Obama Kicks Off Campaign in Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Sen. Barack Obama kicked off his Democratic presidential campaign in Alabama with appeals to both high-dollar donors and average voters on Monday. For $25, hundreds of supporters had a chance to hear the Illinois freshman speak in a big hotel ballroom in downtown Birmingham.

"People want something to be for, not just to be against," Obama said to cheers. Dozens of people held up cell phones to take pictures as Obama embraced former NBA great and Alabama native Charles Barkley before his talk.

Introduced by Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., Obama said big crowds aren't showing up at campaign stops just to see him.

"The reason people have been coming out is because they feel deep in their gut that something's got to change," he said. "There's a sense of urgency."

For $2,300, backers got to chat with Obama at smaller receptions in both Huntsville and Birmingham. Organizers also planned a pair of $1,000-a-person fundraisers for the in-between crowd.

Obama last visited Alabama in March, when he and a rival candidate, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, visited Selma for the anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march in 1965.