- published: 13 May 2013
So my name is Endorphin, I can make U happy U see
I come from planet Venus and I'll take U there
You could be my ecstasy
The 80's are over and the time has come
for a new proclamation of love and fun
Monogamy and trust, is what I'm talkin' 'bout
I'll give up all my lovers if U can make me shout
S is for scandalous
E is for exciting
X is for adults only
let's do something frightening
Sex, sex, can't stop the feelin' baby, nobody should
Sex, sex, anything this dangerous, has to be good
Now I'm the type of alien, who knows just what he wants
But U're the type who plays in the trees
you got it, maybe that's why you float
I climb a thousand trees if I have to
but baby I'm warnin' you
one of us is gonna end up on our knees
Sex, sex, can't stop the feelin' baby, nobody should
Sex, sex, anything this dangerous, has to be good
good, good
just has to be sex
(get up) on the chair baby, let me dance under your skirt (get up)
everybody on the dance floor now
get up, on the table now, let me show you how to flirt (get up)
I like it baby, when U let me touch U there
I like it, girl, I knew you wasn't wearin' any underwear
baby, is it wrong, that I want U so
I want U baby, I want U now
S.E.X.
Sex, sex, can't stop the feelin' baby, nobody should
Sex, sex, anything this dangerous, has to be good
Just has to be good
Fellas - all the boys that know 'bout the good thing, say yeah yeah
and all the girls with no underwear on say yes (yes)
we're gettin' funky tonight
yo, pick this up
fellas, I want everybody sayin'it on the one, come on: "S.E.X."
Say it S.E.X. come on S.E.X. say it S.E.X.
Keep that goin', Fellas
Come on (S.E.X.) yeah (S.E.X.) come on (S.E.X.)
ladies (S.E.X.), back'em up (S.E.X.), one time: "is the best"
come on (is the best, is the best, is the best)
one lover: sex (I don't think U heard me)
one lover: sex (yeah)
two lovers: death (quit it)
two lovers: death
So my name is Endorphin, I can make U happy U see
I come from planet Venus and I'll take U there
You can be my ecstasy
Now's the time 4 U 2 rock the nation with love and fun
Do the nasty with one love, but only one
Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals, drum machine)
Steve Vai (guitar, acoustic guitar)
Ray White (guitar, vocals)
Roy Estrada (vocals)
Bob Harris (boy soprano)
Ike Willis (vocals)
Bobby Martin (keyboards, saxophone, vocals)
Tommy Mars (keyboards)
Arthur Barrow (keyboards, bass, micro bass, rhythm guitar)
Ed Mann (percussion)
Scott Thunes (bass)
Chad Wackerman (drums)
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums)
Craig Steward (harmonica)
Dick Fegy (mandolin)
Marty Krystall (saxophone)
What's the ting that they's talkin' about everywhere?
When they wanna be suave 'n' debonair
What's poppin' up the most from coast to coast
At yer bongo party an' yer weenie roast
Even them Christians who are born again
Go out 'n' get pooched every now 'n' then
Do ya do or don't ya don't
Bet yer lyin' if ya say ya won't
Some girls try it 'n' go on a diet
Then they worry 'cause they's too fat
Who wants t'ride on a ironin' board?
That ain't no fun...I tried me one
Grow that meat all over yer bones
Work the wall with the local jones
'N' while you do it, remember this line
The Sniffer says it all the time
"THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
THE BIGGER THE CUSHION..."
Makes no difference if you're young or old
Don't you act like it's made of gold
Ladies they need it just like the guys
Maybe you could use a protein surprise
Any time, anywhere
Why d'ya think it's growin' there
Some girls try it 'n' they don't like it
They complain 'cause it don't last
Who wants to ride on a debutante?
They talks too much...they moves too fast
Watch the scenery while you ride
You can be very warm inside
'N' when the train goes 'round the bend
Check the shrub'ry on the other end
"THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
THE BIGGER THE CUSHION, THE BETTER THE PUSHIN'
Shawty come here
I wanna grab your body
Lay you on the sofa
And as I pull your hair
I'm gonna stroke your body
Make ya bend over, for me
And you've been waitin' patiently
For me to break you off
And girl your clothes still on
But i'Ma rip'em off
With my teeth yeah, yeah, yeah
And girl i'Ma whisper this into your ear
How deep do you want me to go?
Do you want me to speed it up, speed it up or go slow?
Start from the bed
then we out here on the floor
Girl you're really in for a treat now
But don't fall in love cause
We just havin' sex
I'm gonna get you wet
We not makin' love tonight
Hickeys all over your neck
Kissin' all over your body, babe
Girl you gon' get it tonight
When we have sex, sex, sex [4x]
When we have sex
Lookin' at my baby
Sleepin' like a baby
Body so amazing
Drive me crazy
I'm about to wake you up
Girl I wanna sex you up
I know how to go about this
Cause I gotta do somethin'
Kissin' and the touchin'
Ain't no rushin'
When it comes to sexin'
Slow and easy does it
You gon' think you dreaming
About me licking you
Girl you can thank me in the morning
When you wake up
Feeling hella good
Feeling like you want me
I didn't realize
How much I made you scream, yeah
We just havin' sex
I'm gonna get you wet
We not makin' love tonight
Hickeys all over your neck
Kissin' all over your body, babe
Girl you gon' get it tonight
When we have sex, sex, sex [4x]
When we have sex
It's gon' be the best
Best you ever had
I can promise that baby
I lay you on your back
Then between your legs
I can make'em spread baby
We just havin' sex
I'm gonna get you wet
We not makin' love tonight
Hickeys all over your neck
Kissin' all over your body, babe
Girl you gon' get it tonight
When we have sex, sex, sex [4x]
Werner treibt's mit Karin, Carola treibt's mit mir
Du hast was mit Waltraut, die hat unser'n Sohn verführt
Ich hab 'ne Annonce in der Zeitung für Samstag:
suche gleichgesinntes Ehepaar
Sex
Ich weiß noch von früher, zwanzig Jahre alt,
nur vom Händchenhalten wurd' mir heiß und kalt.
Zum Erotiklikör muß ich mich zwingen,
sonst kann ich im Bett nichts mehr bringen.
Sex
Ich reiß' mir 'en Foto aus'm Penthouse raus,
ich häng's an die Wand... na, was mach ich wohl da drauf?
'nen Videorekorder hab ich mir bestellt,
mit so schweinische Filme. Was kostet die Welt?
Ich bin schon ganz hektisch, ich hatt' lang nichts neues,
ich hab's versucht mit Rita, doch die ist so was treues.
Sex
Das war 'ne geile Party, gestern mit den neuen,
hoffentlich war'n die gesund, der Mann ist bei der Steuer.
Meine Frau, die Susi, die schwärmt für Italiener -
doch da hört ja der Spaß wohl auf, das wäre ja noch schöner!
Sex
Sex I the morning,sex at night,sex in the afternoon's alright
Ain't a man on earth,that can stay alive
Without a .....sex drive
I was in a contest to rock the world
First prize was a virgin young girl
For four days I was up on the mic
All sucker MC's were on the bite
Bittin' my rhymes,stealin' my style
I rocked so hard,it wasn't true
I won the virgin girl,and her MAMA too
When I'm upon the microphone
All the fly young ladies want a take me home
When the party's over,take me to their house
Throw me in the bed,know what we're talkin' about?
Then they say,"Ice-T you are the best
I love your eyes
Your things,your chest
You put all my lovers to shame
I can't remember my boyfriends name
You made me feel all hot and wet
The way you move I can't forget
I came,I came,I came again it felt so good I told my friends
You can have my cars,my jewels,my wealth
I love you more than I love myself
After tonight fulfilled I'll be
No hundred men could match ICE-T
Then she turn out the lights,throw back the sheets
And then our two hot bodies meet
And all at once she felt the thrill
The caress of the best,the Ice-T chill
Start with her tongue upon the back of my leg
She didn't stop till I hollered screamed and begged
Then she rolled me over,took me to the stage
Like in the nasty book where you tore out the page
I put it in their blouse
In their brain their little panties that their boyfriend saw
I put it in their mini skirt and up their thigh
Deep,deep girls,I wanna make you cry
I move it in and out,know what I'm talkin' about
Then around your neck until you show respect
Then on your cheek until I reach my peak
Then in your mouth girl,no joke,I'll take it out
Don't want to see you choke
I'll run it down your back,might cause a heart attack
I'll put it in your butt until I get enough
And then I'll take it out and put it in my pants
'Cause I fuck with the beat,the only way to dance
I like it i love it
I want it all the time
(sex)
I crave it I needs it
Its always on my mind
(sex)
I like it i love it
I want it all the time
(sex)
I crave it I needs it
Its always on my mind
(sex)
I gotta show the other freaky side of me
Girl i wanna give you every inch you need
Jump up in my truck and let me take you there
Let me ride you thru the night
I'm a sexaholic and im cool with it
So let me eat the kitty till i'm thru wit it
Wanna see you shake it 'cause you lovin' it
The pleasures all mine
I want it all the time
Its always on my mind
Its just a part of me
Sex I Love
I love it anywhere
The bed the floor or chair
Its just a part of me
Sex I Love
I want her to beg while im hitting it
Wanna see you beg while im diggin' it
Not Just In And out im a circle man
Everything i wanna feel
Hittin' every wall is the master plan
Gotta let you know the kind of man i am
Gotta put it down gotta rep to keep
I know how women talk yeah
I want it all the time
Its always on my mind
Its just a part of me
Sex I Love
I love it anywhere
The bed the floor or chair
Its just a part of me
Sex I Love
I want to feel you close to me
And never will i let you go
The feeling of love is something that i need
And this is something that you gotta know
You see you already know tha kind girl i am
Need a mean long stroke and a video cam
Cherry bra high heels i ain't entice my man
Making love by the tub playing one of your jams
Then in front of the mirror watch me work the pole
Then i work you on the chair till i reach my goal
When i bring it to the floor let you take control
See me bend while you dig, see this thing is gold
My weakness, pretty niggas with big sticks
That do tongue tricks
Starring in our own porno flicks
Turn you on like a light switch
Hard as a brick
'cause you lovin how im moving it and its extra thick
I'll have you anywhere bed floor or chair
And you can spank me hard and pull my hair
You see its all for you i aint the type to share
So you got dick for days and i got ass to spare
I like it
I love it
Adam Ant/Marco Pirroni
and when summer gets to me
and sets the sex on fire
my body is an ocean
of twisted white debris
and when summer gets to me
and sets the heart in motion
a pain that hides in my insides
is suddenly set free
and sex is sex forget the rest
the only one that's free
the only great adventure left
to humankind, that's you and me
and when summer gets to me
and tries to make me tired
I'm living every minute
and dying every three
and sex is sex forget the rest
the only one that's free
the only great adventure left
to humankind, that's you and me
let all the braggers brag
Sex
S-E-X
virginity's no crime
Sex
S-E-X
your body should be yours
Sex
S-E-X
and sharing it sublime
Sex
S-E-X
THIS SONG IS NOT A TOKIO HOTEL SONG.
THIS SONG IS SUNG BY LUKAS HILBERT.
Irgendwie weiß ich genau,
du bist eine wunderbare Frau.
und so was läuft eim wirklich nich so oft übern weg.
Is ja eigentlich auch egal du bist es ja auch ohne mich.
du hast einfach nur ein neuen Freund gewonnen für dich.
a oohh
Ich mag alles wie du gehst,
und wie du mich verstehst
und wie du mir dann immer wieder meinen kopf
verdrehst und es bleibt spannen.
du hast diesen Respekt.
Für dich geh ich durch die wand,
du behandelst mich perfekt,
und es geht im Endeffekt nich einfach nur um sex.
nein na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na
Immer wenn ich an dich denk,
is es wie Musik im Ohr
und die schrägsten töne komm mir am schönsten vor.
1x1 is 3x4 als wärn ganz viele Engel hier.
ne es gibt keinen Himmel wenn dann gibts ihn nur mit dir.
ahh ohh oh
ich mag alles wie du gehst,
und wie du mich verstehst
und wie du mir dann immer wieder meinen kopf
verdrehst und es bleibt spannen.
du hast diesen Respekt
für dich geh ich durch die wand
du behandelst mich perfekt
und es geht im Endeffekt nich einfach nur um sex.
Na na na…………..
für dich geh ich durch die Wand. du behandelst mich perfekt
Du hast die Macht der Nacht
Deine Sehnsucht bringt dich zum Schrein
Denn heute Nacht hast du
Das Gefuhl unsterblich zu sein
Du siehst mich all und an
Deine Angst ist eliminiert
Und unser Fleisch verliert
Seine Form und assimiliert
Sex - Sex - Gib mir Sex
Du hast die Qual der Wahl
Doch du weisst du musst dich befrein
Zum ersten Mal hast du
Das Gefuhl am Leben zu sein
Du fasst mich an und all
Deine Angst ist eliminiert
Und unser Blut verlesst
Seine Bahn und kontaminiert
You know there's a dirty word
Never gonna say it first
No, it's just a thought
That never crosses my mind
Maybe in the parking lot
Better bring your friend along
Better rock together
Than just one at a time
S is for the simplety
E is for the ecstasy
X is just to mark the spot
'Cause that's the one you really want
Yes, sex is always the answer, it's never a question
'Cause the answer's yes, oh the answer's yes
Not just a suggestion, if you ask a question
Then it's always yes, yeah
I'm loving what you wanna wear
I wonder what's up under there
Wonder if I'll ever have it
Under my tongue
I'll love to try to set you free
I love you all over me
Love to hear the sound you make
The second you're done
S is for the simplety
E is for the ecstasy
X is just to mark the spot
'Cause that's the one you really want
Yes, sex is always the answer, it's never a question
'Cause the answer's yes, oh the answer's yes
Not just a suggestion, if you ask a question
Then it's always yes
Yeah, yeah, yeah
(Yes)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
S is for the simplety
E is for the ecstasy
X is just to mark the spot
'Cause that's the one you really want
Yes, sex is always the answer, it's never a question
'Cause the answer's yes, oh, the answer's yes
Not just a suggestion, if you ask a question
Then it's always yes, yeah
Yes, sex is always the answer, it's never a question
'Cause the answer's yes, oh, the answer's yes
Not just a suggestion, if you ask a question
Then it's always yes
Yeah, yeah, yeah
(Yes)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
(Yes)
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
(Yes)
Sex!
Written by Supergrass
Sex, is a very funny thing,
Sometimes it's good,
Sometimes it's bad,
You can't get it all the same,
First time, it can be very hard,
But, you know, you gotta try it again,
yeah, just try it again,
Now sex, is a curious thing,
Sometimes it burns,
Sometimes it stings,
Sometimes it leaves a stain,
One day, you just had enough,
Next day, you gotta do it again,
And again and again,
In one________Shepherds pie,
In two________Shepherds pie,
In three________Shepherds pie,
And Bully's special prize,
A years supply of shepherds pie (oh, cheers),
Now sex, is a very funny thing,
Sometimes it [s/e]
Sometimes it [s/e]
And sometime [s/e]
The first time can be very hard,
But, you know, you gotta try it again,
yeah, you just try it again,
and again,
and that's sex.
[Waka Flocka Flame:]
Sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight
Sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight
Threesome Threesome let a nigga seesome betta come correct waka flocka got that shit whatchu doing girl with all that got a nigga dizzy off your love off your sex it smell good and it's wet could she take it shes like yes yes we fucking so hard her hairs a mess mess damn lil shawty waka in the party all the girls yellin gettin crazy actin retarded waka flocka flame repeat that fuckin name if you want a lil change is straight fresh outfit fresh shide with the waka beat that pussy with a nest sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight
[Lil Capp:]
Oh yeahh let's have sex baby I'm a have you feignin throw it back throw it back and I'm a keep you screamin she hotter than a deamon president that got her steamin she call me when her man leave yep got her sceamin and she keep telling me that I'm the one she dreamin about at night so baby what's the meanin we drunka than a mothafuckaa goose gotta leaninn and you wanna be you mighty well at the team in and she rode me like a chaufer I had to tell ha slow down baby it's the president you know you got to go down and make sure you swallow it all cause I'm so low down she bust 3 I bust 1 so that equals 4 rounds
[Waka Flocka Flame:]
Sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight
Sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight I'm chasin you I'm chasin you I'm makin it I'm makin it heres to reblow pennyweed lilsunshine said she wanna ride with me down ass girl in my passenger seat bad ass bitch in my passenger seat long hair lightskin fat ass thin waist dark and long nigga fuck the case hoes on my dick like I'm babyface pointblank arrange one shot to the face s.I.e.d.t.e.s.I.b.h.s.t the whole riverdale gone fuck with me I been apon my glocka sheets so please don't miss understand me sex s e x I'm a beat that pussy up yeah shawty no flex put me to the test I can make your leg shake bet I make the bed brake make yo booty gain weight
Eh, yo, yo, now see most cats, would take advantage of you right now
But I ain't gone do that yo, I'mma give you the game, right
I'mma give it to you because I would want somebody
To give my little girl the game when she done found her S.E.X.
Life's a trip
Heard you just turned 17 and finally got some hips
Hustlers on the block go crazy when you lick ya lips
But they just want relation they don't want relationship
(Welcome to the real world)
It ain't the same, fellas old enough to be ya daddy know ya name
Everybody's talking ?bout how much that girl done changed
Can't quite put ya finger on it but you feelin' strange
Like it's fire in your veins
Girl, it's just yo S.E.X., momma's secret
And daddy gon' go crazy when he finds out
That his baby's found her S.E.X.
Take a deep breath and think before you let it go
The block is packed
Baby gott an attitude and proud to holla back
Momma's givin' advice but she ain't tryna hear that
Not because it's wrong, just her delivery is whack
(Shay get ya behind in this house, if I see you with another boy, I swear)
Life is rough, you say that you're not ready for sex, but you're in love
He says, if you'd really loved him, you would give it up
Momma says that's just a line guys use to get ya stuff
Which one will you trust?
Girl, it's just yo S.E.X., momma's secret
And daddy gon' go crazy when he finds out
That his baby's found her S.E.X.
Take a deep breath and think before you let it go
Eh, yo Lyfe, she may take it better coming from a woman
See he'll tell you all kind of things to get in your pants, yeah
Baby, it's a fact, that once it's gone you'll never get it back
Hold on, to your innocence, use your common sense
You're worth waiting for
Be strong, honey, don't give in
Blessings come with patience
Until we meet again, I'm praying for you
Girl, it's just yo S.E.X., momma's secret
And daddy gon' go crazy when he finds out
That his baby's found her S.E.X.
Take a deep breath and think before you let it go
Girl, it's just yo S.E.X., momma's secret
And daddy gon' go crazy when he finds out
That his baby's found her S.E.X.
Take a deep breath and think before you let it go
I hear the strangest things echo through the walls
Moaning groaning eroneous zone bouncing like a ball
Crash bang boom bang bump-a-dee-bump - all night to
meet
the band
Oh no I feel the pain how much more can I stand
I pounded on the pipes
I call on the phone
There they go again
Bone to bone
Sex - Sex - Sex
Sex - Sex - Sex
Uh - Sex - Uh
Sex - Sex
I see them come I see them go
But somehow they look the same
Miniskirts and see-through shirts
A high heel crying shame
Check in and checkin' out
Well this ain't no sleaze hotel
Calling 'til the daylight comes
But check-out time is twelve
Dishes off the wall
The bed springs squeak
But the mating call
Makes a strong man weak
Sex - Sex - Sex
I want Apartment B
Sex - Sex - Sex
One floor on top of me
Uh - Sex - Uh
Oh baby up 'til now
Sex - Sex
My doors always open
My phones on the hook
My mailbox is waiting
My names in the book
Got ads in the paper
But nobody cares
Apartment A's lonely
The action's upstairs
Sex - Sex - Sex
Sex - Sex - Sex
Sex - Sex - Sex
I want some
Sex - Sex
You got him don't forget about me
Sex - Sex - Sex
Oh no
Sex - Sex
Feel the fire, feel my love inside you, it's so right
Here's the sound and the smell of love in my mind
I'm a toy, come and play with me, say the word now
Wrap your legs around mine and ride me tonight
I'm a man
I'm a goddess
I'm a man
Well, I'm a virgin
I'm a man
I'm a blue movie
I'm a man
I'm a bitch
I'm a man
I'm a Geisha
I'm a man
I'm a little girl
And we make love together
Slip and slide in your wet delight, feel the blood flow
Not too fast, don't be slow, my love's in your hands
I'm a man
I'm a boy
I'm a man
Well, I'm your mother
I'm a man
I'm a one night stand
I'm a man
I'm a bi
I'm a man
I'm a slave
I'm a man
I'm a little girl
And we make love together
And we make love forever
Skin to skin, tongue to ooh, come on honey, hold tight
Come inside, it's a passion play just for you
Let's get lost in that magic place all alone now
Drink your fill from my fountain of love, wet your lips
I'm a man
I'm a teaser
I'm a man
Well, I'm a virgin
I'm a man
I'm a one night stand
I'm a man
I'm a drug
I'm a man
Well, I'm your slave
I'm a man
I'm a dream divine
And we make love together
I'm a man
I'm a goddess
I'm a man
Well, I'm a hooker
Yes I'm a man
I'm a blue movie
You know I'm a man
I'm a slut
I'm a man
I'm your babe
I'm a man
I'm a dream divine
And we make love together
And we'll make love forever
I don't mean to be pushy, pushy
I'm just in it for the pussy, pussy
Who wants to come get a pie of the piece
Got time for everyone, I ain't on no leash
Be single and mingle around
Seen one too many get tied down
That shit right there is pricey
I ain't got no wifey
I don't mean to be pushy, pushy
I'm just in it for the pussy, pussy
Who wants to come get a pie of the piece
Got time for everyone, I ain't on no leash
Be single and mingle around
Seen one too many get tied down
Are you set?
Back up, let me get that
Do you ever get horny reading a text?
You ever had sex over the Internet?
Webcam and shit wet up your tushy
Cut the story straight play with your pussy
All lovers put the plug in the socket like Bobby and Suzie
Wet up the place like a hot jacuzzi
I might come across sweet, really I'm a rudie
Ever since I started puberty
I was looking in magazines just to see the nudity
Truthfully, guess I don't care who you be, be
I'm fine if you take a chicks virginity
Looking at your phone becomes a misery
'Cause she calls you up more times than infinity
Bitch, let me be, I don't need no stress
I'd rather have a pint and a li'l bit sex
Who you think I am? I ain't buying you a dress
That's candy floss and I ain't here to impress
Sex no text, root it then boot it, shag that back
Fuck all the kissing and cuddling
Why don't you grab my balls and try juggling
Josh slept with Bianca
Little did she know he was wanker
'Cause he was a bi-sexual prick
He love slits as well as dicks
He fucked Bianca as hard as Rick
Never thinking of takin' a trip to the clinic
Now they're all in it, they might have AIDS
I can't have babes
At the end of the day
Josh should've put on his hood before the rain
You know what I'm sayin', anyway washin' in
Remember me, hey you know how I like it darlin'
Sex no text, root it then boot it, shag that back
Fuck all the kissing and cuddling
Why don't you put my knob in your mouth and try swallowing
Sex is a crazy thing
Especially if you do it with someone that you don't know
There's nothing wrong with a one night stand
Just watch your possession if she's a ho though
If you only knew what some females have put me through
Last week, I chased by a beast
Licking her lips like I'm some feast
I was drunk, my eyes were red
I'm kinda known so I wanted some head
Somehow we ended up in a bed
Little did I know she dreds on her legs and a wig on her head
I ain't gonna lie, I was scared
Bit fat mama came all prepared
'Bout which color condom would I like
Get the fuck off me, ooh
I don't mean to be pushy, pushy
I'm just in it for the pussy, pussy
Who wants to come get a pie of the piece
Got time for everyone, I ain't on no leash
Be single and mingle around
Seen one too many get tied down
That shit right there is pricey
I ain't got no wifey
I don't mean to be pushy, pushy
I'm just in it for the pussy, pussy
Who wants to come get a pie of the piece
Got time for everyone, I ain't on no leash
Be single and mingle around
Seen one to many get tied down, down
Thanks for your time
Test the world ... United colours
I told myself I wasn't about to give up!
What time is it? It doesn't matter anymore!
I watch the sea through my colour tv - It's all over now
But I knew that for me throwing myself
Into the world of helplines, charities, clinics, socialworkers
Doctors, nurses and specialists was not the answer
But there are 1,000,000 different ways of living with it!
I partied harder than ever before
All night, every night, every second, every minute and tonight ...
Enjoy Everything!
I had been blind and I'm blind today!
Sex sex sex - well don't bush around the beat
This is the soul of indiscretion so let's get
indiscreet, yeah
Sex sex sex - watch you break out in a sweat
It's what you gonna get
Sex sex sex (uh-huh) - but you got the motion that the
boys
And girls all wanna touch and take it home
Just cut that small talk 'n' the floorplay
Just cut that cute display
(get it up, get in on)
Just cut that chi chi 'n' machismo
I said oh oh oh
Sex sex sex - well you came here just to dance
Well c'est ci bon don't worry it's the same jouissance,
yeah
Sex sex sex - don't ever let that go
You find any reason for what you wanna do now
But you got the motion that the boys 'n' girls
All wanna touch and take it home
Get up and jump to debasement
Get up and masterstroke
(get it up, get in on)
Amoral disarmament baby
I said oh oh oh-yeah
Sex sex sex - well your angle is acute
You gotta lotta finesse in your sharkskin suit now
Sex sex sex - you don't need no excuse
Your body has a function so you put it to a use, yeah
But you got the motion that the boys 'n' girls
All wanna touch and take it home
Just cut that small talk 'n' the floorplay
Just cut that cute display
(get it up, get in on)
Amoral disarmament baby
I said oh oh oh-yeah
Sex sex sex
Sex sex sex - c'mon 'n' break that rule
Let's break it into pieces that are long 'n' sweet 'n'
cool, yeah
Sex sex sex (oooh) - you ain't got no money
But you will afford to loosen up and let it go
Get up and jump to debasement
Get up and masterstroke
(get it up, get in on)
Just cut that chi chi 'n' machismo
I said oh oh oh-yeah
Sex sex sex - well let's lay it on a line
You can let me know with your eyes an' I'll let you
know with mine, yeah
Sex sex sex - but don't bush around the beat
This is the soul of indiscretion, let's get indiscreet,
yeah
You got the motion that the boys and girls all wanna
touch and take it home
Just cut that small talk 'n' the floorplay
Just cut that cute display
(get it up, get in on)
Amoral disarmament baby
Eh yo you
Now see most cats, would take advantage of you right now
But I aint gone do that yo
Imma give you the game, right
Imma give it to you because
I would want somebody to give my little girl the game
When she done found her S.E.X
Life’s a trip
Heard you just turned 17 and finally got some hips
Hustlers on the block go crazy when you lick ya lips
But they just want relation
They don’t want relationship
(welcome to the real world)
It ain’t the same
Fellas old enough to be ya daddy know ya name
Everybodys talking’ ‘bout how much that girl done changed
Can’t quite put ya finger on it
But you feelin’ strange
Like its fire in your veins
Girl it’s just your
S.E.X.
Mama's secret
And Daddy gone go crazy when he finds out that his baby’s found her
S.E.X.
Take a deep breath
And think before you let it go (let it go)
The block is packed
Baby gotta attitude and proud to holla back
Momma’s givin’ advice but she ain’t tryna hear that
Not because its wrong, just her delivery is wack
(Shay get ya behind in this house, if I see you with another boy, I swear)
Life is rough,
You say that you’re not ready for sex, but you’re in love
He says if you’d really loved him, you would give it up
Mamma says that’s just a line guys use to get ya stuff
Which one will you trust?
Girl it’s just your
S.E.X.
Mama's secret
And Daddy gone go crazy when he finds out that his baby’s found her
S.E.X.
Take a deep breath
And think before you let it go (let it go)
Eh yo Lyfe, she may take it better coming from a woman (Give it to her)
See he’ll tell you all kind of things to get in your pants, yeah
Baby it’s a fact, that once it’s gone you’ll never get it back (never get it back)
Hold on, to your innocence
Use your common sense
You’re worth waiting for (You’re worth waiting for)
Be strong
Honey don’t give in
Blessing come with patience
Until we meet again, I’m praying, for you
Girl it’s just your
S.E.X.
Mama's secret
And Daddy gone go crazy when he finds out that his baby’s found her
S.E.X.
Take a deep breath
Du hast super viele scheine und du meinst du wärst die beste trägst eine teure
weste ißt nie reste teste - ich deinen charakter stell' ich sofort fest - deine
scheine prägen dich sicherlich ist ein nest - voller seelenkummer in dir außen
bist du attraktiv oin deine falle lief ich schon und war sehr tief - in dir du
biest doch du bist so falsch nach außen - regelst immer alles bist im mittel-
punkt -na und - hast ein tolles hausmädel und ein tolles zimmer - wenn deine
eltern weg war'n hab'n wir immer... - und immer öfter hatten wir 'ne party hab'n
getrunken war'n betrunken - sind gesunken in den stunden warst du offen für die
wunden - die du antust wieso weshalb warum versuchst - du dich nicht zu ändern
indem du danach suchst - was du willst wenn du wirklich willst in deinem leben -
sonst stehst du nie über den dingen sondern stehst daneben
du hast lange blonde haare und schöne blaue augen - den besten körper den ein
mädchen haben kann vertrau'n - könnt' ich dir nie mehr du hast zu oft gelogen -
du hast mich ausgezogen mich benutzt und mich betrogen - du nutzt alle aus denn
aus siehst du genial - wahre freunde kennst du nicht nur das geld deine wahl -
ist ent-schieden denn lieben wirst du deinen körper - deine dicken titten zähl'n
mehr als charackter oder wörter - daß wir zusammen war'n hast du nie vergessen -
auf'ner fete gabst du trinken mehr den vorzug als dem essen - wolltest eine
nacht mit aleksey ganz alleine - wolltest dir beweisen daß du toll bist wie
sonst keine - leider hatte ich keine lust auf dich süße - ich sagte nimm 'nen
andern und bestell' ihm schöne grüße - gib mir mehr und oh aleks ich will dich
so sehr - das ist schon sehr lange her und ist vergangenheit babyyyy
dieses stück ist genau dem mädchen gewidmet welches meint sie könnte nur mit
ihrem körper den jungs den kopf verdreh'n nein nein nein zu bequem machen wir
ihr's nicht mädel denk' einfach mal darüber nach was du den anderen antust wieso
versuchst du dich nicht zu ändern indem du danach suchst wen du wirklich willst
wen wen wen in deinem leben sag es mir sag es mir du stehst nicht drin' sondern
daneb'n
Irgendwie weiss ich genau
Du bist eine wunderbare Frau
Und sowas läuft einem wirklich nicht so oft über'n Weg
Ist ja eigentlich auch egal
Du bist es ja auch ohne mich
Du hast einfach nur ein neuen Freund gewonnen für dich
Ich mag alles wie du gehst
Und wie du mich verstehst
Und wie du mir dann immer wieder meinen Kopf verdrehst
Und es bleibt spannend
Du hast diesen Respekt
Für dich geh ich durch die Wand
Du behandelst mich perfekt
Und es geht im Endeffekt nicht einfach nur um Sex
Immer wenn ich an dich denk
Ist es wie Musik im Ohr
Und die schrägsten Töne
Kommen mir am schönsten vor
Ein mal eins ist drei mal vier
Als wären ganz viele Engel hier
Ne es gibt keinen Himmel
Wenn dann gibt's den nur mit dir
Ich mag alles wie du gehst
Und wie du mich verstehst
Und wie du mir dann immer wieder meinen Kopf verdrehst
Und es bleibst spannend
Du hast diesen Respekt
Für dich geh ich durch die Wand
Du behandelst mich perfekt
Und es geht im Endeffekt nicht einfach nur um Sex
Für dich geh ich durch die Wand
Du behandelst mich perfekt
Und es geht im Endeffekt nicht einfach nur um Sex
He said we could talk about gossip
We could talk about lies
He said we could talk about rumours
We could do whatever i like
Then he said 'lets stop with all the talking, w
Hy not try something new? Because there's no need for any talking in what wer'e about to do'
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
You know im all for conversation, im really quite romantic you know,
Why not get right to the point, its not that often we are left alone
No offence, when you get going you really can be quite a bore, now dont take this the wrong
Way, but my heels are gettting sore
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
We spent a winter and a spring, just listening not talking, come weather, rain or shine,
No-one ever told you then, but conversations in my head helped me to pass the time
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
He said we could talk about gossip
We could talk about lies
He said we could talk about rumours
We could do whatever i like
Then he said 'lets stop with all the talking, w
Hy not try something new? Because there's no need for any talking in what wer'e about to do'
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
You know im all for conversation, im really quite romantic you know,
Why not get right to the point, its not that often we are left alone
No offence, when you get going you really can be quite a bore, now dont take this the wrong
Way, but my heels are gettting sore
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
We spent a winter and a spring, just listening not talking, come weather, rain or shine,
No-one ever told you then, but conversations in my head helped me to pass the time
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Oh rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
Rest, your pretty head, you pretty head
(just rest, just rest, just rest your pretty head)
Dont trouble your pretty head, your pretty head
I'm a centerfold
I'm 69 fantasies an hours bro
I'm a lap dance
I'm a red light flickering in Amsterdam
I am champagne
I'm a little lubrication for the campaign
I am silicone
Can't get me off your chest I never leave you alone
I am...sex, right now I know your thinking of me
I am...sex, I'm anywhere that you want me to be
I am...sex, I'm America's favorite drug
I am...sex, and I want you to think that I'm love
Remember the first time you met me in the back seat of a taxi
when you asked me could you come again
I 'm sweat
Running down your neck, a 20 in your thong, best way to get it on
I'm Sade
Any music that you play's a soundtrack for me
I am vanity
I'm lipstick, gloss, and surgery
I'm your fantasy
Your climax is my symphony
Don't forget who made you
I am...sex, right now I know your thinking of me
I am...sex, I'm anywhere that you want me to be
I am...sex, America's favorite drug
I am...sex, and I want you to think that I'm love
Sex, you see me on the TV screen
I am...sex, every station is playing me
I am...America's favorite drug
I am...sex, and I want you to think that I'm love
I am the ultimate marketing gimmick
Any I'm your first
And I'm that 4 a.m. phone call drunk...on a weak night
And I'm obsession and pleasure and stife
I am...violent in the wrong hands...I'm life
Sex sells...everybody knows that
Blow a little kiss baby maybe I will blow back
Temptation beckons
I know you think about me every seven seconds
I'm in your attitude, I'm loves subtitute
I'm on a chat line talkin' from a phone booth
All y'all know why you came
And if you don't come and say my name
Sex, sex
I am...sex, right now I know your thinking of me
I am...sex, I'm anywhere you want me to be
I am...sex, America's favorite drug
I am...sex, and I want you to think that I'm love
Sex, you see me on the TV screen
I am...sex, every station is is playing me
I am...America's favorite drug
Move away and let yourself to breathe again,
Move away and you can feel the different taste,
Nothin's the same,
And i can't wait for your lovin',
I wanna bury the hatred i am sorry,
SEX that seals our license to love,
SEX will heal and the rage is all gone,
Save your tears tonight,
Turn around and we can start to go about,
Turn around just tell me where and when and how,
And I'll make that sound,
And i can't wait for your body,
I wanna bury all the hatred, yeah i'm sorry,
SEX that seals our license to love,
SEX will heal and the rage is all gone,
Save your tears tonight,
And i can't wait till i hear it,
I can almost feel it i can see it,
In biology, sexual reproduction is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety, each known as a sex. Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells (gametes) to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents. Gametes can be identical in form and function (known as isogametes), but in many cases an asymmetry has evolved such that two sex-specific types of gametes (heterogametes) exist: male gametes are small, motile, and optimized to transport their genetic information over a distance, while female gametes are large, non-motile and contain the nutrients necessary for the early development of the young organism.
An organism's sex is defined by the gametes it produces: males produce male gametes (spermatozoa, or sperm) while females produce female gametes (ova, or egg cells); individual organisms which produce both male and female gametes are termed hermaphroditic. Frequently, physical differences are associated with the different sexes of an organism; these sexual dimorphisms can reflect the different reproductive pressures the sexes experience.
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It is considered that sexual reproduction first appeared about a billion years ago, evolved within ancestral single-celled eukaryotes.[1] The reason for the initial evolution of sex, and the reason(s) it has survived to the present, are still matters of debate. Some of the many plausible theories include: that sex creates variation among offspring, sex helps in the spread of advantageous traits, and that sex helps in the removal of disadvantageous traits.
Sexual reproduction is a process specific to eukaryotes, organisms whose cells contain a nucleus and mitochondria. In addition to animals, plants, and fungi, other eukaryotes (e.g. the malaria parasite) also engage in sexual reproduction. Some bacteria use conjugation to transfer genetic material between cells; while not the same as sexual reproduction, this also results in the mixture of genetic traits.
What is considered defining of sexual reproduction is the difference between the gametes and the binary nature of fertilization. Multiplicity of gamete types within a species would still be considered a form of sexual reproduction. However, no third gamete is known in multicellular animals.[2][3][4]
While the evolution of sex itself dates to the eukaryote stage, the origin of chromosomal sex determination is younger. The ZW sex-determination system is shared by birds, some fish and some crustaceans. Most mammals, but also some insects (Drosophila) and plants (Ginkgo) use XY sex-determination. X0 sex-determination is found in certain insects.
No genes are shared between the avian ZW and mammal XY chromosomes,[5] and from a comparison between chicken and human, the Z chromosome appeared similar to the autosomal chromosome 9 in human, rather than X or Y, suggesting that the ZW and XY sex-determination systems do not share an origin, but that the sex chromosomes are derived from autosomal chromosomes of the common ancestor of birds and mammals. A paper from 2004 compared the chicken Z chromosome with platypus X chromosomes and suggested that the two systems are related.[6]
Sexual reproduction is a process where organisms form offspring that combine genetic traits from both parents. Chromosomes are passed on from one generation to the next in this process. Each cell in the offspring has half the chromosomes of the mother and half of the father.[7] Genetic traits are contained within the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of chromosomes – by combining one of each type of chromosomes from each parent, an organism is formed containing a doubled set of chromosomes. This double-chromosome stage is called "diploid", while the single-chromosome stage is "haploid". Diploid organisms can, in turn, form haploid cells (gametes) that randomly contain one of each of the chromosome pairs, via a process called meiosis.[8] Meiosis also involves a stage of chromosomal crossover, in which regions of DNA are exchanged between matched types of chromosomes, to form a new pair of mixed chromosomes. Crossing over and fertilization (the recombining of single sets of chromosomes to make a new diploid) result in the new organism containing a different set of genetic traits from either parent.
In many organisms, the haploid stage has been reduced to just gametes specialized to recombine and form a new diploid organism; in others, the gametes are capable of undergoing cell division to produce multicellular haploid organisms. In either case, gametes may be externally similar, particularly in size (isogamy), or may have evolved an asymmetry such that the gametes are different in size and other aspects (anisogamy).[9] By convention, the larger gamete (called an ovum, or egg cell) is considered female, while the smaller gamete (called a spermatozoon, or sperm cell) is considered male. An individual that produces exclusively large gametes is female, and one that produces exclusively small gametes is male. An individual that produces both types of gametes is a hermaphrodite; in some cases hermaphrodites are able to self-fertilize and produce offspring on their own, without a second organism.[10]
Most sexually reproducing animals spend their lives as diploid organisms, with the haploid stage reduced to single cell gametes.[11] The gametes of animals have male and female forms—spermatozoa and egg cells. These gametes combine to form embryos which develop into a new organism.
The male gamete, a spermatozoon (produced within a testicle), is a small cell containing a single long flagellum which propels it.[12] Spermatozoa are extremely reduced cells, lacking many cellular components that would be necessary for embryonic development. They are specialized for motility, seeking out an egg cell and fusing with it in a process called fertilization.
Female gametes are egg cells (produced within ovaries), large immobile cells that contain the nutrients and cellular components necessary for a developing embryo.[13] Egg cells are often associated with other cells which support the development of the embryo, forming an egg. In mammals, the fertilized embryo instead develops within the female, receiving nutrition directly from its mother.
Animals are usually mobile and seek out a partner of the opposite sex for mating. Animals which live in the water can mate using external fertilization, where the eggs and sperm are released into and combine within the surrounding water.[14] Most animals that live outside of water, however, must transfer sperm from male to female to achieve internal fertilization.
In most birds, both excretion and reproduction is done through a single posterior opening, called the cloaca—male and female birds touch cloaca to transfer sperm, a process called "cloacal kissing".[15] In many other terrestrial animals, males use specialized sex organs to assist the transport of sperm—these male sex organs are called intromittent organs. In humans and other mammals this male organ is the penis, which enters the female reproductive tract (called the vagina) to achieve insemination—a process called sexual intercourse. The penis contains a tube through which semen (a fluid containing sperm) travels. In female mammals the vagina connects with the uterus, an organ which directly supports the development of a fertilized embryo within (a process called gestation).
Because of their motility, animal sexual behavior can involve coercive sex. Traumatic insemination, for example, is used by some insect species to inseminate females through a wound in the abdominal cavity – a process detrimental to the female's health.
Like animals, plants have developed specialized male and female gametes.[16] Within most familiar plants, male gametes are contained within hard coats, forming pollen. The female gametes of plants are contained within ovules; once fertilized by pollen these form seeds which, like eggs, contain the nutrients necessary for the development of the embryonic plant.
Many plants have flowers and these are the sexual organs of those plants. Flowers are usually hermaphroditic, producing both male and female gametes. The female parts, in the center of a flower, are the carpels—one or more of these may be merged to form a single pistil. Within carpels are ovules which develop into seeds after fertilization. The male parts of the flower are the stamens: these long filamentous organs are arranged between the pistil and the petals and produce pollen at their tips. When a pollen grain lands upon the top of a carpel, the tissues of the plant react to transport the grain down into the carpel to merge with an ovule, eventually forming seeds.
In pines and other conifers the sex organs are conifer cones and have male and female forms. The more familiar female cones are typically more durable, containing ovules within them. Male cones are smaller and produce pollen which is transported by wind to land in female cones. As with flowers, seeds form within the female cone after pollination.
Because plants are immobile, they depend upon passive methods for transporting pollen grains to other plants. Many plants, including conifers and grasses, produce lightweight pollen which is carried by wind to neighboring plants. Other plants have heavier, sticky pollen that is specialized for transportation by insects. The plants attract these insects with nectar-containing flowers. Insects transport the pollen as they move to other flowers, which also contain female reproductive organs, resulting in pollination.
Most fungi reproduce sexually, having both a haploid and diploid stage in their life cycles. These fungi are typically isogamous, lacking male and female specialization: haploid fungi grow into contact with each other and then fuse their cells. In some of these cases the fusion is asymmetric, and the cell which donates only a nucleus (and not accompanying cellular material) could arguably be considered "male".[17]
Some fungi, including baker's yeast, have mating types that create a duality similar to male and female roles. Yeast with the same mating type will not fuse with each other to form diploid cells, only with yeast carrying the other mating type.[18]
Fungi produce mushrooms as part of their sexual reproduction. Within the mushroom diploid cells are formed, later dividing into haploid spores—the height of the mushroom aids the dispersal of these sexually produced offspring.
The most basic sexual system is one in which all organisms are hermaphrodites, producing both male and female gametes—this is true of some animals (e.g. snails) and the majority of flowering plants.[19] In many cases, however, specialization of sex has evolved such that some organisms produce only male or only female gametes. The biological cause for an organism developing into one sex or the other is called sex determination.
In the majority of species with sex specialization, organisms are either male (producing only male gametes) or female (producing only female gametes). Exceptions are common—for example, in the roundworm C. elegans the two sexes are hermaphrodite and male (a system called androdioecy).
Sometimes an organism's development is intermediate between male and female, a condition called intersex. Sometimes intersex individuals are called "hermaphrodite"; but, unlike biological hermaphrodites, intersex individuals are unusual cases and are not typically fertile in both male and female aspects.
In genetic sex-determination systems, an organism's sex is determined by the genome it inherits. Genetic sex-determination usually depends on asymmetrically inherited sex chromosomes which carry genetic features that influence development; sex may be determined either by the presence of a sex chromosome or by how many the organism has. Genetic sex-determination, because it is determined by chromosome assortment, usually results in a 1:1 ratio of male and female offspring.
Humans and other mammals have an XY sex-determination system: the Y chromosome carries factors responsible for triggering male development. The default sex, in the absence of a Y chromosome, is female. Thus, XX mammals are female and XY are male. XY sex determination is found in other organisms, including the common fruit fly and some plants.[19] In some cases, including in the fruit fly, it is the number of X chromosomes that determines sex rather than the presence of a Y chromosome (see below).
In birds, which have a ZW sex-determination system, the opposite is true: the W chromosome carries factors responsible for female development, and default development is male.[20] In this case ZZ individuals are male and ZW are female. The majority of butterflies and moths also have a ZW sex-determination system. In both XY and ZW sex determination systems, the sex chromosome carrying the critical factors is often significantly smaller, carrying little more than the genes necessary for triggering the development of a given sex.[21]
Many insects use a sex determination system based on the number of sex chromosomes. This is called X0 sex-determination—the 0 indicates the absence of the sex chromosome. All other chromosomes in these organisms are diploid, but organisms may inherit one or two X chromosomes. In field crickets, for example, insects with a single X chromosome develop as male, while those with two develop as female.[22] In the nematode C. elegans most worms are self-fertilizing XX hermaphrodites, but occasionally abnormalities in chromosome inheritance regularly give rise to individuals with only one X chromosome—these X0 individuals are fertile males (and half their offspring are male).[23]
Other insects, including honey bees and ants, use a haplodiploid sex-determination system.[24] In this case diploid individuals are generally female, and haploid individuals (which develop from unfertilized eggs) are male. This sex-determination system results in highly biased sex ratios, as the sex of offspring is determined by fertilization rather than the assortment of chromosomes during meiosis.
For many species sex is not determined by inherited traits, but instead by environmental factors experienced during development or later in life. Many reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination: the temperature embryos experience during their development determines the sex of the organism. In some turtles, for example, males are produced at lower incubation temperatures than females; this difference in critical temperatures can be as little as 1–2°C.
Many fish change sex over the course of their lifespan, a phenomenon called sequential hermaphroditism. In clownfish, smaller fish are male, and the dominant and largest fish in a group becomes female. In many wrasses the opposite is true—most fish are initially female and become male when they reach a certain size. Sequential hermaphrodites may produce both types of gametes over the course of their lifetime, but at any given point they are either female or male.
In some ferns the default sex is hermaphrodite, but ferns which grow in soil that has previously supported hermaphrodites are influenced by residual hormones to instead develop as male.[25]
Many animals have differences between the male and female sexes in size and appearance, a phenomenon called sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphisms are often associated with sexual selection – the competition between individuals of one sex to mate with the opposite sex.[26] Antlers in male deer, for example, are used in combat between males to win reproductive access to female deer. In many cases the male of a species is larger in size; in mammals species with high sexual size dimorphism tend to have highly polygynous mating systems—presumably due to selection for success in competition with other males.
Other animals, including most insects and many fish, have larger females. This may be associated with the cost of producing egg cells, which requires more nutrition than producing sperm—larger females are able to produce more eggs.[27] Occasionally this dimorphism is extreme, with males reduced to living as parasites dependent on the female.
In birds, males often have a more colourful appearance and may have features (like the long tail of male peacocks) that would seem to put the organism at a disadvantage (e.g. bright colors would seem to make a bird more visible to predators). One proposed explanation for this is the handicap principle.[28] This hypothesis says that, by demonstrating he can survive with such handicaps, the male is advertising his genetic fitness to females—traits that will benefit daughters as well, who will not be encumbered with such handicaps.
Sex differences in humans include, generally, a larger size and more body hair in men; women have breasts, wider hips, and a higher body fat percentage.
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Book: Sex |
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Fun | |
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![]() Lead singer Nate Ruess at Electric Ballroom, Camden, London. |
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Background information | |
Origin | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Genres | indie pop, alternative rock, power pop[1] |
Years active | 2008–present |
Labels | Fueled by Ramen Records/Nettwerk Records (US) Hassle Records (UK) |
Associated acts | The Format, Steel Train, Anathallo |
Website | ournameisFun.com |
Members | |
Nate Ruess Andrew Dost Jack Antonoff |
Fun (often stylized as fun.) is an American alternative rock band based in New York City that was formed by Nate Ruess, formerly of The Format. After the 2008 breakup of The Format, Ruess formed Fun with Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff of Anathallo and Steel Train respectively.[2] Fun has released two albums: their debut Aim and Ignite in 2009 and their latest Some Nights in February 2012.
The band is best known for its hit single "We Are Young" featuring Janelle Monáe. "We Are Young" reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Digital Songs charts, becoming the first alternative song to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" in 2008. It also peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart.
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The Format split in February 2008. Immediately afterward Nate Ruess asked Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff to join his new project. Dost had toured with The Format and provided various instrumentation. Ruess met Antonoff after The Format toured with Steel Train.[3] The three began working together in New Jersey within a week. Ruess sang melodies while the other two provided music for them.[4] The first demo song the band recorded was "Benson Hedges," which was made available for free in Spin's September 20, 2008 article on the band.[5] Fun approached Steven McDonald, who produced The Format's album Dog Problems with Ruess, to produce their debut album. McDonald was enthusiastic about the project and stated, "I can’t believe what we’re working on here. This crushes anything I’ve ever done."[4]
Recording took place in the fall of 2008. The band's first single, "At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)" was made available as a free download on the band's Myspace page on April 6, 2009.[6] Aim and Ignite was released on August 25, 2009 and had positive reviews. AbsolutePunk.net's Drew Beringer praised the album, stating it was "what a pop album 'should' sound like" and "the most essential pop album of 2009."[7] Allmusic called the album "progressive, but in the best possible way" and admired Ruess's lyrics for "investigating the larger truths of life...with a witty approach that keeps the songs bubbling merrily along on a positive note".[8] Dave de Sylvia of Sputnikmusic wrote, "Aim and Ignite isn’t the most consistent pop album around," but he ultimately commended the album as "a superbly mixed and arranged album made by musicians who clearly understand the limits and potential of pop music".[9] Estella Hung of PopMatters was less impressed with the album. She praised songs "Be Calm" and "The Gambler", but criticized the lyrics and production of the album's early tracks. Hung concluded that while Aim and Ignite is "pretty original to say the least", it "fails to live up to the Format’s last outing."[10] Popdose's Ken Shane called the album "an interesting and unusual listen." Shane applauded the album's songwriting and said "many of the songs are really good," but he objected to the "cute" production, desiring to hear the band "in a more stripped-down form." He ended his review with: "I have a similar problem with Dr. Dog, a band that was recommended to me by a number of people. I think much of their recorded work is too fussed over, but when I saw them live and their sound was more stripped down out of necessity, emphasizing their powerful songwriting, I thought they were wonderful. Perhaps the same fate awaits me with Fun."[11] The album reached number 26 on Sputnikmusic's top 50 albums of 2009. The album peaked at 71 on the US album charts.
Fun began its first North American tour on November 8, 2008 with Jack's Mannequin.[12] The debut album Aim and Ignite was released on August 25, 2009.[13] In reviewing the album, The Washington Post called some of the arrangements "theatrical, much like those on Panic! at the Disco's 2005 debut".[14] In February 2010, Fun supported Jack's Mannequin on their headline tour, along with Vedera which was followed by their first UK appearances in March. Their current touring band also includes Will Noon, Rob Kroehler, Emily Moore, Nate Harold, and Jon "Jonny Thunder" Goldstein.[15] In April 2010, Fun supported Paramore's headline tour. Other support for the tour includes Relient K and Harriet Ellis of Summer Beats.[16] The band then embarked on a full UK tour in May. On August 4, 2010, Fun announced that they had signed with label Fueled by Ramen.[17]
On August 14, 2010, it was announced via the Official Paramore Fan Club that Fun would be opening for Paramore on their November UK tour.[18] In 2010 Fun's single, "Walking the Dog," was used in a commercial for the travel site Expedia.com.[19] In 2010, Will Noon (formerly of Straylight Run) played drums with Fun on tour, according to Noon's Twitter page.[20] To celebrate the Paramore UK tour and the band’s new single ‘Walking The Dog’, Hassle Records gave away a free download of an acoustic version of the track.[21] On April 27, 2011, a video of the band performing a new song entitled "Carry On" was uploaded to YouTube.[22]
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This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (April 2012) |
On May 17, 2011, the band released "C'mon" as a joint single with Panic! at the Disco, who they opened for on their 2011 Vices & Virtues Tour.
On November 7, 2011, the band announced that their next album would be titled Some Nights and released on February 21, 2012. Its first single, called "We Are Young" and featuring Janelle Monáe, has since been used in several other media including:
On December 12, 2011, the band's song "One Foot" was available for instant streaming and free download on Nylon's website.[24]
On February 13, 2012, the band released an album stream on their website along with a note from Ruess thanking fans for their ongoing support. Ruess states he is "over the moon about what you're about to hear and falling asleep knowing that as soon as I wake up, this will no longer be a dream."[25]
On March 7, 2012, Fun's single "We Are Young" reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This makes Fun the first multi-member rock band to have a #1 Billboard debut on the Hot 100 since Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" in December 2001/January 2002.[26] On the same day, "We Are Young" was used by Apple in a promotional video of their recent retail development in Grand Central Terminal.[27] On April 11, 2012, Billboard.com announced that Fun's "We Are Young" also made Digital Sales history. As the song was at the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a sixth consecutive week, it has become the first, and at this time only, song that has ever gained 300,000+ downloads for seven weeks straight.[28]
On March 19, 2012, Fun was announced as a performing band at the Bonnaroo 2012 music festival.
On June 3, 2012, Fun will perform "We Are Young" at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards.
"We Are Young" peaked at number 1 on May 27, 2012 in the UK.
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Ryan Lewis | |
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![]() Ryan Lewis (back) performing with Macklemore (front) at Sasquatch! Music Festival |
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Background information | |
Born | (1988-03-25) March 25, 1988 (age 24) Spokane, Washington, U.S. |
Origin | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Genres | Hip hop |
Occupations | Producer, DJ |
Years active | 2006–present |
Associated acts | Macklemore |
Website | rlewis.com |
Ryan Lewis (born March 25, 1988) is an American music producer, musician, music video director, photographer, graphic designer, rapper and DJ currently based in Seattle. He is best known for his collaboration with American rapper Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) producing Macklemore & Ryan Lewis — The VS. EP (2009), The Heist (2012) and a handful of other singles. Since the beginning of their collaboration in late 2008, Ryan has produced, recorded, engineered and mixed all of the music, directed music videos ("Same Love", "Thrift Shop", "And We Danced", "Otherside (Remix)"), designed visuals (album art, web design, posters) and DJed the live show.
In a recent mini-documentary, Lewis recalled meeting Macklemore for the first time. "When I met him, it was a really different time. It was less than a year after [2005's] Language of My World had come out. So he had buzz. For me being a young kid, it was very exciting to link with him. The bulk of our original relationship was photo shoots. I became kind of his photographer."[1]
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On October 9, 2012, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released The Heist. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Albums, selling 78,000 copies in the first week.[2] The album also debuted at #1 on iTunes Digital Albums chart.[3] The duo's album has received more than 1 million plays on SoundCloud, 70 million YouTube views and was accompanied by a sold-out 50-date U.S. and Canadian tour.[4]
(All credited to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | |||||||
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US [5] |
US R&B [6] |
US Rap [7] |
AUS [8] |
BEL (FL) [9] |
CAN [10] |
FR [11] |
NZ [12] |
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The Heist (with Macklemore) |
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2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 175 | 4 | 186 | 24 | |
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Tracklist |
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US | |||
The VS. EP |
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– |
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The VS. Redux |
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– |
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Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||||||
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US [15] |
US Alt. [16] |
US R&B [17] |
US Rap [18] |
AUS [8] |
CAN [19] |
FRA [20] |
GER [21] |
IRL [22] |
NZ [12] |
||||
"My Oh My" (with Macklemore) |
2010 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Heist | |
"Wing$"[A] (with Macklemore) |
2011 | — | — | 57 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
"Can't Hold Us" (with Macklemore featuring Ray Dalton) |
113 | — | 39 | — | — | — | 186 | — | 24 | — | |||
"Same Love"[B] (with Macklemore featuring Mary Lambert) |
2012 | 117 | — | 36 | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | 1 | ||
"Thrift Shop" (with Macklemore featuring Wanz) |
1 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 50 | 13 | 1 | |||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Persondata | |
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Name | Lewis, Ryan |
Alternative names | |
Short description | American music producer |
Date of birth | March 25, 1988 |
Place of birth | Puyallup, Washington, U.S. |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Barack Obama | |
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44th President of the United States | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office January 20, 2009 |
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Vice President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | George W. Bush |
United States Senator from Illinois |
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In office January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 |
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Preceded by | Peter Fitzgerald |
Succeeded by | Roland Burris |
Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th District |
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In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 |
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Preceded by | Alice Palmer |
Succeeded by | Kwame Raoul |
Personal details | |
Born | Barack Hussein Obama II (1961-08-04) August 4, 1961 (age 50)[1] Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.[2] |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Michelle Robinson (1992–present) |
Children | Malia (born 1998) Sasha (born 2001) |
Residence | White House (Official) Chicago, Illinois (Private) |
Alma mater | Occidental College Columbia University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
Profession | Community organizer Lawyer Constitutional law professor Author |
Religion | Christianity[3] |
Awards | Nobel Peace Prize |
Signature | ![]() |
Website | barackobama.com |
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This article is part of a series on Barack Obama |
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Barack Hussein Obama II (i/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the 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 in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.
As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation 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 domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to openly support legalizing same-sex marriage. In foreign policy, he ended the war in Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. involvement in the 2011 Libya military intervention, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
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Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6] His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry,[7] along with Scottish, Irish, German, and Swiss.[8][9][10][11][12] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[13][14] The couple married on February 2, 1961,[15] separated when Obama Sr. went to Harvard University on scholarship, and divorced in 1964.[13] Obama Sr. remarried and returned to Kenya, visiting Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[16]
After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Suharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all Indonesian students studying abroad were recalled, and the family moved to the Menteng neighborhood of Jakarta.[4][17] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, including Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School.[18]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour 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.[19] Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972, remaining there until 1977 when she went back to Indonesia to work as an anthropological field worker. She finally returned to Hawaii in 1994 and lived there for one year before dying of ovarian cancer.[15][20]
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."[14] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[21] 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."[22] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."[23] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama described his high-school drug use as a great moral failure.[24]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.[25] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[25] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations[26] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[27] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[28][29]
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), 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.[29][30] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.[31] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[32] 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.[33] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[34]
In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[35] and president of the journal in his second year.[31][36] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[37] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[38] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[35] Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[31][36] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,[39] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[39]
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[39][40] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.[41]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.[42] In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2002.[43]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.[29] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[29]
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.[44] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[45] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[46] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.[47]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.[48] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[49]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.[50] He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[46][51] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[52] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[53]
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[54]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.[55] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[56] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,[57] and spoke out against the war.[58] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too late" to stop the war.[59]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.[60] In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[61] In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[62] seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[63]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[64] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[65] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote.[66]
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[67] becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus.[68] CQ Weekly characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.[69]
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[70] He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons;[71] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending.[72] On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[73]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee.[74] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[75]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.[77] In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.[78] Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[79] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[80] neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.[81] This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[82] He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[83] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[84]
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[85] In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[86] He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.[87] As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government.[88]
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.[89][90] The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic "House Divided" speech in 1858.[89][91] Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care,[92] in a campaign that projected themes of "hope" and "change".[93]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[94] On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[95]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[96] Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[97] At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[98] Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention was held, but at Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[99][100]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[101] On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[102]
McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008.[103] On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[104] Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7 percent.[105] He became the first African American to be elected president.[106] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.[107]
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission.[108][109][110] As the incumbent president he ran almost unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries,[111] and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[112]
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President, and Joe Biden as Vice 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.[113] He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[114] but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds.[115][116][117] Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records,[118] and changed procedures to promote disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.[119] He also reversed George W. Bush's ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions.[120]
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.[121] Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[122] 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.[123]
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,[124] becoming the first Hispanic to be a Supreme Court Justice.[125] 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.[126]
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.[127][128]
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.[129][130]
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.[131][132]
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 spaceflight to 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 the International Space Station.[133]
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[134][135] to end the Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces.[136]
President Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address focused 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 wealthy 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% reliant on "clean" electricity.[137][138]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[139] but by the time of his run for the U.S. senate 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.[140] On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election 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.[141][142]
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession.[143] The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[144] which is being distributed over the course of several years.
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 $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.[145] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[146] 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[147] and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government shouldering a 12 percent stake.[148] In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[149] He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[150][151][152]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009.[153] However, Obama and the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010 budget deficit will 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.[154][155] For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to $8.53 trillion or 90 percent of GDP.[156] The most recent increase in the U.S. debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26, 2012.[157] 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.[158] By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent an unprecedented U.S. government default on its obligations.[159]
The unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.1 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.[162] 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.[163] 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.[164] Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[164] In July 2010, the Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain."[165] Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.[166]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[167][168] The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[168][169][170][171] while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[167] 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.[172]
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.[173] The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[174]
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal.[175] 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 the public 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 carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[176][177]
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.[175] 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.[178] In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on stem cell research.[179]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House.[180][181] On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[182] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[183] Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[184]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related provisions to 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,[185] 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,[186][187] 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.[186][188]
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 the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[189] 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.[190] 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.[191]
In March 2012, the Supreme Court heard arguments by a coalition of 26 states maintaining that it is unconstitutional to force individuals to buy health insurance.[192]
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. The well's operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[193] 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.[194]
In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary 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.[195] Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV network, Al Arabiya.[196]
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.[197] This attempt at outreach was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[198] In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was well received by many Arab governments.[199] 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.[200]
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."[201] 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."[202]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.[203]
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.[204][205] During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third.[206] The New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and was ratified by the U.S. Senate in December 2010.[207]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[208]
On February 27, 2009, Obama declared 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."[209] The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last United States combat brigade exited Iraq. The plan is to transition the mission of the remaining troops from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[210][211] On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[212] On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be, "home for the holidays".[213]
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[214] 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".[215] He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander 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.[216] On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[217] He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[218][219] McChrystal was replaced by David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article.[220]
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including a record number of U.S. troops participating in military exercises in the country, increased military aid, the 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, including Ehud Barak and Admiral Mike Mullen.[221]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[222] Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[223]
In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar 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[224] passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[225] 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 citizens of Benghazi[226]—announced an immediate cessation of military activities,[227] yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took a lead role in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities in order to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[228] including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[229][230][231] 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.[232] Some Representatives[233] questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[234][235]
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 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from Islamabad.[236] CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011.[236] 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.[236] The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers and computer drives and disks from the compound.[237][238] Bin Laden's body was identified through DNA testing,[239] and buried at sea several hours later.[240] 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.[237][241] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[242] and from many countries around the world.[243]
Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[244] "humbling" and a "shellacking".[245] He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic recovery.[246]
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 the civil rights movement.[248] Obama is also not a descendant of American slaves.[249] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong".[250] 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."[251]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[252] During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video addresses.[253]
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68 percent approval rating[254] before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41 percent in August 2010,[255] a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[256] He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[257][258][259] Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[260] and before being elected President he has met with prominent foreign figures including then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair,[261] Italy's Democratic Party leader and then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[262] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[263]
In a February 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[264] 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.[265][266]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[267] 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[268] and received a Daytime Emmy Award.[269] In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[270]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[271] Obama accepted this award in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[272] The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[273][274] 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.
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."[275] 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.[276] Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[277] until her death on November 2, 2008,[278] 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.[279] 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.[280]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[281] Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian at the conversational level, having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[282] He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team.[283]
Obama is a well known supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[284] In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[285] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and recently rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after Obama took office as President.[286] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Bears to the White House; in 1986, the team did not attend due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[287]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[288] Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[289] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[290] The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[291] followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[292] 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.[293] The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[294]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago.[295] 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.[296]
In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[297] 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.[298][299] 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.[300][301]
As per the latest financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[302]
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.[303][304]
Obama is a 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 (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing Methodists and Baptists"), to be detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He described his father as "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" 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".[305]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical Christianity Today, Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[306]
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."[307][308]
Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ, a black liberation church, in 1988, and was an active member there for two decades.[309] Obama resigned from Trinity during the Presidential campaign after controversial statements made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright became public.[310] After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[311]
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Persondata | |
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Name | Obama, Barack |
Alternative names | |
Short description | American politician, 44th President of the United States |
Date of birth | August 4, 1961 |
Place of birth | Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Mitt Romney | |
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70th Governor of Massachusetts | |
In office January 2, 2003 – January 4, 2007 |
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Lieutenant | Kerry Healey |
Preceded by | Jane Swift (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Deval Patrick |
Personal details | |
Born | Willard Mitt Romney (1947-03-12) March 12, 1947 (age 65) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Ann Romney (m. 1969) «start: (1969)»"Marriage: Ann Romney to Mitt Romney" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Mitt_Romney) |
Children | Taggart (b. 1970) Matthew (b. 1971) Joshua (b. 1975) Benjamin (b. 1978) Craig (b. 1981) |
Residence | Belmont, Massachusetts Wolfeboro, New Hampshire San Diego, California |
Alma mater | Brigham Young University (BA) Harvard University (MBA, JD) |
Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) |
Positions | Co-founder, Bain Capital (1984–1999) CEO, Bain & Company (1991–1992) CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee (1999–2002) |
Signature | ![]() |
Website | MittRomney.com |
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This article is part of a series about Mitt Romney |
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2012 Presidential campaign |
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).
The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1966, after one year at Stanford University, he left the United States to spend thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar. He entered the management consulting industry, which in 1977, led to a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that has helped fund his political campaigns. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as Ward Bishop and later Stake President in his area near Boston. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy. In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics; and he helped turn the fiscally troubled games into a success.
He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 but did not seek re-election in 2006. During his term he presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated a projected $1.5 billion deficit. He also signed into law the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which provided near-universal health insurance access via state-level subsidies and individual mandates.
Romney ran for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, winning several primaries and caucuses but losing the nomination to John McCain. In the following years, he gave speeches and raised campaign funds on behalf of his fellow Republicans. In June 2011, he announced that he would seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination; as of May 2012, he has won enough caucuses and primaries to become the party's presumptive nominee.
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Willard Mitt Romney[1] was born at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan,[2] the youngest child of George W. Romney, a self-made man who by 1948 had become an automobile executive, and Lenore Romney (née LaFount), an aspiring actress turned homemaker.[3][4][5] His mother was a native of Logan, Utah, and his father was born in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico, to American parents.[6][7] He is of primarily English descent, and also has more distant Scottish and German ancestry.[8][9][10] He is a fifth-generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[11][12] A great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, converted to the faith in its first decade, and another great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, was an early leader in the church during the same time.[13]
He was preceded in birth by three siblings: Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott. Mitt followed after a gap of nearly six years. He was named after family friend, hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, and his father's cousin Milton "Mitt" Romney, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears.[14][nb 1] In 1953, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills.[16] In 1954, his father became the chairmen and CEO of American Motors, a company he helped avoid bankruptcy, and return to profitability.[16] By the time Mitt was twelve, his father had become a nationally known figure in print and on television,[17] and Mitt idolized him.[18]
He attended public elementary schools[15] until the seventh grade, when he began commuting to Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, a traditional private boys' preparatory school where he was one of only a few Mormons and where many students came from backgrounds even more privileged than he.[19][20] He was not particularly athletic and at first did not excel academically.[18] During his sophomore year he participated in the 1962 campaign in which his father was elected Governor of Michigan.[nb 2] When his parents moved to the state capitol as part of George Romney taking office, Mitt took up residence at Cranbrook's Stevens Hall.[19] George Romney was re-elected twice; Mitt worked for him as an intern in the governor's office, and was present at the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative party nominee Barry Goldwater over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism.[18][22] During these years, Romney had a steady set of chores and summer jobs, including working as a security guard at a Chrysler plant.[23]
At Cranbrook he was a manager for the ice hockey team and a member of the pep squad,[19] and during his final year joined the cross country running team.[15] He belonged to eleven school organizations and school clubs, and started the Blue Key Club boosters group.[19] During his final year at Cranbook, Romney improved academically, but was still not a star pupil.[18][20] He won an award for those "whose contributions to school life are often not fully recognized through already existing channels".[20] Romney was involved in many pranks.[nb 3]
In March of his senior year, he began dating Ann Davies, two years his younger, whom he had first met in elementary school; she attended the private Kingswood School, the sister school to Cranbrook.[27][20] The two informally agreed to marriage around the time of his June 1965 graduation.[18]
Romney attended Stanford University for a year,[18][nb 4] where he worked as a night security guard in order to pay for trips home to see Ann.[28] Although the campus was becoming radicalized with the beginnings of 1960s social and political movements, he kept a well-groomed appearance and participated in pre-Big Game actions designed to protect the Stanford Axe.[18] In May 1966, he was part of a counter-protest against a group staging a sit-in in the university administration building in opposition to draft status tests.[18][29]
"As you can imagine, it's quite an experience to go to Bordeaux and say, 'Give up your wine! I've got a great religion for you!'"
In July 1966, he left for a thirty-month stay in France as a Mormon missionary,[18][31] a traditional rite of passage that his father and many other relatives had volunteered for.[nb 5] He arrived in Le Havre with ideas about how to change and promote the French Mission, while facing physical and economic deprivation in their cramped quarters.[33][13] Rules against drinking, smoking, and dating were strictly enforced.[13] Most individual Mormon missionaries do not gain many converts,[35] and Romney was no exception:[33] he later estimated ten to twenty for his entire mission.[36] The nominally Catholic but secular, wine-loving French people were especially resistant to a religion that prohibits alcohol.[18][13][30] He became demoralized, and later recalled it as the only time when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected."[33] In Nantes, he suffered a bruised jaw while defending two female missionaries who were being bothered by a group of local rugby players.[13] He continued to work hard; having grown up in Michigan rather than the more insular Utah world, Romney was better able to interact with the French than other missionaries.[37][13] He was promoted to zone leader in Bordeaux in early 1968, then in the spring of that year became assistant to the mission president in Paris, the highest position for a missionary.[33][13][38] In the Mission Home in Paris he enjoyed palace-like accommodations.[38] Romney's support for the U.S. role in the Vietnam War was only reinforced when the French greeted him with hostility over the matter and he debated them in return.[13][33] He witnessed the May 1968 general strike and student uprisings and was upset by the breakdown in social order.[39]
In June 1968, an automobile he was driving in southern France was hit by another vehicle, seriously injuring him and killing one of his passengers, the wife of the mission president.[nb 6] Romney, who was not at fault in the accident,[nb 6] became co-acting president of a mission demoralized and disorganized by the May civil disturbances and by the car accident.[37] He rallied and motivated the others and they met an ambitious goal of 200 baptisms for the year, the most for the mission in a decade.[37] By the end of his stint in December 1968, he was overseeing the work of 175 fellow members.[33][40] Romney developed a lifelong affection for France and its people, and speaks French.[42] The experience in the country instilled in him a belief that life is fragile and that he needed seriousness of purpose.[18][37][13] It also represented a crucible, after having been an indifferent Mormon growing up: "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper ... For me it became much deeper."[33]
While he was away, Ann Davies had converted to the Mormon faith, guided by George Romney, and had begun attending Brigham Young University (BYU).[18] Mitt was nervous that she had been wooed by others while he was away, and she had indeed started dating popular campus figure Kim S. Cameron and had sent Romney in France a "Dear John letter", greatly upsetting him; he wrote to her to in an attempt to win her back.[43][15] At their first meeting following Romney's return they reconnected, and decided to get married immediately but agreed to wait three months to appease their parents.[44] At Ann's request, Romney began attending Brigham Young too, in February 1969.[43][nb 4] The couple were married on March 21, 1969, in a civil ceremony at Ann's family's home in Bloomfield Hills that was presided over by a church elder.[46][47][48] The following day, the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple.[46][47]
Romney had missed much of the tumultuous American anti-Vietnam War movement while away, and was surprised to learn that his father had turned against the effort during his unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign.[33] Regarding the military draft, Romney had initially received a student deferment, then, like most Mormon missionaries, a ministerial deferment while in France, and then a student deferment.[33][49] When those ran out, his high number in the December 1969 draft lottery (300) ensured he would not be selected.[33][49][50]
At culturally conservative BYU, he remained isolated from much of the upheaval of the era, and did not join in protests against the war, or the LDS Church's policy at the time of denying full membership to blacks.[24][33][43] He became president of, and an innovative fundraiser for, the all-male Cougar Club booster organization and showed a new-found discipline in his studies.[33][43] In his senior year, he took leave to work as driver and advance man for his mother Lenore Romney's eventually unsuccessful 1970 campaign for U.S. Senator from Michigan.[24][46] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with highest honors in 1971,[43] and gave commencement addresses to both the College of Humanities and to the whole of BYU.[nb 7]
The Romneys' first son, Taggart, was born in 1970[46] while they were undergraduates at Brigham Young[52] and living in a basement apartment.[33][43] Ann subsequently gave birth to Matt (1971), Josh (1975), Ben (1978), and Craig (1981).[46] Her work as a homemaker would enable her husband to pursue his career.[53]
Romney still wanted to pursue a business path, but his father, by now serving in President Richard Nixon's cabinet as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, advised him that a law degree would be valuable to his career.[54][55] Thus he became one of only fifteen students to enroll at the recently created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.[56] Fellow students considered him guilelessly optimistic, noting his solid work ethic and buttoned-down demeanor and appearance.[56][57] He readily adapted to the business school's pragmatic, data-driven case study method of teaching, participated in class well, and led a study group whom he pushed to get all A's.[55] He had a different social experience from most of his classmates, since he lived in a Belmont, Massachusetts, house with Ann and two children.[46][55] He was non-ideological and did not involve himself in the political or social issues of the day.[46][55] He graduated in 1975 cum laude from the law school, in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.[51][56]
Romney was recruited by several firms and chose to remain in Massachusetts to work for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant to a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive.[54][58][nb 8] He was part of a 1970s wave of top graduates who chose to go into consulting rather than join a major company directly.[60] His legal and business education proved useful in his job[54] while he applied BCG principles such as the growth-share matrix.[61] He was viewed as having a bright future there.[54][62]
In 1977, he was hired away by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston that had been formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and other former BCG employees.[61][54][63] Bain would later say of the thirty-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older."[64] With Bain & Company, Romney learned what writers and business analysts have dubbed the "Bain way",[54][63][65] which consisted of immersing the firm in each client's business,[54][64] and not just issuing recommendations but staying with the company until changes were put into place.[61][63][66] Romney became a vice president of the firm in 1978,[15] and worked with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated.[58] Within a few years, he was one of Bain & Company's best consultants and was sought after by clients over more senior partners.[54][67]
Romney was restless for a company of his own to run, and in 1983, Bill Bain offered him the chance to head a new venture that would buy into companies, have them benefit from Bain techniques, and then reap higher rewards than consulting fees.[54][61] He initially refrained from accepting the offer, and Bain re-arranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney.[54][64][68] Thus, in 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital.[66] In the face of skepticism from potential investors, Bain and Romney spent a year raising the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation, which had fewer than ten employees.[58][64][69] As general partner of the new firm, Romney spent little money on costs such as office appearance, and saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, few had been done.[54] At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities.[54] Their first big success was a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies and Romney convinced others; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.[54][69][70]
Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing firms with money mostly borrowed against their assets, partnering with existing management to apply the "Bain way" to their operations (rather than the hostile takeovers practiced in other leverage buyout scenarios), and selling them off in a few years.[54][64] Existing CEOs were offered large equity stakes in the process, owing to Bain Capital's belief in the emerging agency theory that CEOs should be bound to maximizing shareholder value rather than other goals.[70] Bain Capital lost most of its money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then started finding deals that made large returns.[54] The firm invested in or acquired Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors.[54][64][71] He ran Bain Capital for fourteen years, during which time the firm's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent.[58] Much of this profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall success–to–failure ratio was about even.[nb 9]
Less an entrepreneur than an executive running an investment operation,[67][72] Romney was skilled at presenting and selling the deals the company made.[68] The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney persuaded Bain to give that up.[68] Within Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than ten percent for himself.[73] Viewed as a fair manager, he received considerable loyalty from the firm's members.[70] Romney's wary instincts were still in force at times, and he was generally data-driven and averse to risk.[54][70] He wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners prevailed and it eventually gained billions.[54] He also personally opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films.[54] Romney was on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, and the fraud was discovered by the new owners (Romney was never implicated).[54] In some cases, Romney had little involvement with a company once acquired.[69]
"Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong."
Bain Capital's leveraged buyouts sometimes led to layoffs, either soon after acquisition or later after the firm had left.[61][68][69] How jobs added compared to those lost due to these investments and buyouts is unknown, due to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy on behalf of itself and its investors.[74][75][76] In any case, maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's fundamental goal, as it was for most private equity operations.[69][77] Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy.[54][70][77] Dade Behring was another case where Bain Capital received an eightfold return on its investment, but the company itself was saddled with debt and laid off over a thousand employees before Bain Capital exited (the company subsequently went into bankruptcy, with more layoffs, before recovering and prospering).[74] Bain was among the private equity firms that took the most fees in such cases.[64][70]
In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse.[66] He was announced as its new CEO in January 1991[78][79] but drew only a symbolic salary of one dollar.[66] He managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency.[54][58][66] Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections.[58] He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.[54][79][80]
Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee.[54][81] By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation,[68] having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, with 115 employees overall, and $4 billion under its management.[64][69] Bain Capital's approach of applying consulting expertise to the companies it invested in became widely copied within the private equity industry.[25][69] Economist Steven Kaplan would later say, "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses."[70]
In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital.[81] He transferred his ownership to other partners and negotiated an agreement that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds.[73][82] Because the private equity business continued to thrive, this deal brought him millions of dollars in annual income.[73] As a result of his business career, by 2007, Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts since 2003.[82] In 2012, it was estimated that he had amassed twice the net worth of the last eight presidents combined,[83] and would rank among the four richest in American history if elected.[83][84]
An additional blind trust existed in the name of the Romneys' children and grandchildren that was valued at between $70 and $100 million as of 2007.[85] The couple's net worth remained in the same range as of 2011, and was still held in blind trusts.[86] In 2010, Romney and his wife received $21.7 million in income, almost all of it from investments, of which about $3 million went to federal income taxes (a rate of 13.9 percent, based upon the beneficial rate accorded investment income by the U.S. tax code) and almost $3 million to charity, including $1.5 million to the LDS Church.[87] Romney has always tithed to the church, including stock from Bain Capital holdings.[13][88][89] In 2010, the Romney family's Tyler Charitable Foundation gave out about $650,000, with some of it going to organizations that fight specific diseases such as cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis.[90]
During his years in business, Romney also served in the local lay clergy (consisting of all Mormon men over the age of 12).[13] Around 1977, he became a counselor to the president of the Boston Stake.[91] He later served as bishop of the ward (leader of the congregation) at Belmont, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1986, acting as the ecclesiastical and administrative head of his congregation.[92][93] As such, in addition to home teaching, he also formulated Sunday services and classes using LDS scriptures to guide the congregation.[94] He forged bonds with other religious institutions in the area when the Belmont meetinghouse was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origins in 1984; the congregation rotated its meetings to other houses of worship while it was rebuilt.[88][93]
From 1986 to 1994, he presided over the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen wards in eastern Massachusetts with about 4,000 church members altogether.[67][94][95] He organized a team to handle financial and management issues, sought to counter anti-Mormon sentiments, and tried to solve social problems among poor Southeast Asian converts.[88][93] An unpaid position, his local church leadership often took 30 or more hours a week of his time,[94] and he became known for his tireless energy in the role.[67] He generally refrained from overnight business travel owing to his church responsibilities.[94]
He took a hands-on role in general matters, helping in maintenance efforts in- and outside homes, visiting the sick, and counseling troubled or burdened church members.[92][93][94] A number of local church members later credited him with turning their lives around or helping them through difficult times.[88][93][94] Some others were rankled by his leadership style and desired a more consensus-based approach.[93] Romney tried to balance the conservative dogma insisted upon by the church leadership in Utah with the desire of some Massachusetts members to have a more flexible application of doctrine.[67] He agreed with some modest requests from the liberal women's group Exponent II for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but clashed with women whom he felt were departing too much from doctrine.[67] In particular, he counseled women not to have abortions except in the rare cases allowed by LDS doctrine, and also in accordance with doctrine, encouraged prospective mothers who were not in successful marriages to give up children for adoption.[67] Romney later said that the years spent as an LDS minister gave him direct exposure to people struggling in economically difficult circumstances, and empathy for those going through problematic family situations.[96]
By 1993, Romney had been thinking about entering politics, partly based upon Ann's urging and partly to follow in his father's footsteps.[46] He decided to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who was seeking re-election for the sixth time. Kennedy was potentially vulnerable that year – in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole, and in part because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which Kennedy had suffered some negative public relations regarding his character.[97][98][99] Romney changed his affiliation from Independent to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994.[46] He took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in November 1993, and stepped down from his church leadership role during 1994, due to the campaign.[100][94]
Radio personality Janet Jeghelian took an early lead in polls among candidates for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat, but Romney proved the most effective fundraiser.[101][102] He won 68 percent of the vote at the May 1994 Massachusetts Republican Party convention; businessman John Lakian finished a distant second and Jeghelian was eliminated.[103] Romney defeated Lakian in the September 1994 primary with over 80 percent of the vote.[15][104]
In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious re-election challenger of his career in the young, telegenic, and well-funded Romney.[97] Romney ran as a fresh face, as a businessperson who stated he had created ten thousand jobs, and as a Washington outsider with a solid family image and moderate stances on social issues.[97][105] When Kennedy tried to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Romney responded, "Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush."[106] Romney stated: "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change."[107] After two decades out of public view, his father George re-emerged during the campaign.[108][109]
Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime, but had trouble establishing its own positions in a consistent manner.[110] By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race to be approximately even.[97][111][112] Kennedy responded with a series of attack ads, which focused on Romney's seemingly shifting political views on issues such as abortion and on the treatment of workers at the Ampad plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital.[97][113][114] The latter was effective in blunting Romney's momentum.[70] Kennedy and Romney held a widely watched late October debate without a clear winner, but by then, Kennedy had pulled ahead in polls and stayed ahead afterward.[115] Romney spent $3 million of his own money in the race and more than $7 million overall.[116][nb 10] In the November general election, despite a disastrous showing for Democrats overall, Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent,[54] the smallest margin in Kennedy's eight re-election campaigns for the Senate.[119]
Romney returned to Bain Capital the day after the election, but the loss had a lasting effect; he told his brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win."[46][120] When his father died in 1995, Mitt donated his inheritance to BYU's George W. Romney Institute of Public Management and joined the board and was vice-chair of the Points of Light Foundation (which had incorporated his father's National Volunteer Center).[45][81] His mother died in 1998. Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; the goal of simply making more money was losing its appeal to him.[46][120] He no longer had a church leadership position, although he still taught Sunday School.[92] During the long and controversial approval and construction process for the $30 million Mormon temple in Belmont, he feared that as a political figure who had opposed Kennedy, he would become a focal point for opposition to the structure.[93] He thus kept to a limited, behind-the-scenes role in attempts to ease tensions between the church and local residents, but locals nonetheless sometimes referred to it as "Mitt's Temple".[88][92][93]
Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998; Mitt described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life.[46] After two years of severe difficulties with the disease, she found while living in Park City, Utah (where the couple had built a vacation home) a mixture of mainstream, alternative, and equestrian therapies that gave her a lifestyle mostly without limitations.[53] When the offer came for him to take over the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to take it, and eager for a new challenge, he did.[120][121] On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.[122]
Before Romney came on, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks.[122] Plans were being made to scale back the Games to compensate for the fiscal crisis, and there were fears the Games might be moved away entirely.[123] The Games had also been damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including prior Salt Lake Olympic Committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign.[124] Romney was chosen by Utah figures looking for someone with expertise in business and law and with connections to the state and the LDS Church.[125] The appointment faced some initial criticism from non-Mormons, and fears from Mormons, that it represented cronyism or gave the Games too Mormon an image.[30]
Romney ran the planning for the Games like a business.[126] He revamped the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets, and boosted fundraising, alleviated the concerns corporate sponsors and recruited many new ones.[120][125] He appealed to Utah's citizenry with a message of optimism that helped restore confidence in the effort.[120][126] He worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by coordinating a $300 million security budget.[121] Overall, he oversaw a $1.32 billion budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers.[122] The federal government provided between approximately $400 million[125][127][128] and $600 million[126][129] of that budget, much of it a result of Romney's having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies.[129][130][131] It would prove to be a record level of federal funding for the staging of a U.S. Olympics, a fact Romney would cite as a selling point during his campaign for the Massachusetts governorship.[128][130] An additional federal $1.1 billion was spent on indirect support in the form of highway and transit projects.[132]
Romney emerged as the public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, news stories and Olympics pins.[120] Robert H. Garff, the chair of the organizing committee, later said that "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics,"[120] and that Romney wanted to use the Olympics to propel himself into the national spotlight and a political career.[125][133] Garff believed the initial budget shortfall was not as bad as Romney portrayed, given there were still three years to reorganize.[125] Utah Senator Bob Bennett said that much of the needed federal money was already in place and an analysis by The Boston Globe stated that the committee already had nearly $1 billion in committed revenues.[125] Olympics critic Steve Pace, who led Utahns for Responsible Public Spending, thought Romney exaggerated the initial fiscal state in order to lay the groundwork for a well-publicized rescue.[133] Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed:[120] Bullock said: "He tried very hard to build an image of himself as a savior, the great white hope. He was very good at characterizing and castigating people and putting himself on a pedestal."[125]
Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million.[134] His performance as Olympics head was rated positively by 87 percent of Utahns.[135] Romney and his wife contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and he donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO.[136]
Romney was widely praised for his efforts with the 2002 Winter Olympics[121] including by President George W. Bush,[25] and it solidified his reputation as a turnaround artist.[125] Harvard Business School taught a case study based around his actions.[61] He wrote a book about his experience titled Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games, published in 2004. The role gave Romney experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to re-launch his political aspirations.[120] He was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide office in both Massachusetts and Utah, and also as possibly joining the Bush administration.[121][137][138]
In 2002, Republican Acting Governor Jane Swift's administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals.[135] Many Republicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election.[139] Prominent party figures – as well as the White House – wanted Romney to run for governor,[137][140] and the opportunity appealed to him for its national visibility.[141] One poll taken at that time showed Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points.[142] On March 19, 2002, Swift announced she would not seek her party's nomination, and hours later Romney declared his candidacy,[142] for which would face no opposition in the primary.[143] In June 2002, Massachusetts Democratic Party officials contested Romney's eligibility to run for governor, citing residency issues involving his time in Utah for the Olympics.[144] That same month, the bipartisan Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that he was an eligible candidate.[145]
He again ran as a political outsider,[135] saying he was "not a partisan Republican" but rather a "moderate" with "progressive" views.[146] Supporters of Romney hailed his business success, especially with the Olympics, as the record of someone who would be able to bring a new era of efficiency into Massachusetts politics.[143] The campaign was the first to use microtargeting techniques, in which fine-grained groups of voters were reached with narrowly tailored messaging.[147] Nevertheless, Romney initially had difficulty connecting with voters and fell behind his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, in polls before rebounding.[148] During the election he contributed over $6 million – a state record at the time – to the nearly $10 million raised for his campaign overall.[149][150] Romney was elected governor on November 5, 2002, with 50 percent of the vote to O'Brien's 45 percent.[151]
When Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003, [152] both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature held large Democratic majorities.[153] He picked his cabinet and advisors more on managerial abilities than partisan affiliation.[23] Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, he faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year.[138] Unexpected revenue of $1.0–1.3 billion from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2–1.5 billion.[154][155] Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes,[154] the state ran surpluses of around $600–700 million for the last two full fiscal years Romney was in office, although it began running deficits again after that.[nb 11]
Romney supported raising various fees by more than $300 million, including those for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses.[138][154] He increased a special gasoline retailer fee by two cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue.[138][154] (Opponents said the reliance on fees sometimes imposed a hardship on those who could least afford them.)[154] Romney also closed tax loopholes that brought in another $181 million from businesses over the next two years and over $300 million for his term.[138][160] Romney did so in the face of conservative and corporate critics that considered them tax increases.[160]
The state legislature, with Romney's support, also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns.[161] The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition by 63 percent over four years.[138][154] Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget, but all were overridden by the heavily Democratic legislature.[162]
The cuts in state spending put added pressure on localities to reduce services or raise property taxes, and the share of town and city revenues coming from property taxes rose from 49 to 53 percent.[138][154] The combined state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased during Romney's governorship but remained below the national average.[138]
Romney sought to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state. This came after Staples founder Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people,[163][164][165] and after the federal government, owing to the rules of Medicaid funding, threatened to cut $385 million in those payments to Massachusetts if the state did not reduce the number of uninsured recipients of health care services.[23][163][166] Although he had not campaigned on the idea of universal health insurance,[165] Romney decided that because people without insurance still received expensive health care, the money spent by the state for such care could be better used to subsidize insurance for the poor.[164][165]
After positing that any measure adopted not raise taxes and not resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal, Romney formed a team of consultants from diverse political backgrounds.[23][163][166] Beginning in late 2004, they came up with a set of proposals more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax.[23][163][166] In particular, Romney pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level.[21] Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal heath coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney,[167] gave the plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate.[163][166] The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.[163][166]
"There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover."
On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, commonly called "Romneycare", which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties, such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.[168] The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people who do not have adequate employer insurance and whose income is below a threshold, with funds that were previously used to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured.[169][170][171] He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients.[168][172] The legislature overrode all eight vetoes, but the governor's office said the differences were not essential.[172] The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.[166][nb 12]
At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits.[166][174][175] Faced with the dilemma of choosing between same-sex marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned same-sex marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.[176] In May 2004, Romney instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state same-sex couples not planning to move to Massachusetts.[174][177] In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions.[174] Instead, Romney endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions.[174] In 2004 and 2006, he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.[178][179]
In 2005, Romney revealed a change of view regarding abortion, moving from the "unequivocal" pro-choice position expressed during his 2002 campaign to a pro-life one in opposition to Roe v. Wade.[166] He subsequently vetoed a bill on pro-life grounds that would expand access to emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies[180] (the veto was overridden by the legislature).[181]
Romney generally used the bully pulpit approach towards promoting his agenda, staging well-organized media events to appeal directly to the public rather than pushing his proposals in behind-doors sessions with the state legislature.[166] Romney dealt with a public crisis of confidence in Boston's Big Dig project – that followed a fatal ceiling collapse in 2006 – by wresting control of the project from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.[166]
During 2004, Romney spent considerable effort trying to bolster the state Republican Party, but it failed to gain any seats in the state legislative elections that year.[138][182] He was given a prime-time appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and was already being discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate.[183] Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president,[184] and on December 14, 2005, announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term.[185][186] As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network;[184] he spent part or all of more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run.[187]
He had a 61 percent job approval rating in public polls after his initial fiscal actions in 2003, but it began to sink after that.[188] His frequent out-of-state travel contributed to a decline in his approval rating towards the end of his term;[189][188] at 34 percent in November 2006, his rating level ranked 48th of the 50 U.S. governors.[190] Dissatisfaction with Romney's administration and the weak condition of the Republican state party were among several factors that led to Democrat Deval Patrick's lopsided win over Republican Kerry Healey, Romney's Lieutenant Governor, in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.[191][189]
Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor.[192] His term ended January 4, 2007.
Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[193] In his speech, he frequently invoked his father and his own family and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point.[193][194] He said, "Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation,"[194] and casting himself as a political outsider, said, "I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician."[195]
Romney's campaign initially emphasized his résumé of a highly profitable career in the business world and his stewardship of the Olympics.[184][196][nb 13] He also had political experience as governor, together with a political pedigree courtesy of his father, and had a reputation for a strong work ethic and energy level.[184][196][65] Ann Romney, who had become an outspoken advocate for those with multiple sclerosis,[199] was in remission and would be an active participant in his campaign,[200] helping to soften his political personality.[65] Moreover, a number of commentators noted that with his square jaw and ample hair graying at the temples, the 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m)[201] Romney – referred to as handsome in scores of media stories[202] – physically matched one of the common images of what some believed a president should look like.[66][203][204][205] Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and served as governor in one of the nation's most liberal states, having taken some positions there that were opposed by the party's conservative base, and subsequently shifting those positions.[184][196][200] His religion was also viewed with suspicion and skepticism by some in the Evangelical portion of the party.[206]
Romney assembled for his campaign a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters.[196][207] He was little-known nationally, though, and stayed around the 10 percent range in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007.[184] He proved the most effective fundraiser of any of the Republican candidates;[208] his Olympics ties helped him with fundraising from Utahns and from sponsors and trustees of the games.[136] He also partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune.[196] These resources, combined with the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks.[209] Romney's staff suffered from internal strife and the candidate himself was indecisive at times, constantly asking for more data before making a decision.[196][210]
During all of his political campaigns, Romney has generally avoided speaking publicly about specific Mormon doctrines, referring to the U.S. Constitution prohibition of religious tests for public office.[211] But persistent questions about the role of religion in Romney's life in this race, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based upon an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to the December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech.[212] He said should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion,[213] and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law."[212] Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said that he would be informed by it and that, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."[212][213] Academics would later study the role religion had played in the campaign.[nb 14]
In the January 3, 2008, Iowa Republican caucuses, the first contest of the primary season, Romney received 25 percent of the vote and placed second to the vastly outspent Huckabee, who received 34 percent.[216][217] Of the 60 percent of caucus-goers who were evangelical Christians, Huckabee was supported by about half of them while Romney by only a fifth.[216] Two days later, Romney won the lightly contested Wyoming Republican caucuses.[218]
At a Saint Anselm College debate, Huckabee and McCain pounded away at Romney's image as a flip flopper.[216] Indeed, this label would stick to Romney through the campaign[196] (but was one that Romney rejected as unfair and inaccurate, except for his acknowledged change of mind on abortion).[65][219] Romney seemed to approach the campaign as a management consulting exercise, and showed a lack of personal warmth and political feel; journalist Evan Thomas wrote that Romney "came off as a phony, even when he was perfectly sincere."[65][220] Romney's staff would conclude that competing as a candidate of social conservatism and ideological purity rather than of pragmatic competence had been a mistake.[65]
Romney finished in second place by 5 percentage points to the resurgent McCain in the next-door-to-his-home-state New Hampshire primary on January 8.[216] Romney rebounded to win the January 15 Michigan primary over McCain by a solid margin, capitalizing on his childhood ties to the state and his vow to bring back lost automotive industry jobs which was seen by several commentators as unrealistic.[nb 15] On January 19, Romney won the lightly contested Nevada caucuses, but placed fourth in the intense South Carolina primary, where he had effectively ceded the contest to his rivals.[225] McCain gained further momentum with his win in South Carolina, leading to a showdown between him and Romney in the Florida primary.[226][227]
For ten days, Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain repeatedly, and inaccurately, asserted that Romney favored a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.[nb 16] McCain won key last-minute endorsements from Florida Senator Mel Martinez and Governor Charlie Crist, which helped push him to a 5 percentage point victory on January 29.[226][227] Although many Republican officials were now lining up behind McCain,[227] Romney persisted through the nationwide Super Tuesday contests on February 5. There he won primaries or caucuses in several states, including Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah, but McCain won more, including large states such as California and New York.[229] Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7 during a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.[229]
Altogether, Romney had won 11 primaries and caucuses,[230] received about 4.7 million total votes,[231] and garnered about 280 delegates.[232] He spent $110 million during the campaign, including $45 million of his own money.[233]
Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later.[232] He became one of the McCain campaign's most visible surrogates, appearing on behalf of the GOP nominee at fundraisers, state Republican party conventions, and on cable news programs.[234] His efforts earned McCain's respect and the two developed a warmer relationship; he was on the nominee's short list for the vice presidential running mate slot, where his economic expertise would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses.[235] McCain, behind in the polls, opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer", and selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.[236] McCain lost the election to Democratic Senator Barack Obama.
Following the election, Romney paved the way for a possible 2012 presidential campaign by using his Free and Strong America political action committee (PAC) to raise money for other Republican candidates and to pay his existing political staff's salaries and consulting fees.[237][238] An informal network of former staff and supporters around the nation were eager for him to run again.[239] He continued to give speeches and raise funds for Republicans,[240] but turned down many potential media appearances, fearing overexposure.[219] He also spoke before business, educational, and motivational groups.[241] He served on the board of directors of Marriott International from 2009 to 2011 (having earlier served on it from 1993 to 2002).[242]
In 2009, the Romneys sold their primary residence in Belmont and their ski chalet in Utah, leaving them an estate along Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and an oceanfront home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, California, which they had bought the year before.[219][243][244] The San Diego home was beneficial in location and climate for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis and lumpectomy for mammary ductal carcinoma in situ.[243][245][246] Both it and the New Hampshire location were near some of their grandchildren,[243] who by 2011 numbered sixteen.[247] Romney maintained his voting registration in Massachusetts, however, and bought a smaller condominium in Belmont during 2010.[245][248][nb 17] In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAO member Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an airplane flight.[nb 18]
Romney's book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, was released in March 2010; an 18-state book tour was undertaken.[255] The book, which debuted atop The New York Times Best Seller list,[256] avoided anecdotes about his personal or political life in favor of a presentation of his economic and geopolitical views.[257][258] Earnings from the book were donated to charity.[86]
In nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Romney led or placed in the top three with Palin and Huckabee. A January 2010 National Journal survey of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders, and a plurality of Democratic insiders, predicted Romney would be the party's 2012 nominee.[259] Romney campaigned heavily for Republican candidates in the 2010 midterm elections,[260] raising more money than the other prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates.[261] Beginning in early 2011, Romney presented a more relaxed visual image, including rarely wearing a necktie.[262][263]
On April 11, 2011, Romney announced in a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire that he had formed an exploratory committee for a run for the Republican presidential nomination.[264][265] A Quinnipiac University political science professor stated, "We all knew that he was going to run. He's really been running for president ever since the day after the 2008 election."[265]
Romney stood to gain from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president and appeared to be "next in line" to be chosen.[239][266][267] The early stages of the race found him as the apparent front-runner in a weak field, especially in terms of fundraising prowess and organization.[268][269][270] Perhaps his greatest hurdle in gaining the Republican nomination was party opposition to the Massachusetts health care reform law that he had shepherded five years earlier.[263][265][267] As many potential Republican candidates decided not to run (including Mike Pence, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and Mitch Daniels), Republican party figures searched for plausible alternatives to Romney.[268][270]
On June 2, 2011, he formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized President Obama's handling of it.[271] He said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it – because I have lived it."[267]
Romney raised $56 million during 2011, far more than any of his Republican opponents,[272] and refrained from spending any of his own money on his campaign.[273] He initially ran a low-key, low-profile campaign.[274] Michele Bachmann staged a brief surge in polls, then by September 2011, Romney's chief rival in polls was a recent entrant, Texas Governor Rick Perry.[275] Perry and Romney exchanged sharp criticisms of each other during a series of debates among the Republican candidates.[276] The October 2011 decisions of Chris Christie and Sarah Palin not to run finally settled the field.[277][278] Perry faded after poor performances in those debates, while Herman Cain's long-shot bid gained popularity until allegations of sexual misconduct derailed him.[279][280]
Romney continued to seek support from a wary Republican electorate; at this point in the race, his poll numbers were relatively flat and at a historically low level for a Republican frontrunner.[277][281][282] After the charges of flip-flopping that marked his 2008 campaign began to accumulate again, Romney declared in November 2011 that "I've been as consistent as human beings can be."[283][284][285] In the final month before voting began, Newt Gingrich enjoyed a major surge, taking a solid lead in national polls and in most of the early caucus and primary states,[286] before settling back into parity or worse with Romney following a barrage of negative ads from Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC.[287]
In the initial 2012 Iowa caucuses of January 3, Romney was announced as the victor on election night with 25 percent of the vote, edging out a late-gaining Rick Santorum by eight votes (with an also-strong Ron Paul finishing third),[288] but sixteen days later, Santorum was certified as the winner by a 34-vote margin.[289] Romney decidedly won the New Hampshire primary the following week with a total of 39 percent; Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman third.[290]
In the run-up to the South Carolina Republican primary, Gingrich launched attack ads criticizing Romney for causing job losses while at Bain Capital, Perry referred to Romney's role there as "vulture capitalism", and Sarah Palin questioned whether Romney could prove his claim that 100,000 jobs were created during that time.[291][292] Many conservatives rallied in defense of Romney, rejecting what they inferred as criticism of free-market capitalism.[291] However, during two debates, Romney fumbled questions about releasing his income tax returns, while Gingrich gained support with audience-rousing attacks on the debate moderators.[293][294] Romney's double-digit lead in state polls evaporated and he lost to Gingrich by 13 points in the January 21 primary.[293] Combined with the delayed loss in Iowa, Romney's admitted bad week represented a lost chance to end the race early, and he decided to release his tax returns quickly.[293][295] The race turned to the Florida Republican primary, where in debates, appearances, and advertisements, Romney unleashed a concerted, unrelenting attack on Gingrich's past record and associations and current electability.[296][297] Romney enjoyed a big spending advantage from both his campaign and his aligned Super PAC, and after a record-breaking rate of negative ads from both sides, Romney won Florida on January 31, gaining 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent.[298]
There were several caucuses and primaries during February, and Santorum won three in a single night early in the month, propelling him into the lead in national and some state polls and positioning him as Romney's main rival.[299] Romney won the other five, including a closely fought contest in his home state of Michigan at the end of the month.[300][301] In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses of March 6, Romney won six of ten contests, including a narrow victory in Ohio over a greatly outspent Santorum, and although he failed to win decisively enough to end the race, still held a more than two-to-one edge over Santorum in delegates.[302] Romney maintained his delegate margin through subsequent contests,[303] and Santorum stopped his campaign on April 10.[304] Following a sweep of five more contests on April 24, the Republican National Committee put its resources behind Romney as the party's presumptive nominee.[305] Romney clinched a majority of the delegates with a win in the Texas primary on May 29.
For much of his business career, Romney did not take public political positions.[306][307] While he had kept abreast of national politics during college,[33] and the circumstances of his father's presidential campaign loss would irk him for decades,[24] his early philosophical influences were often non-political, as during his missionary days when he read Napoleon Hill's pioneering self-help tome Think and Grow Rich, and encouraged his colleagues to do the same.[13][61] Until his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign, he was registered as an Independent.[46] In the 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries, he voted for the Democratic former senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas.[306][308]
In the 1994 Senate race, Romney aligned himself with Republican Massachusetts Governor William Weld, saying "I think Bill Weld's fiscal conservatism, his focus on creating jobs and employment and his efforts to fight discrimination and assure civil rights for all is a model that I identify with and aspire to."[309] As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, and then initially as Governor of Massachusetts, he generally operated in the mold established by Weld and followed by Weld's two other Republican successors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift: restrain spending and taxing, be tolerant or permissive on social issues, protect the environment, be tough on crime, try to appear post-partisan.[308][310]
Later during his time as governor, Romney's position on abortion changed in conjunction with a similar change of position on stem cell research.[166][nb 19] Also during that time, his position or choice of emphasis on some aspects of gay rights,[nb 20] and some aspects of abstinence-only sex education,[nb 21] moved in a more conservative direction. The change in 2005 on abortion was the result of what he described as an epiphany experienced while investigating stem cell research issues.[166] He later said, "Changing my position was in line with an ongoing struggle that anyone has that is opposed to abortion personally, vehemently opposed to it, and yet says, 'Well, I'll let other people make that decision.' And you say to yourself, but if you believe that you're taking innocent life, it's hard to justify letting other people make that decision."[166]
This increased alignment with traditional conservatives on social issues coincided with Romney's becoming a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for President.[317][318] He joined the National Rifle Association and portrayed himself as a lifelong hunter.[nb 22] He downplayed the Massachusetts health care law,[21][308][318] became a convert on signing an anti-tax pledge,[61][21] and backed away from further closings of corporate tax loopholes.[160] There was a display of aggressiveness on foreign policy matters, such as wanting to double the number of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[318] Skeptics, including some Republicans, charged Romney with opportunism and having a lack of core principles.[166][196][308] The fervor with which Romney adopted his new stances and attitudes contributed to the perception of inauthenticity which hampered that campaign.[61][262]
While there have been many biographical parallels between the lives of George and Mitt Romney,[nb 23] one particular difference is that while George was willing to defy political trends, Mitt has been much more willing to adapt to them.[21][23] Mitt Romney has said that learning from experience and changing views accordingly is a virtue, and that, "If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy."[324] Romney responded to criticisms of ideological pandering with the explanation that "The older I get, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets."[200]
Journalist Daniel Gross sees Romney as approaching politics in the same terms as a business competing in markets, in that successful executives do not hold firm to public stances over long periods of time, but rather constantly devise new strategies and plans to deal with new geographical regions and ever-changing market conditions.[308] Political profiler Ryan Lizza notes the same question regarding whether Romney's business skills can be adapted to politics, saying that "while giving customers exactly what they want may be normal in the corporate world, it can be costly in politics".[61] Writer Robert Draper holds a somewhat similar perspective: "The Romney curse was this: His strength lay in his adaptability. In governance, this was a virtue; in a political race, it was an invitation to be called a phony."[65] Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells sees Romney as a detached problem solver rather than one who approaches political issues from a humanistic or philosophical perspective.[70] Journalist Neil Swidey views Romney as a political and cultural enigma, "the product of two of the most mysterious and least understood subcultures in the country: the Mormon Church and private-equity finance," and believes that has led to the continued interest in a 1983 episode in which Romney kept his family dog on the roof of his car during a long road trip.[nb 24] Political writer Joe Klein views Romney as actually more conservative on social issues than he portrayed himself during his Massachusetts campaigns and less conservative on other issues than his presidential campaigns have represented, and concludes that Romney "has always campaigned as something he probably is not."[328]
Immediately following the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said the act should be repealed.[329] The antipathy Republicans felt for it created a potential problem for the former governor, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during Romney's term; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare."[329] While acknowledging that his plan was an imperfect work in progress, Romney did not back away from it, and has consistently defended its underpinning state-level health insurance mandate.[329][330] He has focused on its bipartisan support in the state legislature, the absence of Congressional Republican support for Obama's plan,[329] and has contended that it was the right answer to Massachusetts' specific problems at the time.[329][331] While Romney has not explicitly argued for a federally imposed mandate, and as of 2010 explicitly opposes one, during his 1994 Senate campaign he indicated he would vote for an overall health insurance proposal that contained one.[332][333] He suggested during his time as governor and during his 2008 presidential campaign that the Massachusetts plan was a model for the nation and that, over time, mandate plans might be adopted by most or all of the nation.[334][335][336]
Romney's foreign policy views are rooted in a firm belief in American exceptionalism and the need to preserve American supremacy in the world.[257] This parallels the Mormon belief that the United States Constitution is divinely inspired and that the U.S. was selected by God to play a special part in human history.[337] Indeed, Romney's political beliefs regarding a limited role for government, a need for self-reliance, and requirements for welfare recipients, often reflect Mormon tenets adapted for the secular world.[337][338]
Throughout his business, Olympics, and political career, Romney's instinct has been to apply the "Bain way" towards problems.[65][318][339] Romney has said, "There were two key things I learned at Bain. One was a series of concepts for approaching tough problems and a problem-solving methodology; the other was an enormous respect for data, analysis, and debate."[339] He has written, "There are answers in numbers – gold in numbers. Pile the budgets on my desk and let me wallow."[61] Romney believes the Bain approach is not only effective in the business realm but also in running for office and, once there, in solving political conundrums such as proper Pentagon spending levels and the future of Social Security.[318][339] Former Bain and Olympics colleague Fraser Bullock has said of Romney, "He's not an ideologue. He makes decisions based on researching data more deeply than anyone I know."[25] Romney's technocratic instincts have thus always been with him; in his public appearances during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign he sometimes gave PowerPoint presentations rather than conventional speeches.[340] Upon taking office he became, in the words of The Boston Globe, "the state's first self-styled CEO governor".[138] During his 2008 presidential campaign, he constantly asked for data, analysis, and opposing arguments,[318] and has been decribed by Slate magazine as a potential "CEO president".[308]
Romney has received five honorary doctorates, including one in Business from the University of Utah in 1999,[341] in Law from Bentley College in 2002,[342] in Public Administration from Suffolk University Law School in 2004,[343] in Public Service from Hillsdale College in 2007,[344] and in Humanities from Liberty University in 2012.[345]
People magazine included him in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002,[346] and in 2004, he received the inaugural Truce Ideal Award for his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics.[347] The Cranbrook School gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.[19] In 2008 he shared with his wife Ann, the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during the presidential campaign.[348] In 2012 Romney was named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[349]
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Business positions | ||
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New office | Chief Executive Officer of Bain Capital 1984–1999 |
Succeeded by Joshua Bekenstein |
Preceded by Bill Bain |
Chief Executive Officer of Bain & Company Acting 1991–1992 |
Succeeded by Steve Ellis as Worldwide Managing Director |
Succeeded by Orit Gadiesh as Chairman of the Board |
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Sporting positions | ||
Preceded by Makoto Kobayashi |
President of Organizing Committee for Winter Olympic Games 2002 |
Succeeded by Valentino Castellani |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Jane Swift Acting |
Governor of Massachusetts 2003–2007 |
Succeeded by Deval Patrick |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by Joe Malone |
Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (Class 3) 1994 |
Succeeded by Jack Robinson |
Preceded by Paul Cellucci |
Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts 2002 |
Succeeded by Kerry Healey |
Preceded by John McCain |
Republican Party presidential candidate Presumptive 2012 |
Most recent |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Romney, Willard Mitt |
Alternative names | Romney, Mitt |
Short description | American politician |
Date of birth | March 12, 1947 |
Place of birth | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
Date of death | |
Place of death |