Obama: ‘It’s still about hope’

Barack Obama, the US president, kicked off his campaign for re-election in November, telling rallies in battleground states Ohio and Virginia to hold on to hope.

“If people ask you what this campaign is about, you tell them it’s still about hope,” Obama told crowds chanting “four more years” on Saturday.

“I still believe... I still believe we are not as divided as our politics suggest,” Obama said, in an echo of the 2004 Democratic convention speech which shot the then unknown Illinois senator to prominence.