President Obama on Monday officially launched his campaign for a second term in the White House.
In a video message, entitled “It begins with us,” a series of Obama supporters talk about the need for a second term for the incumbent Democrat.
The video features no new footage of Obama talking and makes no mention of Vice President Biden, though the website to which supporters are directed — a revamped BarackObama.com — has a small “Obama-Biden” logo at the bottom.
Obama addressed supporters in an email message accompanying the video.
“Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign,” he wrote. “[E]ven though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.”
The new video is expected to be accompanied by a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing some time on Monday, which would provide additional details about the campaign. Obama’s public schedule, as of Monday morning, called for no public statements, though he could add some to his agenda.
The news of Obama’s launch comes at a high-stakes moment in his third year in office. The president has spent the better part of the last month dealing with the protracted fighting between Moammar Gadhafi and rebels in Libya while seeking to strike a budget deal with congressional Republicans that would avert a government shutdown.
The filing will give Obama the legal opportunity to begin using the campaign infrastructure his staffers have built behind the scenes, and begin an aggressive fundraising effort that could net him close to $1 billion in donations between now and the fall of next year.
The president’s aides have already picked out an office in downtown Chicago to headquarter the campaign, the first outside-the-beltway base of operations for an incumbent president in decades. Jim Messina, Obama’s former deputy chief of staff, will serve as campaign manager, and the campaign has hired two deputy campaign managers: Jen O’Malley Dillon, the former executive director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Julianna Smoot, the president’s former social secretary.
Obama’s decision to file in early April places him at the beginning of a new month and a new quarter in the fundraising cycle, giving him time to build in an impressive initial haul from donors. Both Obama and Vice President Biden have met in recent weeks with supporters at events billed as non-fundraisers, but which hosted a number of top donors whose financial support is likely to come quickly to the campaign. On top of that, the president has a major fundraiser scheduled for mid-April in Chicago, which could bring in millions for his campaign.
The reelection launch comes at an earlier point in his presidency than did the launch of President George W. Bush’s reelection effort, which was announced in mid-May of 2003.
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13 Responses
Yes, it “begins with us” to elect a new president. Once fooled shamed on you, twice fooled shame on “us”.
What are his chances? He’s been trying hard lately, albeit….??
He can win again if the same idiots turn out and vote for him again. Its important that people go out and vote, and this time vote based on the merits of the candidate! Obama should never have won the first time, and based on the disaster of a presidency he is having stands no chance of winning again IF people vote based on merit.
What an ego???? Does he NOT look at the polls and his ratings lately? Does he not get it? No one trusts him anymore.
Amazing how he could be running for REelection using a slogan most suited for a first term. Perhaps he hasn’t realized he IS the president? Perhaps all the golf outings have clouded his mind? Perhaps all the personal concerts have gotten to him?
Moochelle & Present Obama can’t be defeated soon enough.
Obama may run for president, if there is anything left of the United states by time elections come around. We have had bad president in the past but never one that literally hates the country and all the people he is president of.
unless of course you are moslem
You can fool some of the people all of the time but come on…..not ALL of us are that dumb!!!
#5 that moochelle crack was completly beneath you shame on you
After listen to the radio and what people think of him you wonder. One idiot saw a man get hit on the street by a car and was taken to the hospital and he said if not obamacare
he would have not lived. The fact is obamacare does not begin yet but he is taking money from the government already Are people that stupid YEA they voted him in
#3 ARE YOU CALLING ME AN IDIOT ALSO???
I voted for president obama in 2008,
and i plan to vote for him in 2012 again
boroparkjew:
WIY is, and I’ll second the notion. For voting in ’08 you’re a naïf (veterans of this site will remember me as a hopey-changey lib); for doing it again you’re bonkers.
And to mark levin et al, the reinvented Give Me a Break (officially Give Me a Break II) is rooting for, in order
1. Mike Huckabee
2. Newt Gingrich
3. Herman Cain
(The upside to a Cain primary win is the splitting of the Afro-American vote – Cain’s “black” while Obama’s a mulatto”. If he wins the GOP, things should be interesting.)
I’ve “done teshuvah“.
boroparkjew, absolutely if you voted for Obama your a fool and if you plan to vote for him in 2012 or even a bigger fool. Your border line crazy.
BH obamai s running again, he has backed Israel;s security and fought the UN human rights division calling them out for antisemitism ( as happened just today) and he hasnt even questioned Israel on any attack against any terrorists and he has spearheaded healthcare reform that will allow thousands and thousands of Klal Yisroel to attain portability in health insurance, allow children to stay on parents HC insur till 30 years old, and will keep people from getting dropped for pre existing conditions and will give tax credits for the anniyin who cant afford a plan and the list goes on and on.