HE HAS written the most intimate memoir of any American politician in modern times as well as a 364-page political manifesto and he has been under the political spotlight every day for the past two years.
Yet as he prepares to take office as the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama remains a curiously opaque figure, both personally and in terms of his political philosophy.
As he announced each appointment to his cabinet in December, pundits searched the choices for clues about the direction in which Obama would take the country.
Did his selection of so many veterans of the Clinton administration and his decision to keep George Bush's defence secretary in place signal a conservative approach to governing?
Or did the choices simply underscore the incoming president's pragmatism as he surrounded himself with the most competent available team to implement his own agenda for change?
The facts of Obama's biography are well known - his birth in Hawaii to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother and his childhood years in Indonesia, his Ivy League education and his work as a community organiser on Chicago's South Side.
His record as an Illinois state senator and his political associations in Chicago are closely documented and the speech at the 2004 Democratic national convention that launched his national career has already found its way into political anthologies.
During the election campaign, Republicans sought to portray Obama as a radical liberal but those close to the president-elect have always insisted that he is a centrist who believes sincerely in the importance of bridging political, racial and social divisions.
Obama's cabinet appointments have been conservative and he has wasted little time in disappointing some of his supporters on the left - notably in the selection of his economic team and his choice of anti-gay evangelist Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
The scandal over Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's alleged attempt to sell Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder highlighted the president-elect's background as a product of the Daley political machine in Chicago.
Obama's success in keeping the machine in his corner while apparently avoiding any shady dealings is testimony to his political adroitness and to the tough, single-mindedness with which he has pursued each political prize.
Obama's path to the White House is littered with discarded allies and mentors, from Alice Palmer, the Chicago politician who helped launch his career to Jeremiah Wright, who was his pastor for two decades until Obama disowned him during the campaign.
Friends say that Michelle Obama keeps her husband grounded and, having grown up without a father himself, Obama says he is determined to remain close to his daughters Sasha and Mahlia.
The two girls, who attended a private school in Chicago, will continue in private education at Washington's Sidwell Friends, which Chelsea Clinton also attended.
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Michelle Obama said the girls would have to do chores around the White House and clean up after their new puppy.
"That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit. Because of course, the girls, they're so good.
"I said, you know, we're going to have to set up some boundaries. Because they're going to need to be able to make their beds and clean their own rooms."
Denis Staunton