Handy Guide: Barack Obama on the major issues

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Hometown
Honolulu, Hawaii

Age
46

Religion
United Church of Christ

Education
Harvard Law School, J.D., 1991
Columbia University, B.A., 1983

Candidate Website
www.barackobama.com

Candidacy Status
Formally declared candidacy Feb. 10, 2007.

Political Experience
U.S. Senator from Illinois, 2005-present
Illinois State Senator, 1997-2004

Professional Experience
Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School, 1993-2004
Attorney, Miner Barnhill & Galland, 1993-2004

Family Information
Spouse: Michelle Obama
Children: Malia Ann Obama, Sasha Obama

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Obama On the Issues

Abortion
Obama supports abortion rights. In the Illinois State Senate, he voted against a bill to ban late-term abortions. Obama said that he did not support the ban because it did not contain a clause to protect the life of the mother. During the April 2007 Democratic debate, Obama said that he trusts women to make their own decisions about whether or not to have an abortion "in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5654128/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18352397/

Church and State
Obama says he believes in the importance of the separation of church and state, but says that a "sense of proportion" should guide how it is enforced. He says that the phrase "under God" in the pledge of allegiance and voluntary student prayer groups on school property are two examples where conflict between church and state has been alleged, but should be less strictly policed.
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060628-call_to_renewal_keynote/index.html

Death Penalty
Obama says the death penalty "does little to deter crime" but he supports it for cases in which "the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage." While a state senator, Obama pushed for reform of the Illinois capital punishment system and authored a bill to mandate the videotaping of interrogations and confessions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802262_2.html

Education
In a debate during his 2004 senate campaign, Obama said he opposed government vouchers and tax credits to attend private schools because they would undermine efforts to improve the public school system. His opponent, Alan Keyes, criticized Obama for being against school vouchers while sending his two daughters to private schools in Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/elections/chi-0410270128oct27,1,3506733.story?coll=chi-electionsprint-hed

Environment
In October 2007, Obama proposed an energy plan that would implement a national emissions cap and require power companies and other industries to pay for their carbon emissions via a "cap and trade" system. His plan also would aim to reduce American dependence on foreign energy by 35% by 2030. He also has advocated for the expansion of U.S. ethanol production. In the U.S. Senate, Obama co-sponsored the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act to cap emissions from industrial plants and oil refineries. He supported a January 2007 meeting of a group of evangelicals and climate scientists to advocate measures to prevent global warming. Obama has also called for stricter restrictions on the amount of carbon in fuels and tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/us/politics/09obama.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/O/Obama,%20Barack
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/10/16/obama_outlines_policies_for_ru.php
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:s.280:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan17/0,4670,EvangelicalsGlobalWarming,00.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070423obama-iowa,1,7949524.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Faith-Based Initiatives
While he emphasizes the need for the separation of church and state, Obama says there is room for faith-based approaches to social problems. "One can envision certain faith-based programs – targeting ex-offenders or substance abusers – that offer a uniquely powerful way of solving problems," he said in June 2006.
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060628-call_to_renewal_keynote/index.html

Gay Marriage
Obama wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he remains "open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided ... I may have been infected with society's prejudices and predilections and attributed them to God." He supports granting civil unions for gay couples and opposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
http://obama.senate.gov/press/060607-obama_statement_on_vote_against_constitutional_amendment_to_ban_gay_marriage/index.html
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/REPOSITORY/704210326/1043/NEWS01

Health Care
When he formally declared his run for the presidency, Obama said his goal is to implement universal health care, or government health insurance for all Americans, by 2012 or "the end of the first term of the next president." He has called the "belief in universal health care" one of the "core values" of the Democratic party. Obama proposes a national health care plan that would allow individuals and businesses to buy health care that is similar to what is available to federal employees. The plan would be funded partly by allowing President Bush's tax cuts to expire and by reapportioning that revenue.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-25-obama-health_x.htm
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/obamas-health-plan/

Immigration
Obama supports immigration reform that strengthens border security while creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. He has been a proponent of guest worker programs that first offer available jobs to American workers. Obama has said that he will "not support any bill that does not provide earned path to citizenship for the undocumented population."
http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060403-floor_statement_of_senator_barack_obama_on_immigration_reform/index.html

Iraq War
Since Obama was not a member of the U.S. Senate in 2002, he did not vote on the authorization of the use of force in Iraq. But he was an opponent of the war effort as an Illinois state senator and campaigned against the war in his 2004 Senate bid. In January 2007, Obama introduced the non-binding Iraq War De-Escalation Act with a goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. The bill would allow a limited number of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for counterterrorism and the training of Iraqi security forces. On the campaign trail in September 2007, Obama offered a similar plan to withdraw almost all American troops by the end of 2008. Obama has made his opposition to the war a central theme of his campaign, telling voters "they should ask themselves: Who got the single most important foreign policy decision since the end of the Cold War right, and who got it wrong?"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E1DF1E3EF935A15751C0A9619C8B63
http://obama.senate.gov/press/070130-obama_offers_plan_to_stop_escalation_of_iraq_war_begin_phased_redeployment_of_troops/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/us/politics/13obama.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/O/Obama,%20Barack
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/us/politics/03obama.html

Poverty
In September 2007, Obama unveiled a plan to cut taxes for the middle class and senior citizens by eliminating corporate loopholes and tax breaks. In the Illinois Senate, Obama helped author the state earned income tax credit, which provided tax cuts for low-income families. Obama has supported bills to increase the minimum wage. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama describes what he calls America's "empathy deficit," writing that a "stronger sense of empathy would tilt the balance of our current politics in favor of those people who are struggling in this society."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/us/politics/19obama.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/O/Obama,%20Barack
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/17/politics/main2369157.shtml

Stem Cell Research
Obama supports relaxing federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. He voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which was vetoed by President Bush. The bill would have allowed federal funding to be used for research on stem cell lines obtained from discarded human embryos originally created for fertility treatments.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/11/america/NA-POL-US-Where-They-Stand-Candidates.php
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-810

Source:
http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=4