Obama dials up supporters to revive 'passion' in start of re-election bid

President Barack Obama said he wanted to rekindle the “passion and energy” of his 2008 campaign as he joined supporters on a conference call that capped a daylong organising effort for his 2012 re-election bid.

“We can’t go backwards,” he said on the call last night, which was also broadcast on his campaign website. “We have to preserve the progress that we’ve made and take it to the next level, and that means that we’re going to have to mobilise.”

The campaign was kicked off earlier in the day with a video on his website and an email to supporters. His campaign also filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to declare its organising intentions.

Obama, 49, will face a different set of challenges running as an incumbent with a record than he did in 2008, when he was able to draw on the enthusiasm of many young and first-time voters who helped make him the nation’s first black president.

“We may not have the exact same newness that we had in 2008,” he said on the call. “But that core spirit about what this campaign has always been about, I think, is still there.”