Better break out the parka for Obama's announcement

You can bundle up, drive the 200 miles to Springfield and stand outside -- if you want to be among the first to hear Barack Obama make his big announcement.

Or you can wait, travel the much shorter distance to the Near West Side, sit indoors with a few thousand others and hear him a day later.

Or you can stay home and catch him on "60 Minutes."

Right now, those are among the options for Obama supporters who want to hear the South Side Democrat explain why he wants to be president.

The bottom line: It will be pretty tough to miss the freshman U.S. senator this weekend.

He kicks it all off at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Old State Capitol in Springfield. That's where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech in 1858.

Unlike Lincoln, Obama will speak outside.

The event is open to the public, but break out the down parkas and long johns. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper teens -- and there is no alternate site.

"Rain or shine, we're going to be outside," said Bill Burton, spokesman for Obama's presidential exploratory committee.

Burton refused to discuss specifics of the event, but a source said Obama's speech will be "short," and the entire program will take less than an hour.

From there, the freshly announced presidential hopeful plans to head to Iowa for some early stumping in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo on Saturday and Ames on Sunday.

Later Sunday, Obama is scheduled to be in Chicago to speak at a rally at the UIC Pavilion at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Doors open at 3:30 p.m., and the event starts at 5:30 p.m. It's free, but tickets are required. Call (773) 235-1773 or go to www.barackobama.com to find out where to pick up tickets.

Obama is holding a fund-raiser in Chicago on Sunday night.

If you're not one of the donors, you can catch him that evening on "60 Minutes."

The CBS newsmagazine is scheduled to present a segment on Obama using footage they taped with him earlier, Burton said.

sfornek@suntimes.com