The campaign is expected to file re-election papers with the FEC today. This allows them to start fundraising for the president’s re-election effort, which, given his status of incumbency, should be considerable. According to Jessica Yellin’s sources, the Obama campaign is shooting for a record-breaking $1 billion warchest.
Will be interesting to see how the other Republicans react to this announcement, specifically the ones who haven’t yet declared whether they’re in or out for 2012 – Palin, Trump, Huntsman, Huckabee, and Paul. Will the timing of the president’s announcement force them to tip their hands and commit to the race once and for all?
Let the games begin!
Update: First response from one of the president’s 2012 challengers comes from @MittRomney:
@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans
Will update this post as other responses come in.
Update II: See this report by CNN’s Jim Acosta on the same issue of how/when the 2012 GOP potentials decide to get in the race.
Update III: Tim Pawlenty responds with this video.
The quote from the candidate: “In order for America to take a new direction, it’s going to take a new president.”
Update IV: The Republican National Committee has launched a new website and a $270,000 money bomb for the next 72 hours – $1,000 for each vote needed in the Electoral College to win the presidency. They also released the following video on their YouTube channel:
Icepicks and Nukes 