Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. He is seeking the nomination of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election. Obama announced at the Old State Capitol building where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech in 1858. Obama's initial victory in Iowa brought him to national prominence out of the crowded field of Democratic challengers, and his campaign began to trade a series of hard-fought state wins with expected frontrunner Hillary Clinton in January, a trend which continued through Super Tuesday, where Obama had great success in large rural states, and Clinton was nearly as dominant in high-population coastal areas. Obama's grassroots fundraising and electoral gains since the beginning of the primary season apparently gave him momentum; after winning all 8 state and territorial-level contests following Super Tuesday, Obama finally pulled ahead in the delegate race. He is estimated to have 1,122 elected and pledged delegates, leading his opponent by 127; his count of unelected and unpledged superdelegates continues to trail Hillary Clinton by 86. This leads to an overall Obama lead of 1,268 to Clinton's 1,227, towards the 2,025 total (pledged and unpledged) delegates needed to win the nomination.

Pre-announcement

Obama's keynote speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention sparked expectations that he would run for the presidency. Speculation on a 2008 presidential run intensified after Obama's decisive U.S. Senate election win in November 2004. At that time he told reporters: "I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years."

However, in an October 2006 interview on the television program Meet the Press, Obama appeared to open the possibility of a 2008 presidential bid. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin and Illinois State Comptroller Daniel Hynes were early advocates for a 2008 Obama presidential run. Many people in the entertainment community have also expressed readiness to campaign for an Obama presidency, including celebrity television show host Oprah Winfrey, singer Macy Gray, and film actors George Clooney, Halle Berry and Will Smith.

In September 2006, Obama was the featured speaker at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, a political event conventionally attended by presidential hopefuls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucuses. In December 2006, Obama spoke at a New Hampshire event celebrating Democratic Party midterm election victories in the first-in-the-nation U.S. presidential primary state, drawing 1,500 people.

Speaking at a Democratic National Committee meeting one week before the February announcement, Obama called for putting an end to negative campaigning. "This can't be about who digs up more skeletons on who, who makes the fewest slip-ups on the campaign trail," he said. "We owe it to the American people to do more than that."

Announcement of candidacy

Obama on stage with his wife and two daughters just before announcing his presidential campaign on February 10, 2007.

On January 16, 2007, Obama announced via a video on his website that he had formed a presidential exploratory committee. On February 10, he formally announced his candidacy for the presidency. In his announcement speech, Obama evoked the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, saying:

"It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people - where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America. And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States."

Campaign staff and policy team

On January 14, 2007, the Chicago Tribune reported that Obama had begun assembling his team for a 2008 presidential campaign to be headquartered in Chicago. His team includes Chicago-based political consultant David Plouffe, who is serving as campaign manager, Plouffe's partner, David Axelrod, who is serving as a media consultant, and Robert Gibbs, who is serving as communications director, and who was previously press secretary for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. Former Commerce Secretary and Gore campaign chairman William M. Daley is expected to serve in an as-yet-unspecified senior adviser role. A number of Obama's top aides have backgrounds with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who left the Senate due to re-election defeat at the same time Obama was entering it.

In June 2007, investigative reporter Robert Parry reported that Obama had sought foreign policy advice from former Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell. Parry suggested that this was a move toward the political center in preparation for the general election.

Campaign developments

First half 2007

Barack Obama at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Presidential Health Care Forum, March 2007.

In March 2007, Obama posted a question on Yahoo! Answers, entitled: "How can we engage more people in the democratic process?" which ultimately drew in over 17,000 responses.

On 12 April 2007, Bo Dietl, a regular guest on Imus in the Morning, frequently called attention to Obama's middle name (Hussein, as in Saddam Hussein) during an interview with Rebecca Gomez, and Imus in the Morning producer Bernard McGuirk was quoted as saying Obama had a "Jew-hating name." This is possible retaliation for Obama's call for the shows host, Don Imus to be fired after the Rutgers basketball incident.

On May 3, 2007, citing no specific threat but motivated by the large volume of hate mail directed at the Senator, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced that the United States Secret Service would provide protection for the campaign. This protection will include bodyguards for Obama, advance teams of agents to secure event sites, armored vehicles, and other services/resources similar to those employed for the safety of the President of the United States, albeit on a proportionally smaller level. Normally, presidential candidates are not offered Secret Service protection until early February of election year; this was the earliest protection had ever been granted.

Second half 2007

Obama speaking at a rally in Conway, South Carolina on August 23, 2007.

On August 1 when making his foreign policy speech Obama created controversy by declaring that the United States must be willing to strike al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan, with or without the consent of the Pakistani government. He stated that if elected, "If we have actionable intelligence about high value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will". ABC News described the policy speech as "counterintuitive", and commented on how "one of the more liberal candidates in the race, is proposing a geopolitical posture that is more aggressive than that of President Bush"

After weeks of discourse surrounding the policy, Obama said there was "misreporting" of his comments, claiming that, "I never called for an invasion of Pakistan or Afghanistan." He clarified that instead of a surge in the number of troops in Iraq, there needs to be a "diplomatic surge" and that if there were "actionable intelligence reports" showing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the U.S. troops as a last resort should enter and try to capture terrorists. That would happen, he added, only if "the Pakistani government was unable or unwilling" to go after the terrorists.

As Democratic debates took place during the summer, Obama received at best mixed notices for his efforts. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum said, "He slips into this tendency, which he probably learned as president of the Harvard Law Review, to overstate his premises before he states his position. In politics, you do the opposite of what you do in the Law Review - you state your position, then say your premises - if you ever get to them." Commentator Eleanor Clift said that, "Obama is almost too cerebral for the sound-bite world of modern politics, but that's part of his appeal."

During a campaign stop in October 2007, a reporter inquired as to why Obama had stopped wearing a lapel pin of the American flag, which he had started wearing after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and his response was that it had come to feel like "a substitute for true patriotism". This led to discussion on the cable news channels and was covered by satirists such as Stephen Colbert, who had an ongoing disagreement with the Fox & Friends assertion that "this is America and if you want to be president of America, it might be [sic] behoove him to wear an American flag". Commentator Bill Maher, who was highly critical of such questions about Obama's patriotism and called it a "non-story" nonetheless referred to the incident as "he first genuine controversy of the presidential campaign".

In mid-late October 2007, Obama came under fire from the Human Rights Campaign and others for a South Carolina gospel music campaign tour that featured singer Donnie McClurkin, who states that he is "ex-gay" and that homosexuality is a "curse [that runs against] the intention of God." Obama said in response that, "I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views." While not replacing McClurkin, the campaign added a gay minister to the tour.

As fall 2007 continued, Obama fell further behind Clinton in national polls. In late October 2007, two months before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Obama began directly charging his top rival with failing to clearly state her political positions. This shift in approach attracted much media commentary; The New York Times' Adam Nagourney wrote that, "Obama has appeared to struggle from the start of this campaign with how to marry what he has promised to be a new approach to politics - free of the partisan bitterness that has marked presidential campaigns for so long - with what it takes to actually win a presidential race." In an early-anticipated October 30 Democratic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Clinton suffered a poor debate performance under cross-examination from her Democratic rivals and the moderator. Obama's campaign was reinvigorated and he began to climb again in the polls.

Campaigning in November 2007, Obama told the Washington Post that as the Democratic nominee he would draw more support from independent and Republican voters in the general election than Clinton. At Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner Obama expanded the theme, saying that his presidency would "bring the country together in a new majority" to seek solutions to long-standing problems.Oprah Winfrey introducing Obama at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, with Michelle Obama in background and security in foreground. December 8, 2007.

On November 21st, Obama announced that Oprah Winfrey would be campaigning for him in the early primary states, setting off speculation that, although celebrity endorsements typically have little effect on voter opinions, Oprah's participation would supply Obama with a large, receptive audience. Then, on December 8, Oprah kicked-off a three-state tour supporting Obama's campaign, which drew record-setting crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The Oprah-Obama tour dominated political news headlines and cast doubts over Clinton's ability to recover her recently-lost lead in Iowa caucus polls.

Later in December, there was controversy regarding Obama's admissions of drug use as a teen. Obama first publicly acknowledged the issue in his 1995 book, Dreams from My Father. In the book, Obama said "Pot had helped, and booze. Maybe a little blow when you could afford it." The issue was revived on the campaign trail after a November 2007 speech at a New Hampshire high school. Obama told the students, "I've made some bad decisions that I've actually written about," noting that his "drinking and experimenting with drugs" accounted for a lot of "wasted time" in high school. Some, including Republican candidate Mitt Romney, criticized Obama for discussing these examples with students. Romney said that "in order to leave the best possible example for our kids, we're probably wisest not to talk about our own indiscretions in great detail." However, fellow GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani and Partnership for a Drug-Free America president Steve Pasierb praised Obama's candor. "I respect his honesty," Giuliani said. Pasierb told CNN that "really the truth works best" when discussing drug use with kids. Bill Shaheen, the co-chairman of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, mentioned the drug use in a December 12 conference call with reporters. Shaheen said that if Obama were to win the nomination, Republicans would use Obama's admissions against him in a general election. He suggested that in such a scenario, Republicans would ask, "'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" He added that such "Republican dirty tricks" would be difficult to overcome. The comments instantly caused controversy, and Shaheen resigned the next day. Clinton denounced the comments and personally apologized to Obama. Her spokesman said that she "made it clear that this kind of negative personal statement has no part in this campaign." Appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Axelrod accused the Clinton campaign of giving a "wink and a nod" to negative tactics. He criticized Clinton's December 3 statement in which she signaled a more aggressive approach and called it the "fun part" of the campaign. Axelrod said that the signal should come "from the top" that the campaigns will not be waged "in the gutter".

When the close proximity of the first contests to the holidays prompted many candidates to release Christmas videos - allowing them to continue presenting their messages, but in more seasonal settings - Obama chose one that gave speaking parts to his wife and daughters and emphasized a message of thanks and unity.

"Fired up! Ready to go!"

"Fired up! Ready to go!" became a rallying cry ubiquitous to Obama's campaign. According to the The New York Times, the chant originated during a rainy, early morning campaign stop during the summer in Greenwood, South Carolina. Obama was feeling fatigued among a small group of supporters, who reportedly were "miserable." When out of the blue, as Obama recounts:

This story is frequently recalled during Obama's stump speeches on how "one voice can change a room." The woman in the story, Councilwoman Edith Childs, appeared later with Obama at a rally in South Carolina. She later told reporters that if he were to win the presidency, that she would want one thing: "I want an invitation to an inaugural ball!"

Caucuses and primaries 2008

See also: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008 and Results of the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries

Iowa

Obama won the first contest in the Democratic nomination season, the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus. Obama had the support of 37.6% of Iowa's delegates, compared to 29.7% for John Edwards and 29.5% for Hillary Clinton. In his remarks to his followers that evening, he said "But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do." He further noted that "our time for change has come" and suggested that in the future Americans will look back on the 2008 Iowa caucuses and say, "this is the moment when it all began."

New Hampshire

Obama's win in Iowa was seen as a boost to his already-improving chances in New Hampshire. On January 4, he told supporters in New Hampshire, "If you give me the same chance that Iowa gave me last night I truly believe that I will be the president of the United States of America." The campaign received another boost when former Senator and 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley endorsed Obama on January 6. At the ABC News/WMUR-TV Democratic debate in Manchester on January 5, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards all battled over who best exemplified the buzzword of the campaign, "change". In one key exchange, Clinton said, clearly targeting Obama's rhetorical prowess, "Making change is not about what you believe; it's not about a speech you make... We do not need to be raising false hopes." Obama replied that "The truth is, actually, words do inspire. Words do help people get involved."

Polling showed a tight race in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary. All of the candidates barnstormed in New Hampshire during the four days after the Iowa caucuses, targeting undecided and independent voters in the state. The day before the election, polls conducted by CNN/WMUR, Rasmussen Reports and USA Today/Gallup showed Obama jumping ahead by 9, 10 and 13 points respectively. Despite the apparent surge of momentum, Clinton defeated Obama by a margin of 39.1% to 36.5% in the New Hampshire primary on January 8, 2008. Obama told supporters that he was "still fired up and ready to go", echoing a theme of his campaign. While he acknowledged that he faced a fight for the nomination, he said that "nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change".

Meanwhile, Internet theories sprung up about how the vote counting itself had been suspect, due to discrepancies between machine-counted votes (which supported Clinton overall) and hand-counted votes (which supported Obama overall). Fifth-place finisher Dennis Kucinich's campaign paid $25,000 to have a recount done of all Democratic ballots cast in the primary, saying "It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery." On January 16 the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office began the recount. After recounting 23% of the state's democratic primary votes, the Secretary of State announced that no significant difference was found in any candidate's total, and that the oft-discussed discrepancy between hand-counted and machine-counted ballots was solely due to demographic factors.

Nevada

The Nevada Caucus took place on January 19. Obama received the endorsement of two very important unions in the state: the Culinary Workers Union (whose 60,000 members staff the casinos and resorts of Las Vegas and elsewhere) and the Nevada chapter of the SEIU. Clinton countered by appealing to the Hispanic vote in the state, emphasizing that they were at special risk from the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Prior to the caucus, comments made by Obama concerning former Republican president Ronald Reagan attracted rebuke from rivals and dissection from all sections of the media. Obama had stated in an interview that; "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not." Hillary Clinton ridiculed the idea that the Republicans were the party of ideas, suggesting Mr. Obama had said that the Republicans had “better” ideas, which he did not. Senator John Edwards criticized Obama specifically for referring to Ronald Reagan as an agent of change stating in a newspaper interview that; “I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change.”

One day after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama, the Nevada State Education Association - a teachers' union that has not officially endorsed Clinton, but many of its top officials have - filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate at-large caucus sites that had been setup in nine Las Vegas resorts saying they violated equal protection and one-person-one-vote requirements. The suit was viewed as a proxy legal battle between Clinton and Obama, as the caucus sites within the casinos would be primarily used by members of the CWU, who are more likely to vote for Obama. This led Obama to allege that the suit was filed in order to hurt his chances at the caucuses. "Some of the people who set up the rules apparently didn't think we'd be as competitive as we were and trying to change them last minute," he said.

On January 17, a federal judge ruled that the casino at-large caucus plan could go ahead. This was seen as a win for Obama because of the Culinary Workers Union endorsement. To further complicate matters, the major news and polling organizations decided to not do any polls before the Nevada caucuses, fearing the newness of the caucus, the transient nature of Nevada's population, and more fallout from their bad experience in New Hampshire.

Clinton finished first in the state delegate count on January 19, winning 51% of delegates to the state convention. However, Obama was projected to win the Nevada national delegate count with 13 delegates to Clinton's 12, because the apportionment of some delegates are determined by Congressional District . Delegates to the national convention will be determined officially at the April 19 state convention. On January 23, the Obama campaign filed an official letter of complaint with the Nevada Democratic Party charging the Clinton campaign with many violations of party rules during the caucuses, based upon 1,600 complaints they had received. The Clinton camp said the Obama operation was "grasping at straws" and that they had their own complaints about Obama campaign actions during the caucuses.

South Carolina

Obama addressing supporters the night before the South Carolina primary at the University of South Carolina

Rasmussen Reports released a poll January 7 showing that Obama led by 12 points, at 42% to Hillary Clinton's 30%. This was a substantial jump from December when the two were tied at 33%, and from November when Clinton led Obama by 10 points.

Issues of race came to the forefront as campaigning began for the South Carolina primary, the first to feature a large African American portion in the Democratic electorate. First, Bill Clinton referred to Obama's claim that he has been a staunch opponent of the Iraq War from the beginning as a "fairy tale," which some thought was a characterization of Obama's entire campaign. The former President called in to Al Sharpton's radio show to personally clarify that he respected and believed in Obama's viability.

Around the same time, Hillary Clinton said regarding Martin Luther King, Jr. in an interview with Fox News,"I would point to the fact that that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in people's lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished." Some African-American leaders took this statement as a denigration of the accomplishments of King and the larger American civil rights movement. Hillary Clinton proceeded to blame Obama for the controversy, claiming his campaign had fanned the flames, a charge which Obama dismissed as "ludicrous". By shortly before, and during, a January 15 Democratic debate in Nevada, Clinton and Obama declared a truce on the matter, with both making reconciliatory statements about race, gender, and each other. However, Clinton's support among African Americans was thought to be damaged, with SUNY Albany's Debra Dickerson stating "The Clintons have to do something dramatic and symbolic to win back the trust of many African-Americans."

In part the tension resulted from the historical coincidence of the first viable African American presidential candidate, and the first viable woman candidate, running against each other in the same nomination race. One South Carolina pastor lamented that he had been waiting all his life for either "first" to happen, and said, "I really hate that they had to run at the same time in the same election. It just makes what should be a wonderful situation very stressful for folk like me. I never imagined you could have too much of a good thing." The American Civil Rights Movement and feminism had a long intertwined history in the United States, often working in concert but sometimes opposed; while the bitter 19th century split between Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Frederick Douglass illustrated the latter, the unified opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas had exemplified the former. After the Clinton-Obama tension on this matter, one Democrat said, "After Iowa, Obama was the post-racial candidate who appealed to all of our better natures. Now he's a black politician and she's a woman. And it is back to politics as usual."

The January 22 CNN/Congressional Black Caucus debate in Myrtle Beach was the most heated face-to-face meeting yet between the candidates, reflecting apparent personal animosity. Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" on many occasions while in the Illinois legislature. "It's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," she said. Obama said that he was working to help unemployed workers in Chicago while Clinton was "a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart." He also took issue with statements made on the campaign trail by Bill Clinton, saying "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."[100] The confrontation was the most-watched primary season debate in cable television news history.

On January 26, Obama won by a more than two-to-one margin over Clinton, gaining 55% of the vote to her 27% and Edwards' 18%.[101] In his victory speech that night, he said, "Tonight, the cynics who believed that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina."[101] Addressing the racial dust-up and the other campaign back-and-forths between himself and the Clintons, he said, "The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."[101]

Florida

In the last vote prior to Super Tuesday, Obama finished far behind Clinton in Florida. However, the state was previously stripped of all its delegates to the national convention for breaking party rules by moving its primary to before February 5. All candidates abided by an agreement not to campaign in Florida.[102] Nonetheless, Clinton celebrated the win and claimed that it gave her momentum heading to Super Tuesday. The Obama campaign, however, said that Clinton was "basically trying to take a victory lap when there was no race."[102]

Super Tuesday

Obama with Ted Kennedy at a rally in Hartford, Connecticut, the day before Super Tuesday

Following his win in South Carolina, Obama received the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy,[103] as well as Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, the former President's brother.[104] Ted Kennedy's endorsement was considered "the biggest Democratic endorsement Obama could possibly get short of Bill Clinton".[105] In particular, it gave the possibility of improving Obama's support among unions, Hispanics, and traditional base Democrats, all demographics that Clinton had been stronger in to this point.[106] Obama won 13 of 22 states on Super Tuesday: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah. His campaign claimed to have won more delegates.[107][108]

More February contests

On February 9, Obama won the Louisiana primary[109], as well as caucuses in Nebraska[110] and Washington State.[111] He garnered 57% of the available delegates in Louisiana, and 68% in both Nebraska and Washington.[112] On the same day, he won caucuses in Virgin Islands with 92% of the popular vote.[113] The next day, Obama took the Maine caucuses amid what one senior Maine Democratic official called an "incredible" turnout.[114][115]

Potomac Primary

The "Potomac primary" took place on February 12. It included the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. There were 168 delegates up for grabs in the three primaries.[116] Obama won all three, taking 75% of the popular vote in the District of Columbia, 60% in Maryland and 64% in Virginia. "Today, the change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac," Obama said at a rally in Madison, Wisconsin that night.[117][118]

Delegate count