Barack Obama for President in 2008?

Yup, yesterday Obama suggested that he might run for President in 2008. Great!

"I would say I am still at the point where I have not made a decision to pursue higher office, but it is true that I have thought about it over the last several months," the 45-year-old Democratic senator from Illinois told NBC's "Meet the Press." (CNN.com)

Here's what Obama said to Tim Russert about the Iraq War: (Meet the Press transcript)

SEN. OBAMA: ...what I said is, despite the politics, we have young men and women who are putting their lives at stake in Iraq, we’re making an enormous investment on the part of the American people, and so we do have an obligation to step up. And so what I’ve been saying of late on the campaign trail is that, given the rapidly deteriorating situation down there, it is incumbent upon all the leadership in Washington to execute a serious change of course in Iraq, and I think that involves a phased—the beginnings of a phased withdrawal that would put more of the onus on the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to make a decision about what kind of Iraq they want, and also to engage the regional powers—whether it’s Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria—to say, “You can’t sit on the sidelines. You have a stake in a stabilized Iraq.”

MR. RUSSERT: In your book, page 302, you write that we should begin this phased withdrawal by the end of 2006.

SEN. OBAMA: Right.

See the whole video here.

Obama has developed a strong pro-abortion record during his short time in the Senate.

He has voted to use taxpayer funds to pay for and promote abortions in other countries and voted twice against a bill that would have supported parental notification and consent laws in dozens of states.

The lawmaker has also voted to fund embryonic stem cell research.

Obama also criticized pro-life groups that were urging people to boycott American Girl dolls because of their partnership with a pro-abortion girl's group. “It's just silly,” Obama said about the pro-life boycott. "This is a classic example of overreaction and a lack of proportion.”

Well all that makes me glad...but I do want to say one thing to Sen. Obama and it's this: I don't think, Senator Obama, you need to talk religion in order to show that Democrats are religious just like Conservative Republicans. People who want to vote for you understand separation of Church and State and that a person's religion is his own private matter.

P.S. What do you think of the following?
"...the fact [is] that there is an enormous yearning out there for a black president. This yearning is largely bipartisan among political elites and in much of America as well. Of course, Republicans want the first black president (or vice president) to be a Republican and Democrats want a Democrat. Personally, I think it'd be great to have a black president. Though that doesn't mean any black candidate would be good for America. Regardless, my point is that more than anything media elites just really want a 'moderate' black guy or gal in the Oval Office (more than they want a woman)." (quoted from Jonah Goldberg in The Corner on National Review Online)

And here's what other bloggers are saying: http://www.slate.com/id/2152101/fr/rss/