US Senator Barack Obama officially announced his plan to seek the presidency over the weekend. From the old state capitol of Springfield, the junior senator from Illinois denounced critics who have said he hasn’t been a politician long enough to run. Before an enthusiastic crowd of supporters Obama said, “People who love their country can change it” and that he’s been in Washington long enough to know that the ways of the nation’s capitol must change. Obama is seen as one of the three top runners in the democratic bid, along side Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.