Barack Obama

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

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

The Road

The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.

The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.

Plot summary

An unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after an unspecified disaster has caused another extinction event, destroying civilization and most life on Earth. The land is filled with ash and devoid of living animals and vegetation. Many of the remaining human survivors have resorted to cannibalism, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for flesh. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, gave up hope and committed suicide some time before the story began, despite the father's pleas. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy".

The Road We've Traveled

The Road We've Traveled is a 2012 documentary film about the events of Barack Obama's presidency. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, the documentary was produced by Obama's re-election campaign and was narrated by Tom Hanks.

The film

Events detailed in the film include the economic crisis, health care reform, the auto industry bailout, and the Navy Seal mission that led to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

People interviewed in the film include Vice President Joe Biden, Obama political aide David Axelrod, consumer advocate and former chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP Elizabeth Warren and former chief of staff and current Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel.

Reception

The New York Times noted the use of social media to reach voters instead of television advertisements.New York Times reviewer Alessandra Stanley said that some critics of the video were "inane", noting that "Presidential candidates have been starring in self-promoting campaign videos since Eisenhower". Stanley also noted that the video focuses more on the "apocalyptic" scenarios averted, saying "It’s not morning yet on “The Road We’ve Traveled.” It’s the end of the darkest hour of the night."The Washington Post referred to the film as a "masterful stroke", comparing it to a similar film made by Bill Clinton during the 1992 campaign. The reviewer wrote, "It’s less of a bragging moment and more like a contractor’s bid for renewal".

Davis Guggenheim

Philip Davis Guggenheim (born November 3, 1963) is an American film and television director and producer. His credits include NYPD Blue, ER, 24, Alias, The Shield, Deadwood, and the documentaries An Inconvenient Truth, The Road We've Traveled, Waiting for 'Superman' and He Named Me Malala. Since 2006, Guggenheim is the only filmmaker to release three different documentaries that were ranked within the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time (An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud, and Waiting for ′Superman′).

Life and career

He was born Philip Davis Guggenheim in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the son of Marion Davis (née Streett) and film director and producer Charles Guggenheim. His father was Jewish and his mother was Episcopalian. He graduated from the Potomac School (McLean, Virginia) (1979), from Sidwell Friends School (1982), and from Brown University (1986).

Guggenheim joined the HBO Western drama Deadwood as a producer and director for the first season in 2004. The series was created by David Milch and focused on a growing town in the American West. Guggenheim directed the episodes "Deep Water", "Reconnoitering the Rim", "Plague" and "Sold Under Sin". Guggenheim left the crew at the end of Season 1.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American academic and politician, who is the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and was previously a Harvard Law School professor specializing in bankruptcy law. A prominent legal scholar, Warren is among the most cited in the field of commercial law. She is an active consumer protection advocate whose scholarship led to the conception and establishment of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren has written a number of academic and popular works, and is a frequent subject of media interviews regarding the American economy and personal finance.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). She later served as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama. During the late 2000s, she was recognized by publications such as the National Law Journal and the Time 100 as an increasingly influential public policy figure.