Because Blizzard has been busy with other projects (World of Warcraft). Also, they probably had to wait for the market to be ready, it's not like people are done with the original.
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There is no release date set currently, but as with almost any game you can always walk into your favorite local games shop and ask to preorder. Normally they will just take your five dollars, write your name on a piece of paper, and call it good. There really isn't any rule that says the game shops can't take preorders on games with no release date, I know, I've done it several times.

As for why they waited so long, i think the best answer is simply suspense. Blizzard has a way of building up massive followings for games that are yet to exist, I have watched them do it over and over. They release just a tiny bit of information, a mind-blowing trailer, then slowly start to trickle information about key aspects over time. This gives time for all of the fansites and forums to pick it up and run with it, and believe me, they do. In the end, Blizzard really rakes it in in sales, all of the anticipation drives thousands more sales than if they had just released it years ago.
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Blizzard was busy building the most popular MMO in the US in the meantime, which generates monthly income for them, not just the one-time fee when people buy it.
Also, Blizzard basically never gives hard release dates, they work on their games until they're done, so you're unlikely to have more than a few weeks of notice before SC 2 comes out. Anyone who tells you they have a firm release date now is lying.
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Because with Blizzard's record of hits they don't have to rush anything.
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I don't think it's entirely due to the fact that Blizzard were working on WOW. They had separate teams for projects like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 3 after all.

The RTS space has been crowded over the last few years. I imagine unless Blizzard felt like they could really make a great product, they were going to keep it on the backburner.

Plus the original Starcraft was doing just fine in Korea 10 years later.
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StarCraft II is going to be an absolutely massive game. They're planning to make it into a trilogy, with three separate games released in succession with each one having a unique single-player campaign focused on one of the races.

And it's Blizzard, you know "it's done when it's done" Blizzard. They'll take their time because they can afford to.
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I'm not sure. but Valve did the same thing with Half-Life

*Cough*

Half-Life 2, and now HL2 Episode 1, 2, & 3
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