"I love you back" shouts the 45-year-old Democratic hope, whose name is often couched in media profiles with superlatives like "rockstar" and comparisons to ex-president John F. Kennedy.

But Senator Barack Obama's charmed rise to fame and the hopes of supporters on his first weekend on the stump, pose a simple question — can he match the hype?

A stiff challenge for the 2008 Democratic nomination is assured, rivals Senator Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are battle scarred political veterans.

Obama might have magic, but Clinton has the machine — even now being tuned to a peak of political performance by two-term presidential husband Bill.

Edwards meanwhile bounced back from defeat as 2004 Democratic vice presidential pick with an edgy populist tone and deep roots in crucial states.

A showman's streak emerged as Obama launched his run Saturday and cranked up surging hopes for his campaign.

"I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement," he said in the Midwestern city of Springfield, Illinois.

With a compelling life story as son of a Kenyan economist and a white American mother, Obama adopted the mystique of Abraham Lincoln, the president who abolished slavery.

With a call for selfless action by the post-baby boomer generation, he also borrowed the spirit of assassinated Democratic legend Kennedy.

But idealism and history may take him only so far, and Obama's opponents are comparing packed political resumes with his two years in the Senate.

"I know that one of the running narratives that has established itself among the mainstream media is you know, 'Obama, has pretty good style, he can deliver a pretty good speech, but he seems to prioritise rhetoric over substance'" Obama said ticking off reporters Sunday in Iowa.

"Factually, that is incorrect," he said, pointing to past policy proposals and two best-selling books.

"You guys have been reporting on how I looked in a swimsuit!" Obama said, noting a storm over a photo of him striding through the surf.

Obama supporters, though hardly a neutral audience, seem to have taken to his calls for a fresh brand of politics.

"He is getting people involved, the only way things are going to change is getting people involved," said Scott Garrels at an Obama town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Fellow Democrat Christine Wagner-Hecht said though she respected Clinton, she preferred Obama : "in terms of getting people really engaged Obama has a better chance". .

Pundits meanwhile are still obsessing over Obama's bid to stop smoking : "I have been chewing Nicorette all day long," he admitted in Iowa Sunday.

Grizzled Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy last week couldn't resist a shot at the new golden boy, joking Obama had "thrown his halo" into the 2008 race.

But can Obama sustain the good humour and elevated rhetoric on the long grind of the campaign trail?

He has so far enjoyed an easy ride from the media, who may have built him up just to knock him down. Perhaps delaying the inevitable, the candidate shook the hand of each reporter who left his chartered jet — dubbed Obama One by cabin crew — in Chicago.

Eleven months before first nominating contests for the Democratic ticket, Obama will also face demands to swap poetic rhetoric for partisan meat to delight hard-core activists.

So far, Obama, unlike Clinton, rarely mentions President George W. Bush, who is hated by grass roots Democrats, in campaign speeches.

He appears to be betting Democratic voters, angry over Iraq, will heed his call to drain the cynicism he says has turned US politics into a blood sport.

But Obama admitted Saturday he would be just a "wonderful footnote" in history if he failed to raise millions of dollars to take on Clinton and Edwards.

And Obama admitted he was unsure how wife Michelle, and daughters Malia (8), and Sasha (5), would take to the glare of big-time US politics.

In Iowa Saturday he also downplayed comparisons to Kennedy.

"That is very flattering, but it is way premature," he said.

AFP