Cabinet of Barack Obama

On February 10, 2007, in front of the old Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States ^[1] . The place had a symbolic character, since it was there that Abraham Lincoln delivered the historic speech “The House Separated” in 1858 ^[2] . Throughout the campaign, Obama advocated a quick end to the Iraq war , energy independence and universal health care ^[3] . His campaign slogans are “Changes that we can believe in” ^{[4] [5]} and “Yes we can!” ^[6] (the song Yes We Can , recorded by a number of famous artists using words from Obama’s electoral speech, received a great fame and award webby ).

In the first half of 2007, the Obama campaign collected $ 58 million. Small donations (less than $ 200) amounted to 16.4 million of this amount. This number set a record for fundraising by the presidential campaign in the first six months of the calendar year before the elections ^[7] . The size of a small part of the donation was also extreme ^[8] . In January 2008, the campaign set another record with a collection of $ 36.8 million — the largest amount ever collected by a presidential candidate in the Democratic Party primary elections ^[9] .

Obama is the first (only) presidential candidate who abandoned state funding for the election campaign ^{[10] [11]} .

Campaign Progress

Barack Obama became the only Democratic candidate after June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton officially announced her retirement from the election race and supported Obama's candidacy ^[12] . On June 25, 2008, the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, supported Obama for the first time, through an official spokesman, Matt McKenn, stating that he would do everything in his power for Barack Obama to win the US presidential election in November 2008. ^[13]

Preliminaries

Obama confidently won in states with high urbanization and level of education ; The most difficult for Obama were the states in which the white population predominates, such as, for example, West Virginia , Texas , Oklahoma , Florida . Obama also won victories in the traditionally republican states (for example, in Alaska and Mississippi , where they traditionally support the Republicans since 1980) and, at the same time, in the ultra-liberal states of Washington and Minnesota .

On November 4, Obama enlisted the support of 338 out of 538 electors with the required 270 votes, which meant his coming to power on January 20, 2009 . At the same time, voter turnout reached a record - 64% ^[14] .

Intermediate period, the beginning of the formation of the cabinet

The interim period began when Obama was elected president on November 4, 2008 . During the interim period, Obama announced the composition of the Cabinet and the Presidential Administration. Shortly after the November 4 elections , Obama chose Illinois State Representative Rama Emanuel as head of the White House administration.

Former rivals in the primaries: Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State and Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce of the United States entered the Cabinet (as early as January 4, 2009, even before taking office, Richardson rejected her because of the federal jury ).

December 1, Obama announced that he wants to see Robert Gates as Minister of Defense, this is the first time that the Minister of Defense retains his post when the party changes to the post of president.