Barack Obama Enters Bid For The White House

A frigid morning in Springfield, Illinois, Barack Obama formally began his bid for the White House by challenging a new generation to mobilize and change the pettiness of American politics.

The first-term U.S. senator stood on a podium in front of Springfield's Old State Capitol, where Abraham Lincoln delivered his landmark anti-slavery speech. Obama faced a throng of admirers with a four-storey American flag to his left and red, white and blue bunting framing his speech from behind.

His formal entry into the Democratic race is a major step in a political history that has unfolded at a rapid pace, catapulting a man who was an obscure Illinois legislator only three years ago onto a track that could make him this nation's first African American president.

"I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness – a certain audacity – to this announcement," he said.

"I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change."

Obama made it clear his campaign will emphasize his status as a relative outsider in the political process, his youth, his determination to end the Iraq war he opposed from the beginning and his promise to provide universal health care and better educations for America's youth.

A champion of bipartisanship, he never mentioned the name of his party and used the word "Republican" but once in a 20-minute speech.


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Obama Makes 2008 Run Official