As Barack Obama prepares to assume the presidency on January 20th, 2009, FRONTLINE tells the story of how a little known state senator rose from obscurity to the White House in just over four years. Dreams of Obama draws on interviews with those closest to the next president to provide insight into how Obama might lead the country. A personal and political biography, the film begins with Obama's first appearance on the national stage at the 2004 Democratic convention, and follows his carefully choreographed and meteoric rise to prominence within the Democratic Party. Along the way, FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk examines how Obama's life experiences made him uniquely suited to launch his successful campaign to become the country's first black president. Obama's closest friends and advisors reveal how his time as a community organizer in Chicago, his election to the presidency of the Harvard Law Review, and rise to the top of Illinois politics taught him how to navigate America's complicated racial and political divides.