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Senator Barack Obama yesterday launched his toughest attack yet on his rival Hillary Clinton, blasting her for backing the "tragic mistake" of the Iraq war and voting to give President George W Bush a green light from Congress."It should never have been authorised," he said in Ames, Iowa, where he was campaigning the day after he announced he was running for the White House. "Even at the time, it was possible to make judgments that this would not work well. "I feel good about the fact that my judgment was we shouldn't be proceeding and I think that speaks hopefully...

AXcess News) Washington - Standing before voters on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln served for eight years before becoming President of the United States, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said he saw the nation needing an inspirational leader who could save the union - stating that he was that man - during his official launch of his Democratic presidential campaign. Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, said just as Lincoln saved the union, fighting a bloody civil war, so America would need an inspirational leader after...

Acknowledging that his presidential campaign has opened a racial debate, Sen. Barack Obama, who has a white mother and an African father, says if you look African-American, you are treated like one. Obama and his wife, Michelle, who also addresses the race issue, appear in an interview with Steve Kroft to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday Feb. 11 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS television Network. If, as expected, Obama declares his formal candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination tomorrow, it will be his first interview to be broadcast after that event.

Is the man running to be president . . . or Saint Barack of Chicago? A bit hard to tell after GMA's hagiography this morning. The segment was a run-up to his planned announcement tomorrow of his presidential intentions. Obama's own advertising consultants might have balked at the presentation as too over-the-top in its worshipful tone and substance. Here's what we got: Robin Roberts introduced the segment by saying that while Barack is a presidential front-runner, "he may also be the least well known." Was that Robin's way of disputing HIllary's claim to being "the most famous person you don't...

The one person whom Hillary thought she would never — could never — have to run against was, of course, Bill. It was Bill, in fact, who consoled her last winter, after she was less than inspiring at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, with the observation that she would never have to face a charmer like himself. He told her — trying to be reassuring, I guess: "You don’t have to be better at this than me. You got to be better than whoever." But, oh dear, who would have thought the "whoever" she now may face would be so reminiscent...