Cory Booker launches an unconventional White House bid built on 'universal love'

WASHINGTON - Cory Booker's unremitting optimism, wonkish attraction to big ideas and, of course, his background as a community organizer have long drawn comparisons to another pioneering African American lawmaker who went on to bigger things: Barack Obama.

Whether Booker can ultimately harness it all as successfully as Obama did is about to be tested. On Friday, the New Jersey senator launched his White House bid.

"I believe we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind," Booker said in a video announcing his run. "Where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame ... together we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose."

Booker is entering an increasingly crowded field, where he is up against some close Senate colleagues whose progressive bona fides overshadow his own. He is the fourth Democratic