Obama now considering '08 run
Sen. Barack Obama has just aknowledged that he is considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so.
The Illinois Democrat said he could no longer stand by the statements he made after his 2004 election and earlier this year that he would serve a full six-year term in Congress. He said he would not make a decision until after the Nov. 7 elections.
"That was how I was thinking at that time," said Obama, when asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his previous statements.
"Given the responses that I've been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility" although not with the seriousness or depth required, he said. "My main focus right now is in the '06. ... After November 7, I'll sit down, I'll sit down and consider, and if at some point I change my mind, I will make a public announcement and everybody will be able to go at me."
Obama was largely unknown outside Illinois when he burst onto the national scene with a widely acclaimed address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
In recent weeks, his political stock has been rising as a potentially viable centrist candidate for president in 2008 after former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced earlier this month that he was bowing out of the race.
In a recent issue of Time magazine, Obama's face fills the cover next to the headline, "Why Barack Obama Could Be The Next President." He is currently on a tour promoting his latest book, "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream."
On Sunday, Obama dismissed notions that he might not be ready to run for president because of his limited experience in national politics. He agreed the job requires a "certain soberness and seriousness" and "can't be something you pursue on the basis of vanity and ambition."
"I'm not sure anyone is ready to be president before they're president," Obama said. "I trust the judgment of the American people.
"We have a long and rigorous process. Should I decide to run, if I ever did decide to run, I'll be confident that I'll be run through the paces pretty good," Obama said.
HatTip: YahooNews
posted by John Good @ 4:31 PM
8 Comments:
I think he is running. Too bad. He should stay in the Senate.
He won't win and if I casted a vote for him in 2004 for Senator I would be quite displeased if he ran for President in 2008.
Maybe it's just a ploy to keep the other side guessing. The media sure loes him.
Peace.
He's a good man, and a media darling. But '08 is not in the cards for him.
Now I feel like a fortune cookie message author. . . ;)
John, I wouldn't count him out. Don't count him in, but don't count him out.
He certainly could speechify circles around the Dub that's for sure! Not only is he articulate...but very cerebral...and I do so like that. He seems to speak from the heart and he has accomplished much academically in his young life. I don't know if I would vote for him if he were up against some others...but if he turned out to be the frontman in 08...I'd vote in a heartbeat. I would love to see the irony of (at least someday) a black man whose roots are close to Africa become President in this country...it would soooo be wonderful and fitting...as long as it is dewerved.
Uh...deserved!
i watched a bit of the oprah show he was on and he said he was not running -- and oprah asked him, if he did would he annouce it on her show and he said yes...
he also said she should run...maybe with him??
My guess is that he may be positioning himself for the veep spot in '08. . .
Senator Obama is a truly good man. I have found very little with which I disagree.
I write to him - he has one of his staff respond, but the responses do NOT scream "I copied and pasted this". Considering that my writing tends to incorporate more than one angle to things, I can spot a c&p response a mile off. Those from his office do NOT smell of c&p glue.
Senator Obama would make a good president, I think. I agree that he's not ready - and I agree that he is right that you can't really BE ready until you sit behind that boat of a desk in the Oval Office. And the last 6 years have proven that he is TRULY correct when he says "It can't be something you pursue on the basis of vanity and ambition."
I think, however, that he's probably too .... Negro.... for a lot of the south and most of the Bible Belt to tolerate.
*Disclaimer: I don't think that race should be an issue at all. I simply state this, because I hear too many things from folks in our Arkansas branch. The use of the term "Negro" is done with no animosity or ill-intent. Despite what the media has done to it, the word still is really only a descriptive term for a race, just as is "Caucasian" or "Oriental".
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