Barack Obama

This Biography profile opens with Barack Obama's electrifying keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention—after which everyone knew the name of this inspiring political leader and soon to be presidential candidate. After backtracking to Obama's 1998 visit to Kenya—his father's birth country—the program proceeds in chronological fashion: from the senior Obama's move to Hawaii, to Barack's birth in 1961, his childhood spent with his grandparents, college days (at Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard), and eventual relocation to Chicago, where Obama married Michelle Robinson and his career segued from civil rights law to state politics. Although Obama himself appears only in archival footage, on-camera speakers here include friends, professors, politicians, reporters, campaign advisors, and relatives—such as his sister, Maya, and wife, Michelle, who was intrigued the first time she saw Obama. “How did this young man with this strange background,” she asks, “turn out to be such an interesting surprise?” Not surprisingly, however, there are no big revelations offered here (nor any truly insightful political commentary on Obama's rise in Chicago), but as a straightforward biographical profile, this is a solid presentation that covers Obama's triumphs, defeats (including his Senate race loss to activist Bobby Rush), and writings (his 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father and his bestselling 2006 follow-up The Audacity of Hope). An “updated” edition, the program ends in 2008 as Senator Obama's “improbable quest” for the presidency kicks into high gear. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)