Obama Launches Bid to 'Transform' U.S.

iWon News/AP ^ | February 10, 2007 | Nedra Pickler

[2ndDivisionVet]

Barack Obama announced his bid for president Saturday, a black man evoking Abraham Lincoln's ability to unite a nation and a Democrat portraying himself as a fresh face capable of leading a new generation.

"Let us transform this nation," he told thousands shivering in the cold at the campaign's kickoff.

Obama, 45, is the youngest candidate in the Democrats' 2008 primary field dominated by front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and filled with more experienced lawmakers. In an address from the state capital where he began his elective career 10 years ago, the first-term U.S. senator sought to distinguish himself as a staunch opponent of the Iraq war and a White House hopeful whose lack of political experience is an asset.

"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 said to some of the loudest applause of his 20-minute speech.

Obama is looking to cap his remarkable, rapid rise to prominence with the biggest political prize of all - the presidency. His elective career began just 10 years ago in the Illinois Legislature. He lost a bid for a U.S. House seat, then won the Senate seat in 2004, a relatively smooth election made easier by GOP stumbles.

[2ndDivisionVet]

How is Barack Hussein Obama any more qualified to be the president of the United States than I am? Someone please fill me in...

[nctexan]

The vision begins....

[KevinDavis]

He can speak well....

[MichiganConservative]

Obama Launches Bid to 'Transform' U.S.

Transform it into what? It's already well on its way to being just another socialist utopia.

Hussein Obama doesn't even know why the Senate was set up the way it was. What a charlatan.

[Farmer Dean]

Actually,you are the more qualified person-but the Dems are getting all steamy under the silks for this nobody-so sit back and watch as Hillary destroys this clown.

[Dilbert San Diego]

His career is elective office is very short.

His main qualification is being in the right place at the right time to be a new face. Dems love Hillary but have their doubts about her winning the general election. A guy like Obama coming in attracts attention among those who want an alternative to Hillary.

But can Obama win a general election any more easily that Hillary could? Obama is very liberal.

[DBrow]

Uh oh, I've seen this before.

He's going to run his campaign on "hope", "change", "transformation", and for all I know eternal youth. He'll provide no detail and the press won't ask.

People fall for this because they fill in the blanks- he says vague things and they fill in what they most want to hear. he must first reinforce any negatives they may be feeling, then offer the mirror speech and they see themselves.

"There are people in the USA going to bed hungry, with no job and no home- I offer you hope, transformation..."

[brytlea]

He's articulate and clean?
susie

[My GOP]

I think I'll pass on Obama's transformation. Socalism along with the UN running our foreign policy just doesn't do it for me.

[Regulator]

Transform it into what?

Zimbabwe

[rockrr]

In order to answer your question you have to ask yourself: are you a shameless political whore, totally devoid of any sense of ethics or shame? Can you speak authoritatively on moral equivalence? Are you willing to condone or promote any position at any time (even if it is directly contradictory to a previous position) in order to curry favor and accumulate power?

If yes, then you too can be a Dhimmicrat-ick candidate!

[GSlob]

Well, one could open a betting pool [to stay legal, the stakes ought to be limited to bragging rights and maybe a can of diet Coke] on how long he would last till hillary devours him and spits the buttons.

[John123]

Can anyone list any bills or anything that Obama has done in his political career?

[guinnessman]

I think Joe Biden said it best, "he's a mainstream African American who's clean and articulate."

[Mr. Peabody]

He wants to transform it into a third-world hellhole.

[DBrow]

" watch as Hillary destroys this clown."

I'm more cynical. If Hillary can get to be his vice, and win, then she'll have a shot at eight years of writing policy and laws in the back room while "this clown" faces the public between golf games and parties. Hillary does not like the limelight, the spotlight, questions.

Then she has a shot at eight years of her own.

So if she goes the route I sketched, she'll have had 16 years in the WH.

[goodnesswins]

LOL...he's "clean" too....

[RunningWolf]

Qualifications? you want qualifications? the MSM don't need no stinking qualifications.

Okay so he wants to transform America, the question is to what?

And seeing his background and track record, I think he needs to stay as Senator from Illinois, where he cant do to much damage.

[boomop1]

He will stir the pot and be the great half white hope.

[AZRepublican]

I think the title meant to say "transform his image."