Barack Obama

thumb|300px|President Obama addresses the 2009 Sesame Workshop Benefit Gala.

Barack Obama (b. 1961) is the current President of the United States. A former United States Senator from Illinois, Obama was the first African-American to be elected President of the United States. Obama took office on January 20, 2009, becoming the 44th President of the United States.

During a 2008 fund-raising dinner, Obama remarked to Sesame Workshop co-founder Joan Ganz Cooney that he "used to watch Sesame Street when [he] was babysitting [his] sister."

Elmo, Rosita, a Muppet number 1 and the letters U, S and A recorded special videos for the We Are One concert event celebrating Obama's inauguration as President in January 2009.

On April 12, 2009, President Obama hosted the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the lawn of The White House. The president treated the crowd to a reading of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are; while other readers included first lady Michelle Obama and actors James Cromwell and Daniel Stern. Walk-around versions of Elmo and Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, and Sid from Sid the Science Kid were in attendance at the event along with other PBS Kids characters.

President Obama recorded a video message for the 2009 Sesame Workshop Benefit Gala congratulating and thanking Sesame Workshop for their 40 years of educating America's youth. "It is my honor and privilege, as a parent and as president, to say on this wonderful occasion that this video is brought to you by the number 40. I'm pleased to join all of you in supporting and celebrating this program, as someone who remembers fondly watching Sesame Street with my younger sister and as a parent of two girls who learned a great deal while spending time with Elmo and Big Bird and all of their pals. Sesame Street has over the course of four decades managed to remain, at once relevant in changing times, timeless in the values that it instills in our children. In fact, there are many adults who could stand to learn again the lessons that Sesame Street offers: lessons of compassion, and kindness and respect for our differences. The world is a better place for the world you create on 'Sesame Street,' a world that enriches our children's minds and hearts each and every day." PBS used this to open their coverage during the TV Critics' Press Tour on August 1, 2009.

The President again acknowledged Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary in a message recorded for A Capitol Fourth.