[Kingerix]

TPM: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/new...gn.php?ref=fpa

President Barack Obama launched his 2012 re-election campaign on Monday, framing his final stint as a candidate as an effort to cement and expand the policies he has enacted from the White House.

Obama, a Democrat who won a sweeping victory over Republican Senator John McCain in 2008 with a message of change, said in a low-key email to supporters that he was filing papers to start his re-election bid in a formal way.


"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," he said in the email.


"We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily. ... But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we've made -- and make more -- we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest."