This will come as a surprise to nobody, of course, but Illinois Senator Barak Obama took the first steps today toward running for President in 2008:
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D), one of the Democratic Party’s brightest young stars, jumped into the 2008 race for the White House today, establishing a presidential exploratory committee that is expected to lead immediately into a full-blown campaign for president.
Obama has electrified Democratic audiences around the country, generating pressure for him to seek the presidency despite having been elected to the Senate just two years ago. Recent national polls show him challenging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is seen as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.
“Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions,” Obama wrote in an e-mail message to supporters released this morning. “And that’s what we have to change first. We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.”
Obama said he would spend the next several weeks in conversation with people around the country. He said he would make a formal announcement of his plans on Feb. 10 in Chicago.
It will be interesting to see how long his honeymoon lasts.
January 18th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Does anybody know if this guy has a publicist, because the buzz about some senator I probably would usually know little about started here a while ago. It feels a little “planned” - yet, I still don’t know “a lot” about him.
Will a great speaker also equal a great president?
It sure might help considering what we’ve had to deal with from the current one!
Can’t wait to see how this plays out.