Obama announces presidential ambition
Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate in 2005
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Saturday, 10, Feb 2007 11:05
Barack Obama has announced his intention to make history by becoming the first black president of the United States.
Barack Obama of Illinois, the only black senator in the US Congress' upper house, announced his candidacy from the old state capitol where Abraham Lincoln made his famous "house divided" speech in 1858.
Although 149 years have passed since Lincoln began his struggle to end slavery in the US, the country has yet to have a black president – something Senator Obama is setting out to change.
"I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States," Senator Obama said to widespread applause and cheers.
"I recognise that there is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement. I know that I have not spent a long time learning the ways of Washington, but I have been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington have to change," he added.
The 45-year-old outlined plans to quickly withdraw US troops from Iraq by March 2008, a policy designed to continue the Democrat opposition to president George Bush's mission in the country which did so well in last November's midterm elections.
"It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war," he said.
Senator Obama was elected as Illinois' junior senator in 2005 but has quickly emerged as a leading rival to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democrat party's 2008 presidential nomination.
Supporters point to his speech to the 2004 Democrat national convention urging bipartisanship as the moment when he first came to prominence, but since then his easy charm and charisma have impressed all.
Despite Senator Obama's popularity, Senator Clinton is noted for having an enormous war chest which will substantially aid her campaign. Other candidates for the Democrat nomination include former vice-presidential nominee senator John Edwards, foreign relations chair Joseph Biden and Mexico governor Bill Richardson.