In 2004, Obama received national

attention during his campaign to

represent Illinois in the United States

Senate with his victory in the

March Party primary, his keynote

address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the

Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007, and in 2008,

after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won sufficient

delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential

nomination.

The inauguratio

n 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.

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 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 March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education

Reconciliation Act, a reconciliation 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.

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is

an American politician and businessman who

was the 43rd President of the United States of

America from 2001 to 2009

He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. After graduating from Yale University in

1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked in oil businesses.

Eight months into Bush's first term as president, the September 11, 2001 terrorist

attacks occurred. In response,

Bush announced the War on Terror,

an international military campaign

which included the war in

Afghanistan launched in 2001 and

the war in Iraq launched in 2003. In

addition to national security issues,

Bush also promoted policies on the

economy, health care, education,

social security reform,

and amending the Constitution to disallow same-sex marriage

Bush left office in 2009, and was succeeded as president by Barack Obama, who

ran on a platform of change from Bush's policies. Since leaving office, Bush has

returned to Texas and purchased a home in a suburban area of Dallas. He is

currently a public speaker, has written a memoir entitled Decision Points