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The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, he emphasised his personal history in a speechreflecting traditional American ideals of self-reliance and aspirations
"Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place - America,which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before," he said.After his landslide US Senate election victory in Illinois a few months later, he became a media darling andone of the most visible figures in Washington, with two best-selling books to his name.He won the early backing of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who not only urged him to declare his candidacyfor the Democratic presidential nomination on her programme but appeared on the campaign trail with him.As a senator, Mr Obama established a firmly liberal voting record, but also worked with Republican colleagueson issues such as HIV/Aids-education and prevention.An early critic of the Iraq war, he spoke out against the prospect of war several months before the March2003 invasion.His bid for the presidency was endorsed by such senior Republican figures as former Secretary of State ColinPowell and Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman for President George W Bush.Mrs Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also rallied behind Mr Obama in the months afterhe won the nomination and campaigned on his behalf.Mrs Clinton was later given a major role in the new administration - being chosen to serve as secretary of state.
International upbringing
Mr Obama is named after his father, who grew up in Kenya herding goats but gained a scholarship to study inHawaii.There the Kenyan met and married Mr Obama's mother, Ann, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.When Mr Obama was a toddler, his father got a chance to study at Harvard but there was no money for thefamily to go with him. He later returned to Kenya alone, where he worked as a government economist, andthe couple divorced.When Mr Obama was six, his mother married an Indonesian man and the family moved to Jakarta.Although his father and step-father were Muslim, Mr Obama is a Christian and attended secular and Catholicschools during the four years he lived in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.He then moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend school.Mr Obama went on to study political science at Columbia University in New York, and then moved to Chicagowhere he spent three years as a community organiser.In 1988 he left to attend Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of theHarvard Law Review.After Harvard, Mr Obama returned to Chicago to practise civil rights law, representing victims of housing andemployment discrimination. He served in the Illinois state senate from 1996 to 2004.He is married to a lawyer, Michelle, and they have two young daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Race
The senator attended the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for almost two decades but broke awayfrom it in May 2008 after controversial sermons by Trinity preachers hit the headlines.
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