The aim of this book is to bring into focus the most exciting and complicated presidential campaign which revealed, for the first time to the world, Barack Obama as an extraordinary politician. It is not a biography of the man who became the 44th president of the United States of America. On the contrary, the book is the absolutely true story of the most remarkable leader during the campaign; a man whose, intellectual and political gifts prevailed and set him apart as a political genius. Barack Obama won the presidency even if unfavourable circumstances made him less likely to be the president of the United States of America: being an African-American, son of a non-American from Kenya; having a strange name for an American; married to a woman who is a descendant of slaves; being only four years as Senator. Just imagine that, before his 2004 convention speech, more than half of the American people did not know or had heard about him. This book explains explicitly how this African-American survived and convinced all the peoples of the world that he was the one they had been waiting for, and why the American people chose him as president of the United States of America in a crucial moment of financial crisis despite all the disadvantages on his side. Barack Obama really shook the world. With this achievement, he has definitely proved that anyone, not only rich boys from the upper classes, can grow up to be president. Besides, the book, The Political Phenomenon, is the most nuanced account of the most exciting presidential campaign in American history, including not only the high points, but the way the campaign actually became dramatic, with all the problems, conflicts and achievements. Usually, the rest of the world doesn't pay too much attention about the primaries until the two main candidates have emerged. But this time, it was different. From Paris to Kinshasa, Copenhagen to Melbourne, people were staying up until late - already in the beginning of 2008 - to wait for the results of the U.S. presidential primary season. And finally, this book captures the essence of one of the most extraordinary leaders of our time and the process by which he became, without any doubt, a political phenomenon.