From a dark horse in the Democrat race to the first black US presidential candidate, Obama has had a meteoric rise from obscurity to be at a sniffing distance of the White House.
WASHINGTON: From a dark horse in the Democrat race to the first black US presidential candidate from a major party, Barack Obama has had a meteoric rise from political obscurity to be at a sniffing distance of the White House.
The 46-year-old Harvard-educated first-time Senator from Illinois had a prolonged bitter battle with powerful Democrat rival Hillary Clinton for winning the nomination - a roller-coaster run that was dominated by frequent controversies, mostly related to his race and religion.
Son of a father who travelled from a small Kenyan village to pursue University education in Hawaii and went on to marry a white woman from Kansas, Obama started his political career as a low-paid community organiser.
The Columbia University graduate and the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review served for eight years in the Illinois state Senate.
In 2004, he entered the Capitol Hill after a landslide Senate election victory and soon became a media darling and one of the most visible figures in Washington, with two best-selling books to his name.
The father of two young daughters, who appeared with his wife Michelle to declare victory before a cheering crowd in St Paul today, described it as a "defining moment" for the nation which abolished slavery 200 years ago but is still battling the scourge of racial discrimination.
"Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another -- a journey that will bring a new and better day to America," Obama, who projected himself as a candidate for "change", said.
"America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on policies of the past," he pledged.
Obama's victory in the Democrat contest is being seen by supporters as a turning point in history, reaffirming America's promise to be a land of equal opportunity.
Yet, many analysts feel that in a country where race is still a bitterly divisive issue, Obama, who lost to Clinton in most of the large white working-class majority states like Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, will have a tough task ahead.
The long-running intra-party campaign itself was a witness to questions being raised whether Obama was a "closet Muslim" and if he endorses radical anti-American and anti-white rantings of his former pastor.
The Hawaii-born Obama's father, the Barack Obama Sr, as also the Indonesian man his mother married after divorcing, were Muslim. During the vicious campaign, Obama had to reiterate that he is a devout Christian and attended secular and Catholic schools rather than a madrassa for the four years he lived in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.
Obama's opponents -- Clinton as also presumptive Republican nominee John McCain -- consistently hit on his relative political inexperience.
His campaign has been focusing on his image as a candidate eager to bring change, a man of youthful exuberance and a quick learner, a good organiser and a better fundraiser.
Obama is also hoping to gain from the public resentment over the Iraq invasion and its aftermath. An early critic of the war, he has been projecting McCain as a candidate who will carry on with the old policies of the Bush Administration, including on the issues of war and troop pullout.
"The journey will be difficult... if we are willing to work for it... then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless...this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image," Obama said in his victory speech.
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