Obama Makes 2008 Run Official

A popular Democratic senator with a “pothead junkie” past and close ties to an indicted political fundraiser has formally announced his 2008 presidential bid.

As expected, Illinois Senator Barack Obama has filed the official paperwork that will allow him to raise money for a White House campaign. On his Presidential Exploratory Committee web site Obama says that he is running because the decisions that have been made in Washington these past six years, and the problems that have been ignored, have put our country in a precarious place.

Obama has made headlines recently for his strong and unethical ties to a shady political fundraiser indicted for taking hefty kickbacks on government deals. Obama’s campaigns have received big bucks from the man, Antoin Rezko, who also subsidized the senator’s $1.65 million home in Chicago’s upscale south side.

Earlier this month, the media revealed a published memoir in which Obama blames negative stereotypes of young black men for driving him to be a cocaine-abusing “pothead junkie” when he was younger. The second-year senator wrote that an identity crisis arising from the realization that his life was shaped by a loving white family and negative stereotypes of young black men drove him to use drugs.

Though he says he no longer abuses illegal drugs, Obama still smokes cigarettes and one blogger wonders if a candidate who smokes can win the liberal vote. It asks; will the part of America that holds its nose when it walks into a smokey bar be willing to vote for a man addicted to cancer sticks?