Whether or not he lives up to the hype (and, frankly, who could?), Barack Obama looks set to become the coolest president America has ever had.

Admittedly, competition from his 43 predecessors is not intense. Remember Bill Clinton’s fogeyish grooving with a saxophone in the run-up to the 1992 election? Or Richard Nixon stiffly shaking Elvis by the hand in the Oval Office in 1972? Or George W Bush’s “Yo, Blair!” at the 2006 G8? Cringe, cringe and double cringe.

Even when the commander-in-chief is genuinely hip — though JFK is the only one that springs to mind — he gets written off by half the electorate for being toffee-nosed and effete. Cool, you see, is the ducking stool of American politics — damned if you are, damned if you aren’t.

But, thanks to the ice man from Illinois, all that is about to change. The president-elect is 47 years old, with a formidable wife, gorgeous children, a 30-inch waist and oodles of X-factor. (Who now remembers “too thin to win”?) He’s scholarly, handsome and socially adroit. Miraculously, these no longer appear to be suspicious qualities for a leader to possess.

'Change has come' - Obama wins in landslide

Sweeping victory for America's first black president is greeted by tumultuous scenes Watch our video

• Analysis: Barack Obama's victory is head-spinning stuff

• Full video and text: Barack Obama's victory speech

• Early US Election exit polls give hope to Barack Obama

Michelle Obama: a new type of First Lady

For Carla Bruni the game is finally up. In Michelle Obama she has truly met her match - a First Lady like none before

BACKGROUND

• Bush - 'We should all be proud of Obama'

• The challenge that greets Obama

• Full video and text: Obama's victory speech

• Voters honour Martin Luther King's dream

Multimedia

• Bonjour 'Barack'

Related Links

• Now comes the hard part for Barack Obama

• Panting starts over president’s choice of top dog

• Obama went online to build an army of fans

Why is he so cool? There’s the dazzling oratory and innate gravitas, of course — but also something, well, more superficial. With his sharp suits and jet black sunglasses he could double for one of his secret service agents. Then there’s the gym, the fondness for Eminem, the power-bumps and natural banter with his family (“Give me some skin, baby” — this to his wife Michelle, whom he high-fived after she told him her dress cost only $30).

Peggy Sirota, the celebrity photographer who shot Obama for the cover of American GQ last year, says his magic lies in the fact that he “doesn’t try too hard”. She followed the senator, as he then was, on the campaign trail in Las Vegas before being given 20 minutes to get her cover image at his offices in Washington DC, where Obama politely — but adamantly — refused all efforts by the magazine to preen him.

“He did not want to look fashiony,” she says. “He didn’t even want to wear a label. He insisted on wearing his own suit, because he didn’t want to become something he’s not. That’s why he’s cool.”

Seeing politicians pretending to be “normal” usually brings on the same terror as watching ice skating. That uncomfortable wait for the inevitable fall. With Obama it never comes — mostly because he doesn’t think he’s cool and doesn’t care if you do.

He dresses the part, though. The Obama look is pitch-perfect 1950s slick. Narrow-lapelled suits, fitted shirts, hair neatly cropped — when he jumps out of his campaign jet he looks like a black Cary Grant.

Given the thousands of dollars presidents in the modern age have wasted on stylists, it’s a wonder no one has happened on the Frank Sinatra Rat Pack look before. Nixon was a mess, Reagan went in for silly shoulder pads, Clinton couldn’t stop wearing baggy trousers and let’s not even get started on Dubya’s fetish for multicoloured Crocs. Obama’s style icon must be JFK — a man who also meant business but who wasn’t adverse to the occasional Martini or crafty cigarette.

When asked about being a fashion icon in July, Obama replied: “I’m baffled by this whole thing because I hate to shop.” One can only imagine how baffled he is now Donatella Versace has revealed her new collection of hip-hugging suits was inspired by his look. Kudos to her, though. It’s much safer to endorse Obama’s suavity; attacking it has a nasty habit of backfiring.

Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up looking like an out-of-touch meathead when he poked fun at Obama’s “skinny legs” and “scrawny arms” at a Republican rally earlier this year. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, only emphasised her buffoonery when she nipped at his "elitist” heels, especially since everything from her over-egged soundbites to her $150,000 shopping sprees screamed: “Please, God, let them think that I am cool too!”

For genuine female cool, look to the future first lady. At 44, Michelle Obama — a lawyer as well as a mother — is being lined up as the next cover girl for American Vogue. She, like her husband, is now a style icon, apparently. When she goes on television in a new dress (usually bought with her own money from Gap or J Crew — there are no Palin-style spendathons in the Obama household) it sells out. She is being called the new Jackie O.

Even the couple’s two girls — Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 — are refreshingly blasé about their parents’ rise to the top. Malia dryly told a TV reporter last summer she was “surprised” that her mother had appeared in People magazine, because it usually featured “important people like Angelina Jolie”. Michelle, of course, was cool enough to see the funny side.

Thomas Jefferson may have had a way with the ladies and Andrew Jackson was a war hero with a taste for parties (visitors trashed the White House at his inauguration bash in 1828), but they both suffered, like all the rest, from the curse of being dusty, old, white men. Not, you understand, that Obama’s appeal is a black thing. Obama isn’t cool because he’s black — he’s cool because he’s comfortable in his skin. It’s this refusal to restyle himself as anything other than what he is that shows off the best of Obama’s traits: authenticity. People can’t seem to get enough.

As the Democratic candidate, he was courted by Hollywood’s usual suspects — Streisand, Affleck, Spielberg — but the power dynamic was different this time. He didn’t need celebs; they needed him. Hence George Clooney — a big supporter — stayed away from the campaign trail because he said Obama didn’t need him and he was terrified of trivialising the message.

Obama is the only American officially cooler than Clooney.

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end