Public image of Barack Obama Muslim community center to be located two blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. One interview in the opinion section of the LA Times was titled "The Useless Obama Muslim poll." In response, the White House said: "President Obama is Christian, prays daily." In July 2002, 40-year-old state Sen. Barack Obama embarked on a two-year campaign for 41-year-old Republican Peter Fitzgerald's U.S. Senate seat, against a large field of better known and wealthier opponents in the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. In March 2004, Obama won an unexpected landslide in the Illinois primary election for
Barack Obama three presidential debates in September and October 2008. On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain. Obama won 52.9% of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7%. He became the first African American to be elected president. Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park. On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his reelection campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission. As the incumbent president he ran virtually