Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign nominated on a major party ticket. On November 4, 2008, Obama defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, making him the President-elect and the first African American elected President. He was the third sitting U.S. Senator, after Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy, to be elected president. Upon the vote of the Electoral College on December 15, 2008, and the subsequent certification thereof by a Joint Session of the United States Congress on January 8, 2009, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Joe Biden Vice President of the United States, with 365 of
Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration appointed as the State Department's "first ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities" and was sworn in on September 15, 2009. She describes her responsibilities as including actively listening and responding to "the concerns of Muslims in Europe, Africa, and Asia." In 2012 Obama promised more flexibility on missile defense after his reelection, this flexibility was demonstrated the next year when Kerry offered to reduce American defenses against Chinese missiles. Foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration The foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration was the foreign policy of the United States from 2009 to 2017 while Barack Obama was