History: Three years ago, Barack Obama was plucked from near-obscurity to give the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Since then, the telegenic first term senator from Illinois has seen his career rise like a meteor.

Despite little time on the national stage, he's a major contender for his party's presidential nomination, getting high marks in early polls and raising nearly as much money in the first quarter of 2007 as the more established Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Obama had an unconventional upbringing.

Born to a white mother and black father, he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii.

He distinguished himself as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review before taking his career to the south side of Chicago, where he became a community organizer.

Obama won a seat in the Illinois Senate in 1996 and served there for eight years, pushing for reforms in the state's death penalty law.

In 2004, he won an upset bid for the party's U.S. Senate nomination, defeating better known and funded challengers. And his good fortune continued when his Republican opponent dropped from the race due to scandal. That allowed Obama to coast to victory, though the national prominence he gained came months before he was elected because of the DNC speech. He also has written two best-selling auto-biographical books.

Since taking office, Obama has sought to balance his popularity with the profile of a first-term senator.

He partnered with a Republican to pass legislation enabling greater transparency for congressional earmarks and he's worked on veteran's disability issues, which affect his constituents.

Shortly before announcing his presidential candidacy in March, Obama proposed a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq by March 2008 and he frequently points out he opposed the invasion in the first place.

The senator has received mostly favorable media coverage, but has been the focus of some news stories about questionable financial dealings. They generally have not tarnished his popularity, however.

Biography: Quad-City Times | Photo: AP

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