I've seen this piece of news iterated in hundreds of news feeds :

"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."

People are desperate in this country for a real leader when they place their presidential hopes on a guy that became famous for a political convention speech, has written a good book about being the son of immigrants, and not much else.

As much as I would like to smoke of that happy optminist weed, I will take a pass. Call me a party pooper. I think of myself as a realist.

I would loooove to have Obama in the White House. Unfortunately Barack Obama is too green.

You want to know a secret? Obama knows it too. He's not "testing the waters" for a Presidential nomination. Why would he?

He's proving to be a good marketer who knows how to use the attention he's receiving with more than a dose of class. He's an incredible communicator and new enough for people to still see him as a decent human being (give him another 4 years and maybe people will change their minds).

He comes across as being cautious and realistic. Which is why I believe, he will most certainly settle for Vice-President.