He is an improbable American hero. A self-professed multiracial "skinny kid with a funny name." A political whippersnapper with grandiose ambitions to become president of the United States.

When Barack Obama took to the stage last week following his stunning victory in the Iowa Democratic party caucuses, the true fairy-tale dimensions of his unlikely story became clear.

"A young, 46-year-old black man, with a black family, before an all-white crowd, hailing his victory -- that's a remarkable image," said Artur Davis, a Democratic representative from Alabama and Obama supporter.

Buoyed by his message of hope and change, voters in Iowa came out in record numbers to cast their ballots for the young political upstart who months previously had been trailing Hillary Clinton -- the "inevitable nominee" -- in the polls.

"They said this day would never come," Obama told his ecstatic supporters following the vote. "They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided -- too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose."

Following his remarkable victory in Iowa, Obama fell short on Tuesday in New Hampshire -- coming a close second to the surprise revival of Hillary Clinton. He now faces off with Clinton in a tight two-horse race for the Democratic nomination that experts say is far too close to call.

Possibly decisive votes will be cast on February 5 -- known as Super Tuesday -- in nominating contests in almost two-dozen states across America, including the key states of California, New York and Illinois.

How did Barack Obama -- a political novice with just two years experience in the US senate -- give the most recognisable and powerful politician in America such a run for her money? And who exactly is the man behind the fresh-faced persona that is electrifying America?

Barack Obama's story is the epitome of the American dream. His mother, a white woman from Kansas, met his father -- a goat herder from Kenya -- while they were both studying at the University of Hawaii.

Raised by his white grandparents -- affectionately referred to in his autobiography, Dreams of my Father, as Gramps and Toots -- Obama lived an idyllic childhood in the racially mixed melting pot that was Hawaii.

Far removed from the racial tensions plaguing American cities, his devoted grandparents were nonetheless protective of his mixed heritage.

When a tourist, who was watching a young Barack lolling in the waves commented to Gramps that, "swimming must just come naturally to these Hawaiians," his grandfather was ready with a comeback.

"That boy happens to be my grandson," he told the tourist, "his mother is from Kansas, his father is from the interior of Kenya, and there isn't an ocean for miles in either damn place."

Two years after Obama's birth his parents separated and his father returned to Kenya. His mother soon married another student from the university -- an Indonesian named Lolo -- and the family moved to Jakarta.

Educated in both Muslim and Christian schools and exposed to extreme poverty, Barack spent four years in Indonesia before returning alone to Hawaii to attend an elite secondary school.

Along the way, according to Joe Klein of Time magazine, he "road tested black rage but it was never a very good fit". Once mistaken for a parking valet attendant by a group of white people, he experienced some of the discrimination that many non-whites in America face.

In his superbly written memoir -- penned many years before he would run for political office -- he openly admitted to experimenting with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

But by the time he graduated first from Columbia University and then from Harvard Law school in 1991 -- having become the first-ever black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review in the process -- Obama seemed headed to great things.

"You just knew he was someone that was so very special," Charisse Carney-Nunes, a former Harvard colleague, told the New York Times.

Others point merely to his face, which offers in one commentator's words "the most effective rebranding of the United States since Ronald Reagan."

Unlike previous firebrand black leaders like Jesse Jackson, Obama doesn't scare white people. He eschews talk of black and white, preferring to talk in elegant prose about healing the divisions in American society, political, racial or social.

Many Americans -- particularly white Americans -- feel good about voting for him, as if they are vanquishing the country's ugly racist legacy.

"It's all about gratitude," said essayist Shelby Steele in Time magazine. "White people are just thrilled when a prominent black person comes along and doesn't rub their noses in racial guilt. White people just go crazy over people like that."

A brilliant orator, Obama has ignited rock star-like frenzy wherever he has gone on the campaign trail, filling halls to capacity.

A master of language, he sucks the crowd in, intermittently revving them up and slowing them down until he finally has everyone on their feet chanting and clapping.

Such scenes have met with derision from Obama critics, who disregard his flashy image saying that the precocious young senator is all hot air and little substance and that words are not action. "You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose," said Hillary Clinton last week while cautioning the electorate in New Hampshire to elect a "doer, not a talker".

Clinton's team has repeatedly questioned whether the young Obama has what it takes to be president at a time of war and economic trouble. His supporters point to his extraordinary intellect, his work as a civil rights lawyer and lecturer in constitutional law, his charismatic talent to inspire and his ability to transcend both racial and class barriers.

"They say I need to be seasoned; they say I need to be stewed," said Obama to criticism that he hasn't spent enough time in Washington. "They say, 'We need to boil all the hope out of him -- like us -- and then he'll be ready.'"

Despite having served just three years -- one of which has been spent on the campaign trail -- in the US senate, Obama's legislative record from his eight years as state senator in Illinois is impressive, his supporters say.

During that time he earned a reputation as a bridge builder between Republicans and Democrats, helping to reform the states' death penalty system and creating tax breaks to support the poor. He also voted to uphold abortion rights for women and supported gun control measures.

Obama's critics are frustrated that, unlike Hillary, his political track record is too brief to hide any real skeletons. Any hint of scandal -- his dabbling in cocaine as a young man, 'tensions' in his marriage -- have already been dealt with candidly by Obama in his two best selling books.

Obama has cited his early opposition to the war in Iraq as evidence of solid judgment, unlike Hillary who went along with the majority in Congress giving President George W. Bush authority to attack.

The Clinton team, including ex-president Bill Clinton, went after Obama in the final days before the New Hampshire vote, accusing the media of giving him a free ride. Exit polls suggested Senator Clinton may have persuaded many voters that she was more qualified to serve as commander-in-chief.

With plenty of money in his campaign war chest and a strong showing in opinion polls elsewhere, Obama may yet succeed in toppling the heavyweight Clinton.

And even if he fails to win the nomination, he's attracted young voters, defied conventional partisanship and shaken up the political landscape. Obama has made American politics cool for the first time in a generation. * See Medb Ruane, page 28

- Caitriona Palmer