Michael levy producer biography of barack

[Michael Levy is Britannica's Executive Editor. He received a bachelor’s degree (1991) in political science from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate (1996) in international relations and comparative politics from the University of Kentucky.]

On November 4, Barack Obama went from being a U.S.

senator to becoming president-elect of the United States of America—the first person to make such a leap since John F. Kennedy in 1960. With Kansas and Kenyan roots, Obama’s has been an improbable journey that has taken him from Hawaii to Indonesia to Los Angeles to New York City to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Chicago, to Washington, from food stamps to wealth, from a candidate many African American commentators two years ago considered “not black enough” to one who became a symbol of what African Americans—and any American—could achieve.

Whether a supporter or critic of Obama, by any measuring stick i