Barack Obama Officially Running in 2008
Senator Barack Obama is forming a presidential exploratory committee, thus officially tossing his hat into the 2008 presidential ring.
The press release is available, in PDF format, here. The text is available below the fold of this post.
His website is now taking donations.
Here’s his announcement video, which Hotline says is likely the work of David Axelrod:
Interestingly, as Hotline notes, he has a “backup plan,” a 2010 Senate Re-Election Website.
I remain dubious of Obama’s candidacy, thinking of him as an unknown quantity with little in the way of preparation for the presidency. My guess is that the shine will wear off once he is forced to take positions of divisive public policy issues, taking away people’s ability to think that he thinks just as they do.
Full text of Obama’s announcement:
As many of you know, over the last few months I have been thinking hard about my plans for 2008. Running for the presidency is a profound decision – a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone – and so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country.
I certainly didn’t expect to find myself in this position a year ago. But as I’ve spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months; as I’ve read your emails and read your letters; I’ve been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.
So I’ve spent some time thinking about how I could best advance the cause of change and progress that we so desperately need.
The decisions that have been made in Washington these past six years, and the problems that have been ignored, have put our country in a precarious place. Our economy is changing rapidly, and that means profound changes for working people. Many of you have shared with me your stories about skyrocketing health care bills, the pensions you’ve lost and your struggles to pay for college for your kids. Our continued dependence on oil has put our security and our very planet at risk. And we’re still mired in a tragic and costly war that should have never been waged.
But challenging as they are, it’s not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It’s the smallness of our politics. America’s faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. 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.
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.
This won’t happen by itself. A change in our politics can only come from you; from people across our country who believe there’s a better way and are willing to work for it.
Years ago, as a community organizer in Chicago, I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots, and that engaged citizens working together can accomplish extraordinary things.
So even in the midst of the enormous challenges we face today, I have great faith and hope about the future – because I believe in you.
And that’s why I wanted to tell you first that I’ll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I’ll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for your time, your suggestions, your encouragement and your prayers. And I look forward to continuing our conversation in the weeks and months to come.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Barack Obama
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About James Joyner
So far? He’s got my vote. Lieberman has an opportunity to win it away from him. I haven’t seen anyone else worth my attention.
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And if it doesn’t quite work out, he will be a strong candidate for the VP spot I would surmise.
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Obama announces exploratory commission…
Illinois senator Barack Obama has announced that he is forming an exploratory commission, the first step in seeking the presidency of the United States:
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) launched a presidential campaign Tuesday …
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[...] The folks over at Outside The Beltway have the full text of Obama’s announcement HERE. [...]
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[...] Again, the New York Times falls prey to another fallacy when it asserts that “[w]hile Mr. Obama does not have the burden of explaining his vote on the war resolution as other senators do, the lack of a Senate track record on other issues could prove damaging as he fends off inevitable criticism that he does not have the experience to be president.” Anyone remember John Kerry? Yes, the decorated Vietnam veteran and onetime challenger of President Bush in Election 2004 mainly failed because the Republican candidate could tear apart the paper trail of votes the Massachusetts senator. Remember the infamous “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.†This was the line that effectively undermined Kerry’s candidacy and allowed the Bush campaign to portray him as an unprincipled “flip-flopper”. This time around, not being a Washington insider might be the ticket into the White House. New York Times, take note. In 1976, “experience” also counted against the Republican ticket, and the nation went for a little-known Southern governor who had an undistinguished term of office in Georgia and had already retired by the time he declared for President. Whilst evaluations of Jimmy Carter’s stewardship of the United States during 1976-80 may radically differ, no one can dispute that the country was in something of an exceptional situation back then. Watergate, the trauma of Vietnam, Soviet resurgence. Obama’s bid in 2008 has rightly been recognized as being built around the message of radical change, akin to Robert Kennedy’s campaign in 1968. His appeal as a “different kind of politician” might be this young senator’s ticket to the White House. The Los Angeles Times is detailing the battle for donors that is currently going on including the perception in the Clinton camp that Obama’s star is a supernova that will implode. But the article also points out one of the chinks in the former first lady’s armor: her unwavering support of military action in Iraq. Overall, California, one of the most reliably Democratic states since the beginning of the Bill Clinton era, is expected to be a major battleground for money and, presumably, endorsements, in the primaries. The Washington Post, meanwhile, sees this race as being “one of the most historic and compelling contests ever” for the Democratic nomination. Well, this is very hard to argue with: a former First Lady-turned-Senator and an African-American senator, as well as (let’s not forget that) possibly the first Hispanic to run for the presidency is quite something. Ah, and if Democratic voters look for something totally different, they might go for Al Gore. Le Monde, on the other hand, feels that Clinton’s cancellation of her news conference on the day of the Obama announcement may not have been that coincidental after all. Maybe a last-minute decision to avoid being drowned by saturation coverage of Obama announcing his run…The blogosphere is also full of coverage of the Illinois senator’s decision. Oval Office 2008 joins the camp of those who feel that the senator may be able to talk his relative inexperience into an asset. Outside the Beltway, on the other hand, is not particularly convinced of the senator’s qualities and, like Hillary Clinton’s entourage, predicts that “the shine will wear off” the Obama campaign. Next up: Senator Clinton’s announcement, as well as (on the Republican side) that of Senator John McCain and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. [...]
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