Barack Obama has been named Time magazine's Man of the Year but a new set of photographs show that during his first year at college he could have been Cool Cat of the Year.The pictures, taken in 1980 by Lisa Jack, a fellow student at Occidental University, lay forgotten in her basement for years until she hunted them out during the election build-up.
Jack said she kept them hidden in a safety deposit box until after the election for fear that the photographs might be used to attack Obama's campaign.
The pictures show a 20-year-old Obama posing in a straw hat and smoking – a habit he has been trying to quit.
"You can see he is just posing, initially, but as the shoot goes on he starts to come out. He was very charismatic even then," Jack said.
Time said it had chosen Mr Obama as its Person of the Year for "for having the confidence to sketch an ambitious future in a gloomy hour, and for showing the competence that makes Americans hopeful he might pull it off".
Under pressure from his wife Michelle, Mr Obama has tried to give up smoking but he recently confessed to the odd transgression on the campaign trail.
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