Democrat Obama opens 2008 race in historic setting

SPRINGFIELD, Ill, Feb 10 (Reuters) Democratic Sen. Barack Obama opens his 2008 White House run today in a setting rife with symbolism and historic links to Abraham Lincoln's fight to end slavery.

Obama, 45, a rising party star who would be the first black US president if elected, launches his campaign outside the old state Capitol where Lincoln famously decried slavery in an 1858 speech and declared ''a house divided against itself cannot stand.'' In a video presentation on his Web site, Obama said the kickoff to his campaign would begin ''a journey to take our country back and fundamentally change the nature of our politics.'' His candidacy has intrigued Democrats looking for a fresh face and sparked waves of publicity and grass-roots buzz about the first black presidential candidate seen as having a chance to capture the White House.

Obama has vaulted quickly into the top tier of a crowded field of Democratic presidential contenders along with Sen Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

Five other Democrats are contending for the nomination, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Iowa Gov Tom Vilsack and Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Joseph Biden of Delaware.

An exploratory trip to New Hampshire in December drew sold-out crowds, hordes of media and positive reviews for Obama.

But the freshman senator from Illinois has faced questions and doubts about his relative lack of experience, his policy views on a wide range of issues and on whether the United States is ready to elect a black to the White House.

Obama has shrugged off questions about his experience and resisted efforts to define his candidacy by race, saying a fresh perspective is needed to break through Washington gridlock on issues like energy, health care and the Iraq war.

Asked in a CBS ''60 Minutes'' interview to be aired tomorrow if being black would hold him back as a candidate, Obama said, ''No ...

if I don't win this race it will be because of other factors -- that I have not shown to the American people, a vision for where the country needs to go,'' Excerpts were released on Friday.

SPEEDY ASCENT Obama was an early opponent of the war and has called for a phased withdrawal of troops starting in May. He opposes President George W Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

Obama's political rise has been astonishingly fast. He gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention before he was even elected to the US Senate, and he has authored two bestselling books and appeared on numerous magazine covers.

The son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, he was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and served eight years in the Illinois Legislature in Springfield before going to Washington.

Obama will follow up his announcement with a three-day campaign swing to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and his hometown of Chicago.

REUTERS AB RN1610