When did Obama first consider running for President for 2008?

[jasmine621]

Just wondering because it puzzles me how someone with such limp bona fades could get all this support and money after only a so little time in the Senate?

I would love to know the real behind-the scenes backers of Obama.

I'm thinking conspiracy here, yes. I'm thinking the only way the "powers" realized they could stop a Hillary nomination and Presidency was to find a way to divide and even turn African American voters against her, split the Hispanic vote, and unite Clinton haters across the board. So far, it seems to be working but, as always, you can't count the Clintons out. They are smart, tough, and battle-tested.

[maddiejoan]

1. about 2 minutes

after his 2004 Keynote address

[jannyk]

14. It was actualy much later than that. It wasn't until...

the next morning when he read the press and saw he was the next 'media darling'.

[TwilightGardener]

2. You missed your dose this morning.

[MaryRN]

3. Go back to the DNC in Boston...and follow the money.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

4. In kindergarten.

So he's had time.

[dkf]

5. I hear it was when he was 5. lol.

[H2O Man]

6. Please stop

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. he said January, 2007.

But I'd imagine he was thinking about it probably a year before that.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

8. Limp bona "fades", eh?

He did great work here in the Illinois state government, and won his election to U.S. Senate in a landslide. Is it so difficult to believe that someone could have so much support because they are a genuinely popular political figure, like Obama, and not just part of an immense political machine, like Clinton?

[AZ Criminal JD]

12. A "popular political figure"?

He ran for Congress and lost to a former Black Panther -- Bobby Rush. He ran for the U.S. Senate against a joke figure who didn't even live in the state. His great work in Illinois state government included voting "present" when he thought his position would be held against him by some special interest in the future. So far he has had great luck being in the right place at the right time. We'll see if it continues.

[Benhurst]

13. For the record, Obama ran in his only state-wide election in 2004, against Alan Keys

who was brought in at the last moment after Republican nominee Jack Ryan withdrew following a sex scandal.

Keys, neither a resident nor a native of Illinois was easily defeated by Obama, as he probably would have been by almost any resident of the state.

Why the Republican Party, despite several unsuccessful attempts to entice highly-placed Illinois Republicans into the race, chose Alan Keys, an African American who did not even live in the state, remains a mystery.

As of yet, Obama has not really been tested in a state-wide general election.

[madrchsod]

19. what happened was the moderate wing of the republican party

(yes in illinois there is a moderate wing) took a big hit with governor ryan getting convicted. jack ryan and obama would have had a good contest because both were moderates in their party's. once the ryan scandal broke the rabid right wing became so adamant to dump ryan and replace him with an extreme conservative. they could not find anyone in illinois that would go up against obama so they "elected" keyes. after that the moderates walked away from keyes and the right wing..the republicans here in illinos still are in the minority BUT if the rezko trial brings down the democratic governor and worse obama then illinois will flip to the republicans. so if obama goes a republican will replace him and the governor and maybe the house and/or senate. this is what happens in illinois

[sandrakae]

9. When he was on the Oprah Winfrey show and she told him he should run.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. I've been thinking like you're thinking for a while

[MethuenProgressive]

11. With his first Present vote in Illinois

there's a reason the Present button is yellow.

[emilyg]

15. When he was still in the womb.

[Beacool]

16. I heard it out of his own mouth in an interview:

Christmas 2006, Obama said that he and Michelle talked about running for president during the 2006 holidays.

[sunonmars]

18. rubbish, he started the minute he got into the senate

hence him never being there.

[madrchsod]

17. when he was 5 or 6 years old?

it was somewhere around that age.

[pretzel4gore]

20. pigmedia want spectacle

and spectacle can be all fabrication: witness the topgun pilot prez landing fighterjet during stormy weather on the USS Ronald (regan) far out at sea, with mission accomplished the goodest news ever to war weary americans. Obama first seemed to gain attention to my knowlege when his name's single letter difference from bin laden's and the possible muslim aspects in his upbringing caused the good cop/bad cop trickery, with cnn, or was it fox? seeming attempts to demonise Barack for his name/muslim links, which evoked cnn/foxnews(?) condemnation of such lowlife tactics (and which also intro'd Obama to alot of people who never heard of him)...back in mid 70's, brian mulroney was a 'young lawyer' who was running for tory party leadership first time his name got national explosure. The thing best recalled about the race was how while all the other candidates, Joe Clark, Hugh Segal etc, used yellow rental school buses to tour while mulroney campaign used air conditioned scenic cruisers- the rock star ones! mulroney went on few years later to win the leader post, then became PM in '83, and today he's the most hated punk in Canada, even by the rightwingers; thus he lives 364/year in florida (returning only for enough time to keep up his and his kids' medical coverage) Apparently the same aural shine surrounds Barack in that his campaign is very well financed while Dennis Kucinich, certainly a much greater presence in the dem/left political scene, had to struggle so much he was forced to give up.
Money is the root of all political evil, and Obama has lotsa money, though he's relatively lightweight. Even Hillary is lightweight, but she's got Billy Jeff- so the question is, remembering the notorious criminal features of the recent rightwing power trip, if rightwing (racist) cash isn't pushing Obama for his weaknesses. After all, that would be normal operating proceedure, but the question remains on back burner, if/when asked at all