A is for Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, who grew up the daughter of an oil-rig worker in smalltown Kansas

B is for Barack Snr, Obama's father, who was born into a Muslim family in the small African village of Nyangoma-Kogelo in Kenya and grew up herding goats

C is for Chicago, the city that Obama calls home, and where he took his first job with a church group working in high crime inner city estates. Also for Chilli, the dish Obama says he cooks best

D is for Dreams from my Father, Obama's first best-selling book. D is also for drunk — the state that Barack Snr was in when he died in a car crash in August 1982

E is for e-mails. Hostile messages are still circulating on the internet claiming that Obama (middle name: Hussein) is a Muslim and a jihadi sympathiser opposed to the American way of life

F is for the number five — Obama was only the fifth African-American in US history to become a Senator. He now seems certain to be the first black candidate to run for President on a major party ticket

G is for garden. Extending his, through a murky land-deal involving his fundraiser Tony Rezko (see R), was a "bone-headed mistake", Obama has admitted

H is for Hawaii, where Obama's parents met at university. Obama was born on August 4 1961 and spent his first six years in Honolulu, though his parents split up when he was two

I is for Indonesia, where Obama moved after his mother briefly remarried, to oil manager Lolo Soetoro

J is for Jakarta, where Obama went to school until he was ten. J is also for the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the black Chicago church pastor who baptised the Obama children. Obama disowned him after his race-tinged rants threatened to alienate white voters

K is for Kenya, the country where Obama's grandfather was a domestic servant to the British. Also for Dennis Kucinich, the no-hope Democratic contender that Obama accidentally voted for in the Illinois primary

L is for Leo, Obama's star sign . Also for Luo, his family's tribal heritage in Kenya

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