Comptroller Dan Hynes will make a “formal announcement” of his support for a Barack Obama presidential candidacy today.

Hynes lost to Sen. Obama in the ‘04 primary, but the two became close buds after the race.

Thoughts?

*** UPDATE *** Hynes has a new press release. Click the pic below for the full thing.

*** UPDATE 2 *** The AP has a story up.

In a highly unusual move, State Comptroller Daniel Hynes Thursday urged U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to run for the presidency in 2008.

At a news conference Hynes called Obama the “man for these times,” “awe-inspiring” and a “phenomenon” and said he hopes to spark a national movement to encourage the freshman senator to announce his candidacy.

“He can heal our nation,” said Hynes of Obama, who defeated him in the Senate primary in 2004. […]

“This is probably a first in Illinois politics,” said political science professor Paul Green of Roosevelt University in Chicago, describing the political history between the two men. “It is breaking new ground.”