu of viral pneumonia, at age 74.

帕齊·明克（Patsy Mink）

1959年，眾議員帕齊·明克（夏威夷州民主黨）當選國會議員，是國會裡第一位有色人種女性，也是第一位亞裔美國女性。

在同一競選周期內，夏威夷眾議員帕齊·明克發起了另一場總統競選活動。

1959年，明克是第一位當選國會議員的有色人種婦女，也是第一位亞裔。俄勒岡州民主黨人邀請她參選，以引起人們對反越戰運動的關注，因此她參加了民主黨總統初選投票。

她說，競選的理念是「人道主義」，在俄勒岡州贏得了2%的選票，她結束競選後在其他州還繼續贏得選票。

Frances 『Sissy』 Farenthold went into a war work program in 1943, you could finish in 3 years if you wanted to. The idea was to get us through in 3 years so we would be available for the war. Well, the war stopped in 1945. And then I went to law school and then I married and had 5 children.Frances 『Sissy』 Farenthold was a month short of 20 when I went. And I was one of 3 women in a class of 800.I got a call asking me to go down to city council to represent the local museum—which I think I was on the board of—objecting to a sign going up that was illegal under our local ordinances, blocking people’s views. And so then my husband said 「well, don’t get too involved.」 And that started a whole chain reaction.I had a phone call one night, the last night of the filing for candidacy, from a friend of mine who I had known in law school. He called and asked me if I would run. And in a very traditional way, I asked my husband and I asked my cousin—who served in the legislature—what they thought. And they said go on and run. So I did. I had spent two years at Legal Aid, and it was a soul-searing experience. I saw a part of my town that I』d grown up in that I hadn’t been aware of. I』d seen poverty before, but not as a systemic problem like I saw it at Legal Aid. I always said the scapegoats of our society were unskilled women, and children. I saw so much, and so much of it was state policy. I hadn’t thought about running, because I thought it would be years before a woman would be elected to the Texas legislature. I mean I thought it would 10 years at a minimum.

But when I was asked, I felt I was, to put it mildly, up to the job.

弗朗西絲·法倫託爾德（Frances「Sissy」Farenthold）

 

1972年是女性向上攀登裡程碑式的一年。

在1972年民主黨全國代表大會上，女權主義領袖格洛麗亞·斯坦尼姆提名當年的德克薩斯州民主黨州長候選人，弗朗西絲·法倫託爾德則與喬治·麥戈文搭檔競選副總統。法倫託爾德是嚴肅的競選者，但提名期間輸給了密蘇裡州參議員託馬斯·伊格爾頓（伊格爾頓後來輸給了薩金特·施賴弗）。

LaDonna Vita Tabbytite Harris (born 1931) is a Comanche Native American social activist and politician from Oklahoma. She is the founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity. Harris was a Vice presidential candidate for the Citizens Party in the United States presidential election, 1980 alongside Barry Commoner.LaDonna Harris, President of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), is a statesman and national leader. She has been a consistent and ardent advocate on behalf of Tribal America. In addition, she continues her activism in the areas of civil rights, environmental protection, the women’s movement and world peace.

Harris was raised by her maternal grandparents in Indian country on a farm near the small town of Walters, Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Harris began her public service as the wife of U.S. Senator Fred Harris. She was the first Senator’s wife to testify before a Congressional committee. She was instrumental in the return of the Taos Blue Lake to the people of Taos Pueblo and to the Menominee Tribe in regaining their federal recognition. In the 1960s, she founded Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity to find ways to reverse the socio-economic conditions that impact Indian communities. From the 1970s to the present, she has presided over AIO, which advances, from an Indigenous worldview, the cultural, political and economic rights of Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and around the world. Harris also helped to found some of today’s leading national Indian organizations including the National Indian Housing Council, Council of Energy Resource Tribes, National Tribal Environmental Council, and National Indian Business Association.

勒唐納·哈裡斯（LaDonna Harris）

 

勒唐納·哈裡斯是第一位爭取副總統職位的美國印第安女性。

1980年，維權人士勒唐納·哈裡斯代表公民黨，與總統候選人巴裡·科蒙納合作競選副總統。

她是科曼奇族，也是第一位競選副總統的美國印第安女性。哈裡斯以倡導環保和關注美國原住民的工作聞名，她與丈夫，俄克拉荷馬州參議員弗雷德·哈裡斯住在華盛頓特區。

Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, academic scholar, and author. She emerged as a prominent countercultureactivist and radical in the 1960s as a leader of theCommunist Party USA, and had close relations with theBlack Panther Party through her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Her interests include prisoner rights; she founded Critical, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. She was a professor (now retired) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. in its History of Consciousness Department and a former director of the university's Feminist Studies department.

Davis was prosecuted under federal law and acquitted at trial of conspiracy in the 1970 armed take-over of a Marin County, California, courtroom, in which four persons were killed.

Her research interests are feminism, African-American studies, critical theory, Marxism,popular music, social consciousness, and the philosophy and history of punishment and prisons. Her membership in the Communist Party led to Ronald Reagan's request in 1969 to have her barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. She was twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s.

安傑拉・戴維斯（Angela Davis）

 

安吉拉·戴維斯不僅是有影響力的作家、活動家和學者，還曾經在1980年和1984年擔任美國共產黨副總統候選人，搭檔是該黨總統候選人格斯·霍爾。

Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011) was an American attorney, a Democratic Partypolitician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She was the first female vice presidential candidate representing a major American political party.

Ferraro grew up in New York City and worked as a public school teacher before training as a lawyer. She joined theQueens County District Attorney's Office in 1974, heading the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence. In 1978 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she rose rapidly in the party hierarchy while focusing on legislation to bring equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans. In 1984, former vice president and presidential candidate Walter Mondale, seen as an underdog, selected Ferraro to be his running mate in the upcoming election. Ferraro became the only Italian American to be a major-party national nominee in addition to being the first woman. The positive polling the Mondale-Ferraro ticket received when she joined soon faded, as damaging questions arose about her and her businessman husband's finances and wealth and her Congressional disclosure statements. In the general election, Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush.

Ferraro ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York in 1992 and 1998, both times starting as the front-runner for her party's nomination before losing in the primary election. She served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1993 until 1996, in the presidential administration of Bill Clinton. She also continued her career as a journalist, author, and businesswoman, and served in the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton. Ferraro died on March 26, 2011, from multiple myeloma, 12 years after being diagnosed.

傑羅丁·費拉羅（Geraldine Ferraro）

 

傑羅丁·費拉羅是1984年沃爾特·蒙代爾競選時選擇的副總統，也打破了重要的玻璃天花板，因為她是第一位被主要黨派選為副總統的女性。

不過蒙代爾-費拉羅搭檔爭取民主黨提名時輸給了隆納·雷根和喬治·H·W·布希，未能入主白宮。

Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun, also sometimesMoseley-Braun (born August 16, 1947), is an American politician and lawyer who represented Illinois in theUnited States Senate from 1993 to 1999. She was the first and to date only female African-American Senator, the first African-American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party, the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election, and the first and to date only female Senator from Illinois. From 1999 until 2001, she was the United States Ambassador to New Zealand. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Following the public announcement by Richard M. Daley that he would not seek re-election, in November 2010, Braun began her campaign for Mayor of Chicago. The former Senator placed fourth in a field of six candidates, losing the February 22, 2011, election toRahm Emanuel.

卡羅爾·莫斯利·布勞恩（Carol Moseley Braun）

 

1993年，卡羅爾·莫斯利·布勞恩成為第一位在參議院任職的黑人女性，2016年賀錦麗進入參議院時也僅是第二位。

然而，正是因為莫斯利·布勞恩2004年參與總統競選活動，才會進入本名單。她退出競選後選擇支持霍華德·迪恩，但最終贏得民主黨提名的是約翰·克裡。

Sarah Louise Palin  is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth Governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 Presidential election running with Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major political party and the first Republican woman nominated for the vice presidency. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies.

She was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992 and became Mayor of Wasilla in 1996. In 2003, after an unsuccessful run for Lieutenant Governor, she was appointed Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, responsible for overseeing the state's oil and gas fields for safety and efficiency. The youngest person and first woman to be elected Governor of Alaska, Palin held the office from December 2006 until her resignationin July 2009.

Since leaving office, she has endorsed and campaigned for the Tea Party movement as well as several candidates in multiple election cycles. From 2010 to 2015, she provided political commentary for Fox News. On April 3, 2014, Palin premiered her latest TV show, Amazing America with Sarah Palin on the Sportsman Channel. On July 27, 2014, Palin launched an online news network, the Sarah Palin Channel.

莎拉·佩林（Sarah Palin）

 

2008年，參議員麥凱恩選擇阿拉斯加州州長莎拉·佩林為競選夥伴，震驚了政界。這一選擇也打破了24年前費拉羅觸及的玻璃天花板，只不過這次是在對手黨派。佩林是共和黨總統候選人名單上第一位女性。

Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (née Sneed; born September 6, 1954) is an American businessperson and political candidate, known primarily for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). Fiorina unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate in 2010 and theRepublican presidential nomination in 2016.

As Chief Executive Officer of HP from 1999 to 2005, Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Top-20 company as ranked by Fortune Magazine. In 2002, Fiorina oversaw what was then the largest technology sector merger in history, in which HP acquired rival personal computer manufacturer, Compaq. The transaction made HP the world's largest seller of personal computers. HP subsequently laid off 30,000 U.S. employees. In February 2005 she was forced to resign as CEO and Chair, after the company lost half of its value.

Fiorina was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010, she won the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in California, but lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. Fiorina was a candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, and was briefly the vice-presidential running mate for Ted Cruz during the week before Cruz suspended his campaign, setting the record for shortest Vice President candidacy in United States history (7 days) and becoming the first person to lose twice in the same national election.

卡莉·菲奧莉娜（Carly Fiorina）

 

卡莉·菲奧莉娜是女商人，也是惠普公司的前執行長。

2016年她為爭取共和黨總統候選人提名展開了競選活動，還在很短一段時間裡成為參議員特德·克魯茲的副總統人選。

Hillary Rodham Clinton (born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois as Hillary Diane Rodham) is the junior United States Senator from New York, serving her freshman term since January 3, 2001. She was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, as the wife of President Bill Clinton. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Early life, education, and start of career.Hillary Diane Rodham was raised in a Methodist family in Park Ridge, Illinois. Her father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, a conservative, worked in the textile industry, and her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham, was a homemaker. As a child, Hillary was interested in sports, her church, and her school, a public school in Park Ridge. Prior to graduating from Maine South High School, she attended Maine East High School, where she served as class president, a member of the student council, a member of the debating team, and as a member of the National Honor Society. During her final year of high school (Maine South High School), she received the school's first social science award. Throughout her youth, Rodham was fond of sports, including tennis, skating, ballet, swimming, volleyball, and softball. She earned many awards as a Brownie and Girl Scout . Hillary entered the world of politics in 1964, at the age of 16, by supporting the presidential bid of Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater. Her parents encouraged her to pursue the career of her choice. 

希拉蕊·柯林頓（Hillary Clinton）

 

希拉蕊·柯林頓在2008年就曾經參加過總統競選，最終於2016年被提名為民主黨總統候選人，這是美國歷史上女性「最高最堅硬的玻璃天花板」最接近打破的一次。

儘管希拉蕊贏得了全國民意支持，最後還是輸給了川普，不過為今年民主黨贏得大選奠定了基礎。

The series of presidential primary elections and caucusesheld in each U.S. state and territory forms part of the nominating process of United States presidential elections. The United States Constitution has never specified the process; political parties have developed their own procedures over time. Some states hold onlyprimary elections, some hold only caucuses, and others use a combination of both. These primaries and caucuses are staggered, generally beginning in either late-January or early-February, and ending about mid-June before the general election in November. State and local governments run the primary elections, while caucuses are private events that are directly run by the political parties themselves. A state's primary election or caucus is usually an indirect election: instead of voters directly selecting a particular person running for President, they determine the number of delegates each party's national convention will receive from their respective state. These delegates then in turn select their party's presidential nominee.

Each party determines how many delegates it allocates to each state. Along with those "pledged" delegates chosen during the primaries and caucuses, state delegations to both the Democratic and Republican conventions also include "unpledged" delegates who have a vote. For Republicans, they consist of the three top party officials from each state and territory. Democrats have a more expansive group of unpledged delegates called "superdelegates", who are party leaders and elected officials. If no single candidate has secured an absolute majority of delegates (including both pledged and unpledged), then a "brokered convention" occurs: all pledged delegates are "released" and are able to switch their allegiance to a different candidate, and then additional rounds of voting take place until there is a winner with an absolute majority.

There is no provision for the role of political parties in the United States Constitution, since the Founding Fathers did not originally intend for American politics to be partisan. InFederalist Papers No. 9 and No. 10, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, respectively, wrote specifically about the dangers of domestic political factions. Thus in the first two presidential elections, the Electoral College handled the nominations and elections in 1789and 1792 that selected George Washington. The beginnings of the American two-party system then emerged from Washington's immediate circle of advisors. Hamilton and Madison, who wrote the aforementioned Federalist Papers against political factions, ended up being the core leaders in this partisanship: Hamilton became the leader of Federalist Party while Madison co-helmed the Democratic-Republican Party with Thomas Jefferson.

Starting with the 1796 election, Congressional party or a state legislature party caucusselected the party's presidential candidates. Before 1820, Democratic-Republican members of Congress would nominate a single candidate from their party. That system collapsed in 1824, and since 1832 the preferred mechanism for nomination has been a national convention.

鋼鐵大王

Andrew Carnegie ( November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He built a leadership role as a philanthropist for the United States and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away to charities, foundations, and universities about $350 million (in 2015 share of GDP, $78.6 billion) – almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and it stimulated a wave of philanthropy.

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States with his very poor parents in 1848. Carnegie started work as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million (2015 per share of GDP, $370 billion), creating the U.S. Steel Corporation. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education and scientific research. With the fortune he made from business, he built Carnegie Hall and he founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Carnegie Hero Fund, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, among others.

在美國，「鋼鐵大王」卡內基的名字是個傳奇。他與「汽車大王」福特、「石油大王」洛克菲勒等大財閥一樣，曾經影響著整個美國的金融狀況。但讓世人為之驚訝的是，他在自己事業的最巔峰，放棄了所有的一切，追求另一種自由、無拘束的生活，並為慈善事業做出了巨大的貢獻。

財富對於卡內基而言，不是第一位，為社會做出貢獻才是他生命的真諦。

Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in a typical weaver's cottage with only one main room, consisting of half the ground floor which was shared with the neighboring weaver's family. The main room served as a living room, dining room and bedroom. He was named after his legal grandfather. In 1836, the family moved to a larger house in Edgar Street (opposite Reid's Park), following the demand for more heavy damask from which his father, William Carnegie, benefited. His uncle, George Lauder Sr., a Scottish political leader, deeply influenced him as a boy by introducing him to the writings of Robert Burns and historical Scottish heroes such as Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, and Rob Roy. Lauder's son, also named George Lauder, grew up with Andrew and would become his business partner. When Carnegie was thirteen, his father had fallen on very hard times as a handloom weaver and with the country in starvation. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother who was a cobbler and selling potted meats at her "sweetie shop". She eventually became the primary breadwinner by the 1840s. Struggling to make ends meet, the Carnegies then decided to move with his family toAllegheny, Pennsylvania, in the United States in 1848 for the prospect of a better life. Andrew's family had to borrow money from the Lauders in order to migrate. Allegheny was a growing industrial area that produced many products to include wool and cotton cloth, and the "Made in Allegheny" label used on these and other diversified products was becoming more and more popular. His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy, changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory. His starting wage was $1.20 per week. Andrew's father, William Carnegie, started off working in a cotton mill but would then earn money weaving and peddling linens. His mother, Margaret Morrison Carnegie, earned money by binding shoes.

「第一步」

卡內基出生於一個貧賤但正直的家庭。13歲那年，卡內基和家人來到美國東海岸的紐約港，後又輾轉來到匹茲堡。

小卡內基白天做童工，晚上讀夜校，十分辛苦。而在14歲那年，小卡內基來到匹茲堡的大內電報公司做信差。

當年的匹茲堡不僅是美國的交通樞紐，而且是物資集散中心和工業中心。每天走街串巷送電報的卡內基就像進了一所「商業學校」。

他熟悉每一家公司的名稱和特點，了解各公司間的經濟關係及業務往來。日積月累之中，他熟讀了這無形的「商業百科全書」，這使他在日後的事業中獲益匪淺。因此，卡耐基在回顧這段時期時，稱之為「爬上人生階梯的第一步」。

In 1850, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week, following the recommendation of his uncle. He was a very hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men. He made many connections this way. He also paid close attention to his work, and quickly learned to distinguish the differing sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced. He developed the ability to translate signals by ear, without using the paper slip, and within a year was promoted to operator. Carnegie's education and passion for reading was given a great boost by Colonel James Anderson, who opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys each Saturday night. Carnegie was a consistent borrower and a "self-made man" in both his economic development and his intellectual and cultural development. He was so grateful to Colonel Anderson for the use of his library that he "resolved, if ever wealth came to me, [to see to it] that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to the noble man." His capacity, his willingness for hard work, his perseverance, and his alertness soon brought forth opportunities.

Starting in 1853, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company employed Carnegie as a secretary/telegraph operator at a salary of $4.00 per week. Carnegie accepted this job with the railroad as he saw more prospects for career growth and experience with the railroad than with the telegraph company. At age 18, the precocious youth began a rapid advance through the company, becoming the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. His employment by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company would be vital to his later success. The railroads were the first big businesses in America, and the Pennsylvania was one of the largest of them all. Carnegie learned much about management and cost control during these years, and from Scott in particular.

努力前行

Before the Civil War, Carnegie arranged a merger between Woodruff's company and that ofGeorge Pullman, the inventor of a sleeping car for first class travel which facilitated business travel at distances over 500 miles (800 km). The investment proved a great success and a source of profit for Woodruff and Carnegie. The young Carnegie continued to work for the Pennsylvania's Tom Scott, and introduced several improvements in the service.

In spring 1861, Carnegie was appointed by Scott, who was now Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation, as Superintendent of the Military Railways and the Union Government's telegraph lines in the East. Carnegie helped open the rail lines into Washington D.C. that the rebels had cut; he rode the locomotive pulling the first brigade of Union troops to reach Washington D.C. Following the defeat of Union forces at Bull Run, he personally supervised the transportation of the defeated forces. Under his organization, the telegraph service rendered efficient service to the Union cause and significantly assisted in the eventual victory. Carnegie later joked that he was "the first casualty of the war" when he gained a scar on his cheek from freeing a trapped telegraph wire.

Defeat of the Confederacy required vast supplies of munitions, as well as railroads (and telegraph lines) to deliver the goods. The war demonstrated how integral the industries were to American success.

1865年4月，南北戰爭結束了，戰爭造成了大量的機會。29歲的卡內基這時已經算小有成就了，但是他不滿足，他要緊緊抓住人生旅途這一關鍵階段，自主創業，另立門戶。

1890年，卡內基將他所創立的公司名稱變為卡內基鋼鐵公司，資金增長到2500萬美元，到了19世紀末20世紀初，卡內基鋼鐵公司已成為世界上最大的鋼鐵企業。

卡內基是公司的最大股東，但他並不擔任董事長、總經理之類的職務。他的成功在很大程度上取決於他任用了一批懂技術、懂管理的人才。

時至今日，人們還常常引用他的一句名言：「如果把我的廠房設備、材料全部燒毀，但只要保住我的全班人馬，幾年以後，我仍將是一個鋼鐵大王。」

Carnegie died on August 11, 1919, in Lenox, Massachusetts at his Shadow Brook estate, of bronchial pneumonia. He had already given away $350,695,653 (approximately $76.9 billion, adjusted to 2015 share of GDP figures) of his wealth. After his death, his last $30,000,000 was given to foundations, charities, and to pensioners. He was buried at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in North Tarrytown, New York. The grave site is located on the Arcadia Hebron plot of land at the corner of Summit Avenue and Dingle Road. Carnegie is buried only a few yards away from union organizerSamuel Gompers, another important figure of industry in the Gilded Age.

慈善事業之父

In 1900, Carnegie gave $2 million to start the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) at Pittsburgh and the same amount in 1902 to found the Carnegie Institution at Washington, D.C. He later contributed more to these and other schools. CIT is now known as Carnegie Mellon University after it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. Carnegie also served on the Board of Cornell University.In 1911, Carnegie became a sympathetic benefactor toGeorge Ellery Hale, who was trying to build the 100 inches (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson, and donated an additional ten million dollars to the Carnegie Institution with the following suggestion to expedite the construction of the telescope: "I hope the work at Mount Wilson will be vigorously pushed, because I am so anxious to hear the expected results from it. I should like to be satisfied before I depart, that we are going to repay to the old land some part of the debt we owe them by revealing more clearly than ever to them the new heavens." The telescope saw first light on November 2, 1917, with Carnegie still alive.

1900年，隨著親人朋友一個一個的離世，思考了許久的卡內基在《財富的福音》一書中宣布：「我不再努力掙更多的財富。」於是，他毅然從他那蓬勃發展的鋼鐵事業中引退，以5億美元的價格將卡內基鋼鐵公司賣給金融大王摩根。然後，他就開始實施他的把財富奉獻給社會的偉大計劃。

1901年，卡內基首先在華盛頓開始他捐獻的第一個計劃：「卡內基協會」。該協會曾建造一艘「卡內基號」海洋調查船，修正了世界航海圖。此外，還在加州山頂上建造威爾遜天文臺來觀察太空。對這個協會，卡內基在隨後的一些年裡一再追加資金，累計捐款達7300萬美元。

      

與此同時，卡內基還在匹茲堡創立了「卡內基技術學校」。卡內基希望學校能夠為匹茲堡工人階級家庭的兒女提供職業培訓，這些工人往往都在他的鋼鐵廠工作，而這所大學也正是如今世界知名大學卡內基梅隆大學的前身。除此之外，卡內基又在美、英各地捐資創辦了各種學校和教育機構。

     

在隨後的幾年中，卡內基又設立了若干項基金。諸如「捨己救人者基金」、「大學教授退休基金」、「總統退休基金」和「作家基金」等，都是卡內基在為社會貢獻出他的財富。

In 1901, in Scotland, he gave $10 million to establish the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. It was created by a deed which he signed on June 7, 1901, and it was incorporated by Royal Charter on August 21, 1902. The establishing gift of $10 million was, then, an unprecedented sum: at the time, total government assistance to all four Scottish universities was about £50,000 a year. The aim of the Trust was to improve and extend the opportunities for scientific research in the Scottish universities and to enable the deserving and qualified youth of Scotland to attend a university. He was subsequently elected Lord Rector of University of St. Andrews in December 1901. He also donated large sums of money to Dunfermline, the place of his birth. In addition to a library, Carnegie also bought the private estate which became Pittencrieff Park and opened it to all members of the public, establishing the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust to benefit the people of Dunfermline. A statue of him stands there today. He gave a further $10 million in 1913 to endow the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, a grant-making foundation.In 1901, Carnegie also established large pension funds for his former employees at Homestead and, in 1905, for American college professors. The latter fund evolved into TIAA-CREF. One critical requirement was that church-related schools had to sever their religious connections to get his money.

His interest in music led him to fund construction of 7,000 church organs. He built and owned Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1911年，年邁的卡內基夫婦由於10年來一直直接參與捐獻工作，身心都深感疲憊，因而，卡內基決定再以僅餘的1億5千萬美元設立了「卡耐基公司」，讓公司人員代理他們的捐獻工作。

      

直至生命結束之前，卡內基都在為社會奉獻著他的財富，其捐獻總額高達3億3千多萬美元。當然，在他身後，「卡內基公司」及各項卡內基基金依然在實施他的捐獻計劃，況且這筆巨款還會不斷地增加利息，或賺進紅利，實際上他在世界上捐獻的數額遠大於這個數字。

Carnegie was a large benefactor of the Tuskegee Institutefor African-American education under Booker T. Washington. He helped Washington create the National Negro Business League.

In 1904, he founded the Carnegie Hero Fund for the United States and Canada (a few years later also established in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany) for the recognition of deeds of heroism. Carnegie contributed $1,500,000 in 1903 for the erection of the Peace Palace at The Hague; and he donated $150,000 for a Pan-American Palace in Washington as a home for the International Bureau of American Republics.

Carnegie was honored for his philanthropy and support of the arts by initiation as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity on October 14, 1917, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The fraternity's mission reflects Carnegie's values by developing young men to share their talents to create harmony in the world.

By the standards of 19th century tycoons, Carnegie was not a particularly ruthless man but a humanitarian with enough acquisitiveness to go in the ruthless pursuit of money. "Maybe with the giving away of his money," commented biographer Joseph Wall, "he would justify what he had done to get that money."

To some, Carnegie represents the idea of the American dream. He was an immigrant from Scotland who came to America and became successful. He is not only known for his successes but his enormous amounts of philanthropist works, not only to charities but also to promote democracy and independence to colonized countries.

影響人物

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for thelightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university.

Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."

在成名之後的一次採訪中卡耐基回答說：「我之所以能成功，有兩個基本因素：

第一，我自幼出生在貧苦之家，小時候常常吃飽了這一頓，不知道下一頓的食物在哪裡。我晚上常聽見父母為了應付面對的窮困而嘆息。所以我從小就力求上進與發奮，決心到長大之後要從我手中擊敗窮困

第二，凡事不論大小，都要認真的去做。

但是這不是哪位親人教給他的，而是他自己說的：如果不是看了《富蘭克林自傳》，我根本就沒有勇氣走出家鄉開始我的創業路程。

班傑明·富蘭克林究竟是怎樣一個人，居然能成為卡耐基走出家鄉開始創業的精神引路人？

Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym"Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies.

He pioneered and was first president of the The Academy and College of Philadelphiawhich opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organised and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America when, as an agent for several colonies, he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positiveFranco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years, and this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. After the Revolution he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Although he initially owned and dealt in slaves, by the 1750s he argued against slaveryfrom an economic perspective and became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

富蘭克林

In 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeitingtechniques he had devised. Throughout his career, Franklin was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766 he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons.

As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he first devised a scheme for The Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia. However, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev. Richard Peters, refused and Franklin put his ideas away until 1749, when he printed his own pamphlet, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the Academy and the Charity School opened on August 13, 1751.

In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.

勤奮堅韌、踏實做好每件小事

在富蘭克林的人生哲學裡，沒有英雄主義，榮譽和宗教虔誠，就是過好自己的生活，努力奮鬥。他自己列出過12項美德，都是什么正直、勤儉、意志堅定、真誠、努力相關的品德。

富蘭克林發家致富，最早就是靠勤奮。

每天晚上，富蘭克林不排好版就絕不離開店鋪，經常工作到半夜。有一天晚上，當他排好版之後，不小心把版碰掉了地上，完全弄亂了，富蘭克林就馬上重排，熬了一夜。

當時鎮上有個商人就說「富蘭克林是我見過最勤奮的人，我從俱樂部回家的路上，看見他還在工作，而早上鄰居們起床的時候，他又開始工作了」。

在當時這個可是個大的人生道路選擇問題，富蘭克林幫當時的人，尤其是青年人重新找到了奮鬥的意義。

他還自己做了個功過格。就是一邊寫上美德，一邊寫上惡習，給自己打分。富蘭克林也有這麼個小冊子，畫了一個表格，一共是7列，每個代表一周中的一天。7列又被分成了12行，每個都代表一種品德。如果違反了，就在空格中表上一個黑點。

這種腳踏實地，通過個人的勤奮努力一點點改變命運的信念給同是貧苦出生的卡耐基極大的動力。

In 1747, he retired from printing and went into other businesses. He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with educated persons throughout Europe and especially in France.

Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman, in June 1749 he became a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia, and in 1751 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, Franklin was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British North America, (see below). His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, with mail sent out every week.

1835年11月25日，安德魯·卡耐基出生於蘇格蘭古都丹弗姆林。

父親威爾·卡耐基以手工紡織亞麻格子布為生，母親瑪琪則以縫鞋為副業。為了減輕父母負擔，卡耐基從小就主動幫家裡做事，非常勤快。由於家裡沒裝自來水，他每天一大早就起來，挑上一副大水桶，去附近的一口井邊排隊打水。挑了幾擔水後，才吃早飯、上學。晚上回來總要幫正忙於縫鞋的母親穿針引線，同時心裡還需默誦著在學校學到的詩和文章。

後來他有了工作，在白天勞累一天後，晚上還參加夜校學習，課程是複式記帳法會計，每周3次。這段時期他所學的複式會計知識，成了他後來建立巨大的鋼鐵王國並使之立於不敗之地的法寶。

十四歲時他的積極主動讓他贏得了人生第一份差事：周薪2.5美元的送電報信差。

要知道當年的匹茲堡不僅是美國的交通樞紐，而且是物資集散中心和工業中心。電報作為先進的通訊工具，在這座實業家雲集的城市起著極其重要的作用。

每天走街串巷送電報、嘀嘀嗒嗒拍電報的生活，卡內基就像進了一所「商業學校」。

29歲的卡耐基最終決定自主創業：向賓州鐵路公司提出了辭呈並在賓夕法尼亞州與人合夥創辦了卡耐基科爾曼聯合鋼鐵廠。而當他邁出進軍鋼鐵業的第一步，就開始大膽引進最先進的生產技術和人才，大刀闊斧改進生產管理，不斷地改進鋼鐵生產技術，降低成本，使自己一次一次走向成功。

In 1751, Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.

Between 1750 and 1753, the "educational triumvirate" of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the American Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, and the immigrant Scottish schoolteacher Dr. William Smith built on Franklin's initial scheme and created what Bishop James Madison, president of the College of William & Mary, called a "new-model" plan or style of American college. Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of moral philosophy from the American Dr. Samuel Johnson titledElementa Philosophica to be taught in the new colleges to replace courses in denominational divinity.

信奉並踐行「個人努力能改變命運 」的新主張

富蘭克林的出身在普通殖民地清教家庭。他們祖上就是英國的自耕農，種地為生。到了他父親約書亞·富蘭克林那一輩，因為實在忍受不了宗教迫害，去了美洲，成了第一批美洲人。

當時的美洲，其實就是個大農村。一望無際都是田野，西邊還住著印第安人。那時候什麼都沒有，他父親沒辦法，就靠賣蠟燭和肥皂過日子，勉強能活下去。

當富蘭克林還是個孩子的時候，覺得父親在每餐前後的祈禱十分無聊。有一天，當他們家把準備過冬的食物做好了之後，就對他父親說『爸爸，我覺得你與其向上帝祈禱還不如向那個桶祈禱，這樣好歹能節省點時間』。

1732年開始，富蘭克林開始寫他一生最重要的一本書，叫《窮理查曆書》。這本書裡講了一個很淺顯的道理：「勤奮和節儉，不僅是聚集財富的手段，更是培養品德的方式」。

但這本書在他生前死後，都有巨大的影響力。他活著的時候，這書每年銷量能有1萬冊，在40年時間裡，被譯成了7種語言，重印145次，到現在，一共有1300個版本。有的時候比聖經賣得還好。

In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford. They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission. Johnson went on to found King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired Smith as Provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with aBachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania. The College was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: in theContinental Congress, for example, over one third of the college-affiliated men who contributed the Declaration of Independence between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the College.

In 1753, both Harvard and Yale awarded him honorary degrees.

In 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Unionfor the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into theArticles of Confederation and the Constitution.

社會學家馬克斯·韋伯的奠基之作、成名作，到現在都是社會學必讀的書：《新教倫理與資本主義精神》裡面反覆提到這本書，而且還大段引用，覺得這本書是新教倫理的典範，完全和過去的基督教思想不一樣，是一個新時代的新思想，奠定了資本主義精神。

富蘭克林反對基於出身的特權，認為個人可以通過勤奮與天賦鋪就通往財富之路。這給出生貧窮的卡耐基極大的鼓舞。

從小卡耐基就抓住一切機會學習、始終堅信努力就有機會改變命運。

從蘇格蘭小孩到美國紡織廠幫工；

從普通的電報信差到熟練掌握首發電報技術的優秀電報員；

從普通鐵路電報員到鐵路主管；

從負責監督修橋到建立鋼鐵；

從引入先進的煉鋼爐到兼併小鋼鐵廠；

從事業巔峰期的「鋼鐵大王」到賣出鋼鐵廠，捐助圖書館的慈善大家。

卡耐基的個人經歷成了美國夢最好的詮釋者：

不是寄希望於上帝的恩賜而是主動爭取，憑藉個人奮鬥獲取財富、實現價值。

Franklin used London as a base to travel. In 1771, he made short journeys through different parts of England, staying with Joseph Priestley at Leeds, Thomas Percival at Manchesterand Erasmus Darwin at Lichfield.

In Scotland, he spent five days with Lord Kames near Stirling and stayed for three weeks with David Hume in Edinburgh. In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son, and recalled his conversations there as "the densest happiness of my life". In February 1759, theUniversity of St Andrews awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. From then he was known as "Doctor Franklin". In October of the same year he was granted Freedom of the Borough of St Andrews.

He had never been to Ireland before, and met and stayed with Lord Hillsborough, who he believed was especially attentive. Franklin noted of him that "all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides." In Dublin, Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the Irish Parliament rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to receive this honor. While touring Ireland, he was moved by the level of poverty he saw. Ireland's economy was affected by the same trade regulations and laws of Britain that governed America. Franklin feared that America could suffer the same effects should Britain's "colonial exploitation" continue.

中產階級代言人：功成名後做慈善反饋社會

富蘭克林對民主有一種天生的好感，並沒有太多後世批評家所指責的世故之心。他一直信任民眾的智慧，認為中產階級是新國家（美國）的力量源泉。通過不斷培育個人品德、推動社會公益，他幫助美國建立了一個由普通民眾構成的全新的統治階級，並為之大唱讚歌。

富蘭克林認為財富不該拿來炫耀，卻可帶來自由。他運用自由的方式便是投身公益事業。說到公益，他不只是積極，「狂熱」形容都不為過：火災叢生就組救火隊，邊亂蜂起就組民防，醫療不足辦醫院，教育不足則辦大學。

這是他給美國的另一精神遺產：熱心公益才是真財富

卡耐基在富蘭克林鼓勵「個人奮鬥改變命運」大旗的號召下，積極行動一點點建構了自己的商業帝國改變了自己的境遇，並且成名之後，通過記錄自己人生經歷向正在奮鬥的年輕人、向事業有成的企業家、向關心社會的慈善家提出了各種有益的建議。

他的一生可以說是一個用生命向富蘭克林致敬的過程。

One line of argument in Parliament was that Americans should pay a share of the costs of the French and Indian War, and that therefore taxes should be levied on them. Franklin became the American spokesman in highly publicized testimony in Parliament in 1766. He stated that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire. He said local governments had raised, outfitted and paid 25,000 soldiers to fight France—as many as Britain itself sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so in theFrench and Indian War alone.

In 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays:"Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One", and "An Edict by the King of Prussia".

In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peacefulSusquehannock Indians and marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to organize a localmilitia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. "If an Indian injures me", he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?"

He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. "He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda."

By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, the American Revolution had begun – with fighting between colonials and British at Lexington and Concord. The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of theCommittee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several "small but important" changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson.

歐巴馬

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States. He is the firstAfrican American to hold the office, as well as the first president born outside of thecontinental United States. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in theIllinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, hiskeynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeatedRepublican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Prot.

2008年11月4日，歐巴馬當選2008年美國總統。

2017年1月10日，歐巴馬在芝加哥向美國人民發表告別演說，宣告8年的總統生涯結束。

貝拉克·海珊·歐巴馬二世（Barack Hussein Obama II），1961年8月4日出生在美國夏威夷州檀香山市。

歐巴馬身世複雜，父親老歐巴馬是肯亞第一位留學美國的黑人大學生，母親安·鄧納姆為堪薩斯州移居夏威夷的白人女性。

歐巴馬父母在夏威夷大學就讀時相遇並結婚，生下一個兒子，取名巴裡，即如今的歐巴馬。兩人的婚姻沒有維持多久，隨著老歐巴馬離家前往哈佛大學深造告終。

Obama was reelected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for greater inclusiveness for LGBT Americans, while his administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and state level same-sex marriagebans as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by the Islamic State after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, brokered anuclear deal with Iran, and normalized U.S. relations with Cuba.

老歐巴馬全名巴拉克·海珊·歐巴馬一世。出生在肯亞西部一個貧窮的小村莊。歐巴馬的祖母和許多親戚如今仍住在那個小村莊。

老歐巴馬完成學業後回國後參政，在政治鬥爭中失敗後退出政壇，1982年因車禍去世。

歐巴馬的父親婚姻狀況複雜，他前往美國之前就娶了妻子柯齊亞，並育有兩個孩子，兒子羅伊和女兒奧瑪。

按照歐巴馬的說法，他認為父親從沒真正離開柯齊亞。

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (nowKapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii, and would become the first President to have been born in Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, born in Wichita, Kansas, was of mostly English ancestry. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship. The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961, and separated when, in late August 1961, Obama's mother moved with their newborn son to attend the University of Washington in Seattle for a year. During that time, Obama Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. Obama's parents divorced in March 1975. Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1992 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. He died in an automobile accident in 1982, his son being 21 years old at that time.

In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965. After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta. From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School for one and a half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School homeschooling by his mother.

歐巴馬母親鄧納姆稱，老歐巴馬確實與在非洲的髮妻分開，但「由於結婚時是一個鄉村婚禮，所以也沒有文件證明離婚」。

歐巴馬父母在夏威夷的婚姻也許亦沒有文件證明。歐巴馬在回憶錄中說：「（父母）這段婚姻如何開始和何時開始依然弄不清，有些細節我永遠沒勇氣弄清。」

歐巴馬在懂事之後只見過父親一次。儘管與父親相處時間不長，但遺傳自父親的膚色，在他的政治生涯中成為一面旗幟。

他的回憶錄1995年首次出版，名為《父親的夢想》。從政後，歐巴馬用了父親的名字（巴拉克），在每天別人對他的稱呼中，感受父親留下的烙印。

Obama returned to Honolulu in 1971 to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979. In his youth, Obama went by the nickname Barry. Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii. Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 so his mother could begin anthropology field work. His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhDdegree in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer anduterine cancer.

Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind." He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear." Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, andcocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". Obama was also a member of the "choom gang", a self-named group of friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.

1967年歐巴馬6歲，印尼留學生蘇託洛與歐巴馬母親結婚。小歐巴馬和母親跟隨繼父前往印度尼西亞生活。歐巴馬的新家在雅加達郊區，沒有電沒有公路，物資緊缺。

由於當時不夠錢，鄧納姆選擇讓歐巴馬到普通宗教學校就讀，並承擔其教授其他知識的責任。歐巴馬在回憶錄中寫道，每天清晨4時，鄧納姆就會來到他的房間內，「逼我吃早飯，隨後教我學3個小時英語，接著兩人分別去上班上學」，這樣的情況每周持續5天。

在老師和同學記憶中，歐巴馬從沒真正掌握過印尼語，所以，他一直非常沉默。歐巴馬的老師達爾馬瓦說，她曾努力糾正歐巴馬的印尼語發音，但他用美國腔頑抗著。

不過有個詞，歐巴馬學得很快！

三年級，歐巴馬在作文中寫道：我想當總統。他沒寫想當哪個國家的總統。

After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, Obama made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment from South Africa in response to that nation's policy of apartheid. In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks. Later in 1981, he transferred as a junior to Columbia College, Columbia University, in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations and lived off-campus on West 109th Street. He graduated with a BA degree in 1983 and worked for a year at the Business International Corporation, then at the New York Public Interest Research Group. In 1985, Obama was among the leaders of May Day efforts to bring attention to the New York City Subway system, which was in a bad condition at the time. Obama traveled to several subway stations to get people to sign letters addressed to local officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and was photographed at the City College subway station holding a sign protesting against the system's condition.Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project, a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988. He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for theGamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.

因為繼父後來變得酗酒花心，鄧納姆幾年後與其離婚，但繼續留在印尼從事人類學研究。

10歲的歐巴馬回到夏威夷，成了當地學校裡少數黑人孩子之一，那裡的大部分孩子，都是白人和亞洲人。

比歐巴馬大2歲的昔日同學裡克·斯密斯說，那時的萬聖節，同學們都喜歡把臉塗黑了，扮成黑奴的樣子。所以，雖然學校很好，但黑人孩子們依然覺得孤獨。因此，他們還成立了一個叫「兄弟」的組織。但歐巴馬從未參加過這個組織。

The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds and preventing moving any Guantanamo detainee into the U.S. or to other countries. Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records. He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President Ronald Reagan's Mexico City Policy prohibiting federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.

The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits. Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children. In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.

複雜的種族、身世認同讓年輕的歐巴馬產生自卑感，一度墮落成了一個癮君子。

在檀香山的夏威夷普納荷私立學校上學的時候，歐巴馬是學校裡「大麻黨」的一員——抽過大麻，用過古柯鹼，抽菸和酗酒，隨意交女朋友。

「中學時候的我是每一個老師的噩夢，沒人知道該拿我怎麼辦」。

Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009, becoming the firstHispanic Supreme Court Justice. Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the first time in American history.

On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, areconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflightto the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to theInternational Space Station.

家庭經濟水平一般的歐巴馬能讀夏威夷普納荷私立學校——全美最好的高中之一，很大程度是外祖母瑪德琳的堅持。

為了分擔歐巴馬上學的昂貴費用，瑪德琳一把年齡地辛苦地工作，但她從不因此抱怨，她深信自己的付出一定會取得好的結果。

President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Addressfocused on themes of education and innovation, stressing the importance of innovation economics to make the United States more competitive globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, banning congressional earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80 percent reliant on "clean" electricity.

On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation,gender identity, or disability.

On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign to end the Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in theUnited States Armed Forces.

儘管瑪德琳反對女兒與老歐巴馬的婚姻，同時還受到老歐巴馬的惡言相擊，但外祖母並沒有在歐巴馬的面前損毀他父親的形象，反而談起一些他父親與眾不同、如何出色的小故事。

她希望外孫能感受到父親身上的光芒，這樣會減少歐巴馬從小就缺少父愛的遺憾。從某種意義上說，歐巴馬外祖母為他提供了成為社會精英的基礎。

2008年12月，已經成為當選總統的歐巴馬和妹妹一起以海葬的形式安葬外祖母。

2008年，86歲外祖母在歐巴馬競選總統期間逝世，歐巴馬暫停了競選活動陪伴外祖母度過最後的歲月。選舉機構認可瑪德琳的投票有效。

In 1996, as a candidate for the Illinois state senate, Obama had said that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage; but by the time of his Senate run in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages. On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for reelection as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.

During his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013, Obama became the first president to call for full equality for gay Americans: "Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well." This was the first time that a president mentioned gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address. In 2013, the Obama administration filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the cases of Hollingsworth v. Perry (regarding same-sex marriage) and United States v. Windsor (regarding the Defense of Marriage Act). Then, following the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (ruling same-sex marriage to be a fundamental right), Obama asserted that, "This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts: When all Americans are treated as equal we are all more free."

歐巴馬竟完美地結合了眾多親人的優點。每位親人身上都缺點明顯，但他們都愛他，而歐巴馬也奇蹟般地繼承了他們身上最美好的特質。

歐巴馬在哥倫比亞大學求學時，認識了25歲的女友吉納維芙·庫克，澳大利亞外交官的女兒。

歐巴馬自傳中提到：「我在紐約時愛上一名女子，她是白人，有著深色頭髮，雙眼略顯綠色。她的嗓音像風鈴。我們約會了一年左右，主要在周末，有時候在她的公寓內，有時候在我那兒……只有兩個人，私密，溫暖。」

這時的歐巴馬與青年時的放縱相比已經大為不同，庫克說雖然她努力想了解歐巴馬，但感覺「深藏在表面下的東西難以企及」。她後來感嘆：「他怎麼能在22歲時如此成熟？」庫克後來嫁給了一位埃及出生的會計師。

On March 11, 2009, Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls, which forms part of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, having been established by Executive Order13506 with a broad mandate to advise him on issues relating to the welfare of American women and girls. The Council is currently chaired by Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett. Obama also established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault through an official United States government memorandum on January 22, 2014 with a broad mandate to advise him on issues relating to sexual assault on college and university campuses throughout the United States. The current co-chairs of the Task Force are Vice President Joe Biden and Jarrett. The Task Force has been a development out of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Office of the Vice President of the United States, and prior to that, the 1994 Violence Against Women Actthat was first-drafted by Biden.On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billioneconomic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession. The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals.

歐巴馬和庫克在1985年分手，庫克覺得歐巴馬理想中的伴侶應該是「一名愛笑、精明幹練的黑人女子」。

1989年，米歇爾與歐巴馬相遇，作為學長學妹，並且是公司裡唯二兩名黑人，兩人工作上十分投契，米歇爾最開始不接受歐巴馬的追求，但最終還是走在一起。

這位芝加哥的水管工家庭出生，學歷、才氣絲毫不輸丈夫，當律師比他還早，年薪比他還高的職業女性是第一個鼓勵歐巴馬參加總統競選的人——米歇爾以歐巴馬戒菸為條件支持丈夫競選，減少80%公職以全力為丈夫助選並通過自己的人脈和極富表現力的演講才能為丈夫拉票。

In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to two trillion dollars in depreciated real estate assets. Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12 percent stake. In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment. He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.

2016年8月1日，當人們認為民主黨的這次大會將成為一次分裂的災難時，第一夫人米歇爾站了出來。米歇爾·歐巴馬通過演講，將現場的人們團結了起來支持希拉蕊，與川普的夫人梅拉尼婭成了鮮明對比。

2003年12月8日，歐巴馬在伊利諾州的首府斯普林菲爾德遞交參選聯邦參議院議員的申請。

歐巴馬1996年踏足政治領域，開始便是不光彩的失敗。

在2000年，歐巴馬競選一個聯邦眾議院的席位。他回憶那次選舉，「能出錯的時候都出了錯」。民調顯示，競爭對手支持率高達70%，他只有8%。他體會到了失敗的感覺。

Spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, but only $3 trillion was spent by the end of November 2009. Obama and the Congressional Budget Officepredicted the 2010 budget deficit would be $1.5 trillion or 10.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9 percent of GDP. For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will shrink to $1.34 trillion, and the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90 percent of GDP. The most recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $17.2 trillion took effect in February 2014. On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve such savings. By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on its obligations.

2004年11月2日，歐巴馬當選聯邦參議員。

3年後，在天時和地利的幫助下，歐巴馬輕鬆獲得了參議員的提名，並受到當時民主黨總統候選人克裡的邀請在全國代表大會發表講話。

2004年7月，他的演講真正展示了理想主義熱情。他說：「在今天這個夜晚，我知道先輩正在星空中驕傲地俯瞰著我。

」17分鐘的演講，讓他從一躍成為全國的政治新星，許多人從他身上，看到了甘迺迪的影子。」

As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0 percent and averaging 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year. Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8 percent, which was less than the average of 1.9 percent experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries. By November 2012, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, decreasing to 6.7 percent in the last month of 2013. During 2014, the unemployment rate continued to decline, falling to 6.3 percent in the first quarter. GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6 percent, followed by a 5.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter. Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year. In July 2010, the Federal Reserve noted that economic activity continued to increase, but its pace had slowed, and chairman Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain". Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.

The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth. The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million, while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package." Although an April 2010 survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73 percent of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment. 

歐巴馬在參議員工作表現一般，作為「菜鳥」議員，大多數議案沒有得到積極響應。

他早在2002年開始就一直堅持反對伊拉克戰爭，這有別於民主黨和共和黨內大多數人的態度——包括當時的希拉蕊和川普（儘管川普後來否認了當時持該立場），這態度後來讓公眾覺得他有與領袖品質相符的先見之明，也是2008年勝選的關鍵因素之一。

2007年2月，歐巴馬宣布參選美國總統。歐巴馬小心翼翼地使用自己的背景。

他不打少數民族的牌，堅持強調不同種族的團結與融合，這個一貫立場使他大受歡迎。

The economy of the United States has grown faster than the other original NATO members by a wider margin under President Obama than it has anytime since the end of World War II. The OECD credits the much faster growth in the United States to the stimulus in the United States and the austerity measures in the European Union.

Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes. The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billionTax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.

In December 2013, Obama declared that growing income inequality is a "defining challenge of our time" and called on Congress to bolster the safety net and raise wages. This came on the heels of the nationwide strikes of fast-food workers and Pope Francis' criticism of inequality and trickle-down economics.

歐巴馬的非洲血統，他帶有濃鬱亞洲風情的夏威夷和印尼歲月，他做混混吸大麻的年少輕狂，他的哈佛法學院的精英教育背景等等，讓他可以在面對不同人群時都能找到相通點，從而吸引了少數族裔，贏得了很多白人精英的支持，還調動了一向對政治漠不關心的年輕人。

歐巴馬的另一個新嘗試是網絡。

在2004年聯邦參議員競選中，他最早利用網絡募捐，當時通過網絡寄來的匯款為他助力甚巨。這一籌款方式也被他運用到總統大選中。

歐巴馬競選團隊亞裔事務顧問薛海培對記者介紹說，歐巴馬在預選的頭兩個月就能籌集到接近希拉蕊的錢，以他當時個人的名聲、民主黨內的資源和人脈，「不可思議」。

隨著美國大選的熱度上升，歐巴馬通過網際網路的渠道得到全球的關注，同時也促進了他在國內的支持率。

On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories, and oil refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshoredrilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. Obama visited the Gulf, announced a federal investigation, and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazarand concurrent Congressional hearings. He then announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review. As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.

In July 2013, Obama expressed reservations and stated he "would reject the Keystone XL pipeline if it increased carbon pollution" or "greenhouse emissions". Obama's advisers called for a halt to petroleum exploration in the Arctic in January 2013. On February 24, 2015, Obama vetoed a bill that would authorize the pipeline. It was the third veto of Obama's presidency and his first major veto.

2008年11月4日，美國芝加哥，歐巴馬宣布勝選，成為第一個美國黑人總統。

作為一個肯亞黑人父親和美國堪薩斯白人母親的後代，沒有大家族力量的支撐，兩年時間，他從年輕的參議員一躍成為總統，擊敗了在政壇根深葉茂的希拉蕊，擊敗了來自傳統的中上層白人家庭的資深參議員麥凱恩，成為美國第一任黑人總統，歐巴馬的成功被認為是美國夢的典範。

歐巴馬贏得2008年大選之後，他與希拉蕊不棄前嫌，後者成為歐巴馬政府的國務卿。

Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal. He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also known as thepublic option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American to carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.

On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009. After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals. In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.

歐巴馬上臺讓陷於金融危機的民眾對其充滿期待，這種情感甚至在西方乃至全世界蔓延。

歐巴馬上臺伊始，就開始兌現他的競選承諾，特別是解決次貸危機和撤軍以及醫保法案這三項。歐巴馬遵守了競選時作出的改革美國醫療保健體系的諾言。

歐巴馬履任總統之職不足九月，尚未對國際社會有何顯著的實際性貢獻之時，挪威諾貝爾獎委員會將2009年度諾貝爾和平獎授予歐巴馬。

輿論普遍表示錯愕，諾貝爾委員會將獎項頒發給他是「爆冷」，「為時過早」，「令人吃驚」。

On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House. On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39. On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.

The ACA includes health-related provisionsto take effect over four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014, subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400 percent of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5 percent of income, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.

The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to theMedicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies; there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons. In March 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.

2010年3月23日，歐巴馬通過醫保法案，這是民主黨自杜魯門時代以來，近半個世紀核心目標之一。醫保法案的通過代表了達成全民醫保目標的重要一步。

在外交方面，他一改小布希政府的作風，在伊拉克撤軍以及和伊朗進行談判。

The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the mandate was constitutional under the U.S. Congress's taxing authority. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby the Court ruled that "closely-held" for-profit corporations could be exempt on religious grounds under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act from regulations adopted under the ACA that would have required them to pay for insurance that covered certain contraceptives. In June 2015, the Court ruled 6–3 inKing v. Burwell that subsidies to help individuals and families purchase health insurance were authorized for those doing so on both the federal exchange and state exchanges, not only those purchasing plans "established by the State," as the statute reads.

Prior to June 2014, Obama offered substantial support for a broadly based "All of the above" approach to domestic energy policy which Obama has maintained since his first term and which he last confirmed at his State of the Union speech in January 2014 to a mixed reception by both parties. In June 2014, Obama made indications that his administration would consider a shift towards an energy policy more closely tuned to the manufacturing industry and its impact on the domestic economy. Obama's approach of selectively combining regulation and incentive to various issues in the domestic energy policy such as coal mining and oil fracking has received mixed commentary for not being as responsive to the needs of the domestic manufacturing sector as needed, following claims that the domestic manufacturing sector utilizes as much as a third of nation's available energy resources.

總統生涯

On January 16, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, President Obama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun control. He urged Congress to reintroduce an expired ban on military-style assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings, impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets, introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the first time since 2006. On January 5, 2016, Obama announced newexecutive actions extending background check requirements to more gun sellers. In a 2016 editorial in the New York Times, Obama compared the struggle for what he termed "common-sense gun reform" to women's suffrage and other civil rights movements in American history.

2009年1月20日，歐巴馬準備就職演講前，在房間裡照鏡子，做最後準備。

2009年1月20日，歐巴馬宣布就職，一天之內共參加了10個就職儀式，在儀式結束後他解下領帶，準備回到私人地方休息，在揭開領帶的一瞬間，歐巴馬露出略有疲倦的微笑。

2009年1月20日，總統歐巴馬和第一夫人米歇爾在工作人員陪同下前往就職舞會，兩人在貨梯裡「秀恩愛」。

2009年2月1日，在白宮劇場裡，總統歐巴馬和第一夫人米歇爾用3D眼鏡觀看超級碗。

2009年3月15日，歐巴馬歡迎新成員來到白宮，與小狗在東廳一起玩耍。

Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives, "humbling" and a "shellacking". He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.

On November 10, 2014, President Obama recommended the Federal Communications Commission reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to preserve net neutrality. On February 12, 2013, President Obama signed Executive Order 13636, "Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity".In February and March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden andSecretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration. Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.

On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran. In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara,Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments. On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.

2009年4月5日，捷克共和國布拉格，歐巴馬在千人面前發表當選總統後的第一次重要講話。

2009年4月7日，在巴格達勝利營裡，歐巴馬為美國軍人打氣。

2009年6月7日，總統歐巴馬坐在位於巴黎的美國大使官邸的臺階上和工作人員說話。

2009年7月29日，歐巴馬參加完維吉尼亞州的一個市政廳會議後，在當地超市裡吃油桃。

2009年10月8日，總統歐巴馬和內閣部長、國會成員在白宮打籃球。

On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it." On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East."

On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third. Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April 2010, and the U.S. Senate ratified it in December 2010.

2009年12月3日，總統歐巴馬在完成就業及經濟論壇會議後和行政辦公樓的安保員碰拳。

2010年1月16日，總統歐巴馬邀請柯林頓和小布希兩位前總統到白宮共同商討海地局勢的應對方案。

2010年2月21日，總統歐巴馬和第一夫人米歇爾在州長舞會（Governors Ball）上跳舞。

2010年5月31日，陣亡將士紀念日，歐巴馬在伊利諾州撐傘走上臺準備雨中演講。

2010年7月4日，美國獨立日，總統歐巴馬和第一夫人米歇爾在國家廣場觀看焰火表演。

In December 2011, Obama instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries. He criticized Russia's law discriminating against gays in August 2013, stopping short of advocating a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.

In December 2014, Obama announced that he intended to normalize relationships betweenCuba and the United States. The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20, 2015.

On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troop's levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last U.S. combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces. On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over. On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays".

2010年8月9日，歐巴馬悄悄地把自己的腳放在了旅行主管Marvin Nicholson正在稱重的體重秤上。

2010年9月16日，「我們已經到達紐約威徹斯特郡機場準備回華盛頓，由於直升機的配置，總統要在我們登機之後再登機，所以他在車裡等了幾分鐘，被車內的燈光照亮。」

2011年2月1日，歐巴馬同埃及總統穆巴拉克通電話。通話結束後，穆巴拉克發表電視聲明中說他將在他的任期結束後下臺，但沒有立即辭職。

2011年3月20日，歐巴馬攜家人到巴西裡約熱內盧，參觀救世主耶穌雕像。

2011年5月1日，總統歐巴馬與副總統拜登、國務卿希拉蕊等在戰情室觀看美國海豹突擊隊第六分隊擊斃賓拉登的最新戰況。

2011年5月29日，歐巴馬去密蘇裡州喬普林慰問受龍捲風災害的當地民眾，85歲的Hugh Hills告訴歐巴馬龍捲風來時，他一直躲在衣櫥裡，他家的房子被龍捲風破壞嚴重。

2011年10月25日，歐巴馬在後臺為參加《今夜秀》做準備，主持人傑·雷諾給歐巴馬講了一個有趣的故事，引得歐巴馬大笑。

In June 2014, following the capture of Mosul by theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Obama sent 275 troops to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. ISIL continued to gain ground and to commit widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing.

In August 2014, during the Sinjar massacre, Obama ordered a campaign of U.S. airstrikes against ISIL.

By the end of 2014, 3,100 American ground troops were committed to the conflict and 16,000 sorties were flown over the battlefield, primarily by U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots.

In the Spring of 2015, with the addition of the "Panther Brigade" of the 82nd Airborne Division the number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq surged to 4,400, and by July American-led coalition air forces counted 44,000 sorties over the battlefield.

2011年11月3日，參加完在法國坎城舉辦的G20峰會後，歐巴馬在離開前給了德國總理默克爾一個鼓勵的擁抱。

2011年12月21日，維吉尼亞州亞歷山大，歐巴馬帶著「第一狗」去寵物店購買聖誕禮物。

2012年1月1日，總統歐巴馬在夏威夷的卡內奧赫海遊泳。據報導歐巴馬有每天堅持健身的習慣，只要天氣允許，他每周末還會打高爾夫球。

2012年2月21日，有「布魯斯之王」稱號的美國音樂家B.B KING在白宮東廳舉行音樂會。歐巴馬與樂隊成員合唱《芝加哥的甜蜜之家》。

2012年3月30日，歐巴馬從空軍一號下來後向白宮走去。

Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. He announced an increase to U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires". He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forcescommander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war. On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date; this took place in July 2011. David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article. In February 2013, Obama said the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops by February 2014.

In October 2015, in light of the deteriorating security situation, the White House announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces in Afghanistan indefinitely.

2012年4月18日，密西根州，總統去福特汽車博物館參觀，他走到著名的羅莎·帕克斯汽車裡，靠窗坐下，向窗外看著。

2012年4月24日，歐巴馬與著名節目主持人吉米·法倫在北卡羅來納大學紀念堂的後臺大笑。

2012年5月1日，阿富汗，歐巴馬乘坐直升機從喀布爾飛回巴格拉姆空軍基地。直升飛機上幾乎沒有任何亮光，下飛機後歐巴馬總統要會見阿富汗總統哈米德·卡爾扎伊。

2012年6月15日，「我們剛剛到達芝加哥的直升機著陸區，總統和第一夫人走過他們的車，站在密西根湖前望著湖對面他們家鄉的天際線。」

2012年7月16日，歐巴馬和米歇爾在華盛頓觀看美國籃球隊對抗巴西的奧運比賽，期間二人深情一吻。歐巴馬的邊上坐著女兒瑪利亞和副總統拜登。

2012年8月15日，歐巴馬在競選活動後擁抱夫人米歇爾。勝利連任總統後，歐巴馬也在推特上發布了這張照片。

In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so. Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.

In June 2012, Obama said that the bond between the United States and Israel is "unbreakable." During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries. The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the waves ofPalestinian rocket attacks on Israel.

In 2013, Jeffrey Goldberg reported that, in Obama's view, "with each new settlement announcement, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation."

In 2014, President Obama likened the Zionist movement to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He said that both movements seek to bring justice and equal rights to historically persecuted peoples. He explained, "To me, being pro-Israel and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I've been fighting for since I was politically conscious and started getting involved in politics."

2012年9月28日，會議間歇，歐巴馬在辦公室裡短暫休息，辦公室的牆後面掛著亞伯拉罕·林肯和喬治·華盛頓的畫作及馬丁·路德·金的半身像、亞伯拉罕·林肯的《解放黑人奴隸宣言》

2012年11月15日，歐巴馬會見因歪嘴表情走紅的2012屆奧運會美國體操運動員麥凱拉·馬羅尼，與她一起擺出她招牌的歪嘴搞怪表情。

 

2013年1月17日，當天是第一夫人米歇爾的生日，歐巴馬在白宮會客廳為米歇爾唱生日快樂歌，米歇爾的新髮型格外引人矚目。

2013年3月23日，總統等待空軍一號降落的情景。

 

2013年5月26日，歐巴馬透過空軍一號的窗口查看龍捲風的情況。

 

2013年6月3日，日常會議結束後，歐巴馬和參謀長丹尼斯在白宮南草坪散步。

In February 2011, protests in Libya began against long-time dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi as part of the Arab Spring. They soon turned violent. In March, as forces loyal to Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. In response to the unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi—who had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of Benghazi—announced an immediate cessation of military activities, yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone, including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets. Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector. Some Representatives questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.

2013年6月19日，歐巴馬和夫人米歇爾結束訪問德國後，在柏林泰戈爾機場登上空軍一號。

 

2013年6月30日，南非開普敦羅本島，歐巴馬及家人前往此前關押曼德拉總統的羅本島監獄，哀悼曼德拉逝世。在曼德拉27年的鐵窗生涯中，有18年是在羅本島上度過的。

 

2013年9月20日，歐巴馬到堪薩斯州的福特車廠演講，活動結束後他準備離去，為了能和福特員工「親密接觸」，歐巴馬從副駕駛換到了駕駛車位。

 

2013年12月10日，南非約翰尼斯堡索韋託，人們歡迎美國總統歐巴馬的到來並期待他於曼德拉的官方追悼會上發言致辭。

 

2014年2月11日，歐巴馬在白宮南草坪接待法國總統弗朗索瓦·奧朗德，在國宴上米歇爾發表完對白宮廚師的感謝後下臺，歐巴馬紳士的攙扶。

 

 

2014年4月21日，歐巴馬與復活兔一起在白宮聽國歌。歐巴馬說這是華盛頓裡最出名的兩對耳朵。

On October 18, 2011, during the early stages of the Syrian Civil War, Obama said that "Assad must go", saying that this was for the sake of the Syrian people. He reaffirmed that belief on 19 November 2015. To that end, Obama authorized an effort to train anti-Assad rebels. The program achieved minimal results, and the Obama Administration abandoned it in 2015. In the wake of a chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2013 widely blamed on the Assad regime, Obama insisted that Assad must give up his chemical weapons. This led to an agreement which resulted in Assad giving up many such weapons, but attacks withchlorine gas continued. In 2014, Obama authorized an air campaign aimed primarily at ISIL, but repeatedly promised that the U.S. would put "no boots on the ground" in Syria.

 

2014年6月9日，歐巴馬坐在一堆攝影機前，讓史密森研究院（Smithsonian Institution）為他製作3D人像模型。

 

2014年6月26日，明尼蘇達州明尼阿波利斯，歐巴馬與當地一名女性Rebekah Erler共進午餐。Erler36歲，是兩個孩子的母親，她給總統寫了一封關於經濟困難的信。

 

2014年7月8日，科羅拉多州丹佛市，歐巴馬與科羅拉州州長John Hickenlooper一起打撞球時吹起了歌手範·莫裡森的歌曲《棕眼鏡女孩》。

 

2014年9月5日，歐巴馬參加完北約峰會後，去距離不遠的巨石陣參觀。

Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound inAbbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles fromIslamabad. CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011. Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs. The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound. DNA testing identified bin Laden's body, which was buried at sea several hours later. Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square. Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and from many countries around the world.

 

2015年3月7日，歐巴馬在著名的埃德蒙德佩德斯大橋橋頭髮表演講說：那些在50年前穿過這座橋的民權抗議者們，他們的精神一直鼓舞著數代人，因為他們對外展示了——非暴力的改變是可能的，愛和希望可以戰勝仇恨。之後，歐巴馬與民眾一起走過具有重要象徵意義的埃德蒙德佩德斯大橋。

 

2015年3月10日，歐巴馬在亞特蘭大喬治亞理工學院演講結束後，經過體育館玩起了籃球。雖然總統不再玩競技籃球，籃球仍然是他生命的重要組成部分。

 

2015年3月17日，拜登挽著歐巴馬的胳膊，一起參與白宮舉辦的聖派屈克節午宴。

In 2013, Obama's administration opened negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays, with a deal being announced July 14, 2015. The deal, titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw the removal of sanctions in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Since the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and Vatican City. The Vatican first became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis advised the U.S. and Cuba to exchange prisonersas a gesture of goodwill. On December 10, 2013, Cuban President Raúl Castro, in a significant public moment, greeted and shook hands with Obama at the Nelson Mandela memorial service in Johannesburg.

In December 2014, after the secret meetings, it was announced that Obama, with Pope Francis as an intermediary, had negotiated a restoration of relations with Cuba, after nearly sixty years of détente. Popularly dubbed the Cuban Thaw, The New Republicdeemed the Cuban Thaw to be "Obama's finest foreign policy achievement." On July 1, 2015, President Barack Obama announced that formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States would resume, and embassies would be opened in Washington and Havana. The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August 13, 2015, respectively.

 

2015年4月9日，歐巴馬離開牙買加，在登上「空軍一號」時揮手道別，正好天邊飄來一道彩虹。

 

2015年4月16日，總統歐巴馬即將籤署2015年醫療改革和晶片重新授權法案，在去往籤署樓的路上，蘇沙拍攝到了總統在經過白宮玫瑰花園時，花瓣落在地下的美麗畫面。

 

2015年6月9日，德國G7峰會間歇，德國總理默克爾和美國總統歐巴馬進行交流。

Obama has visited Havana, Cuba for two days in March 2016, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to arrive since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.Obama spoke in front of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on July 29, 2015, the first sitting U.S. president to do so. He gave a speech encouraging the world to increase economic ties via investments and trade with the continent, and lauded the progresses made in education, infrastructure, and economy. He also criticized the lack of democracy and leaders who refuse to step aside, discrimination against minorities (LGBT people, religious groups and ethnicities), and corruption. He suggested an intensifieddemocratization and free trade, to significantly improve the quality of life for Africans. During his July 2015 trip, Obama also was the first U.S. president ever to visit Kenya, which is the homeland of his father.Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in thecivil rights movement. Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journaliststhat "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong." Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."

Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator. During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses. 

 

2015年6月25日，歐巴馬正在白宮聽取每日簡報，一名白宮助理突然敲門，告訴他高等法院剛剛通過了醫保法案的裁決，歐巴馬從面無表情變得非常高興。

 

2015年7月13日，在接到伊朗同意核協議的消息後，總統和他的國家安全人員笑了起來。

 

2015年9月23日，美國總統歐巴馬一家及副總統拜登夫婦在白宮迎接方濟各。

2015年10月1日，歐巴馬坐在白宮辦公室的桌子上和兩名助理聊天，雙腿晃蕩。

 

2015年10月27日，歐巴馬在白宮東廳與美國國家女子足球隊隊員們自拍，恭喜她們獲得2015年女足世界盃好成績。

 

2015年11月24日，《外星人E.T.》導演史蒂文·史匹柏被授予總統自由勳章。歐巴馬在紅毯上模仿電影中騎自行車在天空玩耍的經典鏡頭。

According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68 percent approval rating before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41 percent in August 2010, a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office. He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. This bounce lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were previously. His approval ratings rebounded around the same time as his reelection in 2012, with polls showing an average job approval of 52 percent shortly after his second inauguration. Despite him dropping to 39 percent in his approval ratings in late-2013 due to the ACA roll-out, he has climbed to 50 percent in late January 2015 according to the Gallup Organization. Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries, and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Italy's Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by Harris Interactivefor France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful. In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.

 

2015年12月7日，歐巴馬在喜劇演員Jerry Seinfield（宋飛）的新劇中客串現身，並爆料自己只穿一種牌子的同一種顏色的內衣。

 

2016年1月5日，透過玻璃，一束光打到總統歐巴馬的臉上。在聽完2012年桑迪胡克小學槍擊事件被害者家屬的描述後，歐巴馬低著頭，流下了眼淚。他說這是他當總統以來最難過的一天。一位名叫Mark Barden的市民，向歐巴馬講述了他7歲兒子在槍擊案中去世的經過。

 

2016年2月18日，美國黑人歷史月，歐巴馬總統看著米歇爾夫人和一位106歲的黑人老婦人在白宮跳舞。

 

2016年3月2日，歐巴馬打電話問候已經在哈薩克斯坦安全著落的美國太空人Scott Kelly，他在哈薩克斯坦的安全著落，正式為他近一年的太空生活畫上了圓滿的句號。

 

2016年3月22日，比利時布魯塞爾遭遇恐怖襲擊，歐巴馬和國家安全顧問Susan E. Rice致電國土安全顧問Lisa Monaco詢問襲擊情況。

2016年4月25日，德國漢諾瓦，美國總統和歐洲四國領導人交談。

 

2016年7月9日，北約華沙峰會期間，總統歐巴馬和德國總理默克爾打招呼。

 

2016年9月5日，杭州G20峰會期間，總統歐巴馬和俄羅斯總統普京聊天。

 

2016年11月1日，在幫助希拉蕊助選的後臺，歐巴馬在自己的照片上簽名。

Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awardsfor abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hopein February 2008. His concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video "Yes We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first month and received a Daytime Emmy Award. In December 2008 and in 2012, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year. The 2008 awarding was for his historic candidacy and election, which Time described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments". On May 25, 2011, Obama became the first President of the United States to address both houses of the UK Parliament inWestminster Hall, London. This was only the 5th occurrence since the start of the 20th century, of a head of state being extended this invitation, following Charles de Gaulle in 1960, Nelson Mandela in 1996, Queen Elizabeth II in 2002 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility." The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures. Obama's peace prize was called a "stunning surprise" by The New York Times. Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office. Obama's Nobel Prize has been viewed skeptically in subsequent years, especially after the director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, said Obama's Peace Prize did not have the desired effect.

2016年11月10日，競選結束兩天，總統歐巴馬與新當選總統川普會面。

2016年12月27日，美國夏威夷，日本首相安倍晉三與總統歐巴馬舉行會晤。兩人一同訪問亞利桑那號戰艦紀念館，獻花圈悼念日本偷襲珍珠港事件遇難者，並發表講話。安倍是第一位訪問美國珍珠港的日本首相。

In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations", he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family—six of them living. Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham, until her death on November 2, 2008, two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011. In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

Besides his native English, Obama speaks some basic Indonesian, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta. He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team; he is left-handed.

1月5日，美國總統歐巴馬的榮譽告別儀式在海德森-霍爾聯合基地舉行。

1月11日，美國芝加哥，美國總統歐巴馬發表告別演講，宣告8年總統生涯結束。

Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator. In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the All-Star Game while wearing a White Sox jacket. He is also primarily aChicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President. In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to theSpace Shuttle Challenger disaster.

In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at several group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992. The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998, followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001. The Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School. The Obamas have two Portuguese Water Dogs, the first, a male named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy. In August 2013, Bo was joined by Sunny, a female.

Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicagocondominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago. The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.

In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million. Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books. On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments. As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.

Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he had successfully quit smoking.

Obama is a Protestant Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents, as being detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known." He described his father as a "confirmedatheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful." Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."

In January 2008, Obama told Christianity Today: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life." On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me."