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Obama's launch site: Symbolic Springfield: Announcement venue evokes Lincoln legacy.

Byline: Christi Parsons

Feb. 10--SPRINGFIELD -- In its day, the Old State Capitol and its neighborhood were home base for little-known prairie lawyer Abraham Lincoln, a spot where he honed his famed oratorical skills as an attorney and politician.

On Saturday it will be the site of the expected presidential announcement of Sen. Barack Obama, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of his Illinois forebear nearly a century and a half after Lincoln's long-shot journey to the White House. The venue is weighted with historical significance; it's the site of the "house divided" speech in which Lincoln pronounced it impossible for freedom and slavery to coexist in the Union. Obama, a Democrat, is widely seen as the most viable African-American contender ever to seek either major party's nomination for president, a landmark in the evolution of racial politics that some see as a victory in itself.

"Tomorrow . . . in Springfield, Ill.," Obama declared in a video released Friday on …

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