Obama announces reelection campaign

President Obama announced early Monday he is seeking a second term in the White House.

A video message, called “It Begins With Us,” will be emailed to the 14 million addresses on the Obama campaign’s list.

Numerous reports surfaced over the weekend that Obama would file paperwork this week with the Federal Election Commission to launch his reelection bid, but there have been no official statements from the campaign or the White House.

The 2012 Obama campaign, like his 2008 campaign, will be run from Chicago. Jim Messina will be the campaign manager.

On Sunday’s talk shows, Republicans began to attack the president for thinking about his own reelection while the Congress was heading into a showdown over spending cuts and a possible government shutdown.

“I find it kind of ironic that the week we’re trying to engage the president, the Democrats and the country with an honest debate about our budget, with real solutions to fix this country’s problems and prevent a debt crisis, the president is launching his reelection campaign,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

No major Republican candidates have announced their campaigns yet, but several have been crisscrossing the country — from New Hampshire to Iowa to South Carolina — making speeches and raising money, as well as throwing jabs at the president and his policies.

This post was initially published at 10:45 p.m. April 3.