More details @ Reuters

“Lemme just speak to you young people here,” he continued. “The rest of you can listen –it’s okay. I’ve been concerned that so many of you aren’t voting…. No one inspired you. You wanted to vote, you just didn’t have anyone you wanted to vote for. You know what? I felt the same. Until now.”

Read the full article @ The New York Observer

California First Lady, Maria Shriver:

“If Barack Obama was a state he’d be California,” Shriver said, drawing roars from the crowd. “I mean think about it: diverse, open, smart, independent, oppose tradition, innovative, inspiring, dreamer, leader.”

Read the full article @ LA Times

Oprah Winfrey:

Ms. Winfrey, who for years has been a close friend to Mr. Obama, reaffirmed her support for his presidential candidacy during an interview Tuesday evening on CNN’s Larry King Live. It is the first time that Ms. Winfrey has endorsed – not to mention thrown her brand behind – a political candidate.

“What made you do so now?” Mr. King asked.

“Because I know him personally,” Ms. Winfrey replied. “I think that what he stands for, what he has proven that he can stand for, what he has shown was worth me going out on a limb for – and I haven’t done it in the past because I haven’t felt that anybody, I didn’t know anybody well enough to be able to say, I believe in this person.”

Read the full article @ NY Times

Jesse James:

Jackson has a long history with one of Obama’s chief rivals, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband former President Clinton. He counseled the two when the president’s affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.

But Jackson said his history with the Clintons doesn’t complicate his decision to back his home state senator, calling Obama Illinois’ “favorite son.”

Read the full article @ CBS News

Ethel Skakel Kennedy:

Today, we crave a leader with vision who can help us regain our lost humanity and rekindle our inherent generosity. With courage, caring and charisma, Senator Obama is leading us toward a kinder, gentler world.

Read the full article @ The Huffington Post

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

With a vision and a diction that struck a chord in the hearts of mainstream Democrats at the 2004 convention, Senator Barack Obama offers a platform that reconnects with traditional American values while offering a path to the future. Obama begins with a plea for an end to the toxic partisanship which characterizes business-as-usual in Washington, D.C. He appeals across party lines as he addresses issues of concern to all Americans: economic health; racial harmony; security of the homeland. Obama advocates a nationwide consensus that reaffirms the Constitution and a new politics based on those ideals–one that can get things done.

Currently, Barack Obama is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and as of this writing, he’s the only African American US senator currently serving. He was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996 as a democrat. In 2000, he made an unsuccessful run for the US House of Representatives, losing to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. In 2002, Obama ran unopposed for the Illinois state senate and was reelected. He then ran for an open seat in the US Senate and was elected in November 2004, receiving 70% of the vote (compared to 27% for his opponent, Alan Keyes).

Despite telling reporters in November 2004, “I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years”, recent opinion polls rank Obama as one of the top choices (along with Hillary Clinton) for the Democratic party’s nomination for the 2008 presidential election and he is taking the first steps towards that goal as of February 10th, 2007, he is officially in the running.