"How hungry we all are for a different kind of politics"

Sen. Barack Obama announced the formation of an exploratory committee - the first step in his run for the Presidency.

Watch the video here.

A couple of highlights from the text:

I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago. But as I've spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past few months, as I've read your emails and read your letters, I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.

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But challenging as they are, it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the smallness of our politics. America's faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions.