Two years after entering the Senate, Barack Obama took the first step toward running for president Tuesday, threatening the front-runner status of fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Running for the presidency is a profound decision — a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone,” the Illinois senator said in a videotaped statement posted on his Web page. “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.”
Obama filed papers creating a presidential exploratory committee, although his assertion that he has already “committed” himself “to this race” seemed to eradicate any doubt about whether he is running.
National Journal’s Hotline, an online compendium of insider political analysis, immediately declared that Obama has vaulted ahead of Clinton, who had long been considered the favorite to clinch the Democratic nomination though she has not formally declared her intention to run.
“Talk about a surge,” Hotline marveled. “It’s not often in the annals of White House politics that one jumps from obscurity to frontrunner status in as short a span as Barack Obama has.”
Clinton canceled a news conference Tuesday, although her supporters insisted the move had nothing to do with Obama’s announcement, which caused a major stir inside the Washington Beltway.
It was the second time this week that Clinton had been challenged by rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. On Monday, former Sen. John Edwards publicly chided Clinton, without mentioning her by name, for not speaking out more forcefully against President Bush’s Iraq policy.
Obama used his announcement to criticize Bush’s Iraq policy by saying: “We’re still mired in a tragic and costly war that should have never been waged.”
Obama acknowledged that even he has been surprised by the wave of popularity that has propelled him into the top tier of presidential hopefuls.
“I certainly didn’t expect to find myself in this position a year ago,” he said. “But as I’ve spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months; as I’ve read your e-mails and read your letters; I’ve been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.”
He said: “We have to change our politics and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.”
This did not impress radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a staunch conservative.
“People will love that but not realize that he is 98 percent liberal,” he said. “For liberals, there is only one common interest and that is theirs. For Republicans, it means to cave in to Democrats.”
