SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — It wasn’t so long ago that Barack Obama himself considered the idea of a President Obama to be “hooey.”

Four years later, he’s headed for the White House, after a campaign that had more than its share of bizarre twists, unexpected controversies and the occasional stroke of bad luck.

A look back at some key moments:

Here’s looking at YouTube

The Illinois senator’s presidential campaign showed how it gained pop culture status when it inspired the “Obama Girl” video that became a hit on YouTube.

Millions of people watched a busty woman in a tight Obama T-shirt lip-synch such lyrics as “You’re into border security, let’s break this border between you and me.”

Then another video came along to give Obama a different kind of boost. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas set an Obama speech to music and invited a red-carpetful of celebrities to sing along.

There was Scarlett Johansson purring, “We want change,” and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about blazing “a trail toward freedom.” John Legend, Kate Walsh and Herbie Hancock declared, “Yes, we can.”

Suddenly, earnest patriotism was hip.

Teardrops in N.H.

Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton battled for months before he clinched the Democratic nomination, but the Primary That Wouldn’t End almost came to an early close in January.

Obama had beaten Clinton in the Iowa caucuses. If he had done it again in the New Hampshire primary, her campaign may have been mortally wounded.

Everything looked good for Obama, but then came a Clinton moment that shook things up. Her campaign mask seemed to crack briefly.

Asked by a sympathetic voter how she kept going in the grueling campaign, Clinton replied, “It’s not easy. It’s not easy.” Tears welled in her eyes, and her voice grew hoarse.

It would be silly to think Clinton won New Hampshire solely because of that moment, but there’s no doubt it helped.

“Bitter regrets”

Obama’s worst gaffe of the campaign was his statement that some voters in depressed rural areas “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”

He made the comment at a private fundraiser. It went public thanks to a blogger with a tape recorder who was present. Once it was out, the remark reverberated across the country.

Obama has called it his “biggest bonehead move.” He said he was trying to say that those voters have a right to be frustrated because Democrats haven’t addressed their cultural concerns.

Proud to be an American

Obama endured repeated questions about his patriotism. He’s the son of an African man, sports a strange name and spent part of his childhood in Muslim Indonesia. Could he truly be a red-white-and-blue American?

Critics found lots of reasons to say no.

They produced a picture of him without his hand over his heart during the national anthem and claimed that he had refused to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance.

They accused him of dissing the Stars and Stripes by refusing to wear a flag pin on his lapel — ignoring the fact that he did wear such pins occasionally and that other politicians often didn’t wear one.

And they leaped on his wife’s statement that, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.”

Paris, Britney and Barack

Republican John McCain used Obama’s popularity and Hollywood connections to try to portray the Democrat as just another vapid celebrity.

“He’s the biggest celebrity in the world,” a McCain ad said amid camera flashes and images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. “But is he ready to lead?“

The ad exploited an Obama weakness — that he was relatively unfamiliar to most Americans, known more for giving speeches than getting things done.

But the ad also inspired a wave of criticism that McCain was going negative and attacking Obama unfairly. It also inspired mockery, including a video response from Hilton, who pretended to take McCain’s comments as an endorsement.

“Thanks, white-haired dude,” she said. “I want America to know I’m, like, totally ready to lead.”

Bowling for votes

The less said about Obama’s performance in a Pennsylvania bowling alley, the better. In seven frames, he had a 37.

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