Brownback kicks off campaign, as do Hillary and Richardson

Brownback starts 'yellow brick road' presidential campaign:

My family and I are taking the first steps on the yellow brick road to the White House. It's a great journey," Brownback said, returning to his home state to declare his intention to seek his party's nomination in 2008.

Whether he will be asking the wizard for brains, courage, a heart, or just a way home remains to be seen. Perhaps he should start by asking for some attention from the conservative blogosphere.

Like pretty much everyone else on the non-conservative blogosphere, I'm only moderately interested in Hillary's candidacy, and hilzoy's reasons are only part of it. Bill Richardson's people had the good taste to send TfK a copy of their press release about the announcement, and I dug his performance on ABC's This Week. This is the first campaign to contact TfK, and suggests a very progressive approach to the blogosphere.

I was glad to see him avoid an opportunity to knock his competitors. Stephanopoulos asked whether other Democrats would have trouble winning in the West, and Richardson didn't take the bait. I'm excited about all of the candidates, and anyone who starts attacking others will lose a lot of cred.

Obama and Edwards are both looking very smart for their early announcements. Hillary, Brownback and Richardson all got jumbled up in each other's announcements, and that happened because of how Obama announced. John Edwards moved early enough that he set the stage for this rush.