STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
On the same weekend that Senator Clinton campaigned in New Hampshire, Senator Barack Obama was making his first campaign swing through Iowa. By last night he had returned to his home state for a rally in Chicago.
BARACK OBAMA: Maybe, just maybe, this campaign can be the vehicle for people's hopes and dreams.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
OBAMA: This campaign can present an opportunity for us to end the gridlock.
INSKEEP: It was the first weekend that Obama was formally in the race, and we have more from NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
MARA LIASSON: On Saturday morning, Obama announced his candidacy in the shadow of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, the place where Abraham Lincoln declared that a house divided against itself cannot stand. He presented himself as a leader of a new generation. He said he was running not just to hold an office but to transform a nation, and he tried to frame his relative inexperience as an asset.
OBAMA: There is a certain presumptuousness in this, a certain audacity to this announcement. I know that 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
LIASSON: The temperature was in the teens, but thousands of people turned out to see him, including Matt Hortenstein(ph), who drove with his family an hour and a half from Effingham, Illinois.
MATT HORTENSTEIN: It's a historic occasion, and I wanted my kids to be a part of it, and we're Barack fans. I think he's got it going on. He's a smart guy and transcends a lot of problems. I think we need to start working toward solutions. I guess more importantly, the press aren't ripping him a new one, so that's a good thing, too.
LIASSON: At a press conference in Ames, he brought up, unprompted, what he said was the mainstream media's suggestion that his campaign was heavy on themes and short on detail.
OBAMA: The fact of the matter is, is that I have the most specific plan in terms of how to get out of Iraq of any candidate. I've written two books that have sold close to a million copies each that probably give people more insight into how I think and how I feel about the issues facing America than any candidate in the field. And the problem is not that the information is not out there, the problem is, is that's not what you guys have been reporting on. You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit.
LIASSON: Obama's position on the war - he was against it from the beginning - gets the biggest applause everywhere, and it's also the biggest difference between Obama and Senator Clinton. Yesterday, without criticizing his rival directly, Obama said the contrast was important.
OBAMA: It indicates that even at the time it was possible to make judgments that this would not work out well. I feel good about the fact that my judgment was that we shouldn't be proceeding, and I think that speaks to hopefully the kind of judgment that I'll be bringing to the office of president as we move forward.
U: Are you guys ready to elect Senator Obama as president of the United States?
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
LIASSON: Obama got a rock star reception wherever he went. Five hundred accredited reporters showed up to cover his announcement. At Iowa State University in Ames, his campaign had to move his event from the theater to a sports arena to accommodate the crowd.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN STOP)
LIASSON: So how are Iowa Democrats reacting to all this? Roger and Julie Fischer(ph) came to see Obama in Waterloo and they were very impressed. But they feel the same way about all the other Democrats running.
ROGER FISCHER: I think it's a really great, diverse field.
JULIE FISCHER: I'm beginning to feel more hope for our country because of the people who are running. I think they're more qualified. I think they're more passionate about truly wanting change. I'm feeling like it's going to be hard to make a choice.
LIASSON: Mara Liasson, NPR News.
INSKEEP: You can fill some of your 336 days by reading more analysis of Obama's candidacy at npr.org Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
