So, Barack Hussein Obama is the first black president of the all-too-powerful United States of America. Hail, President Obama!

So, Barack Hussein Obama is the first black president of the all-too-powerful United States of America. Hail, President Obama!

He is now the leader of the democratic world, the 44th president of the world's strongest nation.

This sounds strange, considering that the man - let alone his tender age of 47 - has his roots in Africa.

There are roughly 306million people across 51 states that constitute the US, the majority of them white.

Honestly, I still cannot believe that Hawaii-born Obama now leads this powerful nation.

Come to think of it, the Americans, especially whites, have to be lauded for applying their minds to this election. They realised that their outgoing choice, George Walker Bush, had pushed their country to the precipice.

Dubya had decided that his father, George Snr, had not completed his mission of taking out Saddam Hussein in 1990. Now Iraq and Afghanistan are hanging around the poor US's neck like an albatross and Bush will leave the White House still in denial.

Enough about politics.

I think happy days are here again. Remember Bill Clinton? The world was a safer place during his two terms as president of the US.

The scandal that shocked the world while he was in the White House was the Monica Lewinsky distraction.

Lewinsky was then a 21-year-old White House intern caught with the president in an uncompromising situation in or around the Oval Office.

All is forgiven now though Clinton had tried todeny any sexual liaison with the young woman.

But he is not the only US president on the roll of presidential sex scandals - admitted and alleged - from the past.

Among them was Thomas Jefferson, who is rumoured to have secretly fathered at least one of six children by slave Sally Hemings.

Franklin Roosevelt's affair with Lucy Mercer was discovered by his wife Eleanor in 1918.

Dwight Eisenhower allegedly began an affair with his driver, Kay Summersby, during World War 2 in Europe.

John F Kennedy was reputably a ladies' man. Kennedy had a "boatload" of girlfriends before marrying Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953.

After their marriage he reportedly continued to see other women, allegedly even sneaking them into the White House. Mafia "moll" Judith Exner and actress Marilyn Monroe are but two of these alleged partners.

So Obama enters the White House against the background of this rich history. He is a young man and a loving husband to beautiful Michelle.

But he is a serious man, this Obama. He knows he has a mission. His task becomes all the more serious as the first African-American commander-in-chief.

He has a point to prove though he might emphasise that his election was the will of the American people and not necessarily an endorsement by the black electorate.

Obama will not be distracted by young pretty things when there are American soldiers to bring back home from senseless wars. He has to steer the US from the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression.

All this might be too much for a young man whose career has always been about scoring firsts.

l The presidents' sex scandals were sourced from www.who2.com.