Promising to bring "a different kind of politics" to the nation's Capitol, Barack Obama, the freshman senator from Illinois, almost declared his entry into the 2008 presidential campaign today. Instead he announced an exploratory committee. New York Senator Hillary Clinton is expected to announce her intensions soon.That means the two frontrunners in the camp of Democrats vying to become the next President of the United States will come from the greater Great Lakes, a region hit hard by globalization and desperate for meaningul leadership in Washington.
In a 3-minute online video announcement, Sen. Obama provides a glimpse of his potential campaign priorities. Improving healthcare. Ensuring affordable college education. Protecting pensions and workers rights. Relieving America's dependence on foreign oil. And, of course, the war in Iraq.
"It's not the magnitude of our problems that concern me the most," Sen. Obama said. "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."
