US President Barack Obama has announced his intention to stand for a second term in office in 2012.
Obama’s team released a video on his official website and sent an e-mail to supporters announcing his plans.
The president has an online network of millions of Americans and his web campaign was widely seen as a key plank of his election success in 2008.
The announcement was widely expected, and his campaign team are set to file election papers this week.
Obama does not actually appear in the video, posted on YouTube as well as the official campaign website. Instead supporters look back to the 2008 campaign and talk of their hopes for the 2012 bid.
In his e-mail to supporters, Obama said the campaign would start small and grow over time, “with people organising block-by-block, talking to neighbours, co-workers, and friends”.
“So even though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.”
Unveiling a new look for Obama’s campaign website, his team told supporters: “The idea is to improve upon what’s worked for the past four years, scrap what hasn’t, and build a campaign that reflects the thoughts and experiences of the supporters who’ve powered this movement.”
Analysts say the president will now work to convince US citizens he has delivered the type of change he promised America in 2008.
And during the next 20 months before the presidential election, he will have to defend the policies his administration has worked to impose, like his health care overhaul and his efforts to revitalise the economy.
Obama’s re-election campaign is reportedly seeking to raise as much as $1bn (£620m), an increase on the $750m raised for the 2008 campaign.
As the incumbent, Obama’s team will be able to call on the support of different donors than they did in 2008, when cash was raised through huge numbers of small individual donations and Obama began the campaign as an outsider.
A number of Republican presidential hopefuls are expected to seek the nomination to run against Obama. (BBC)
