To: Road Walker who wrote (307377 ) 10/23/2006 4:00:59 PM From: tejek Respond to Kenya: U.S. Media Tips Obama for White House in 2008 Barack Obama, the Kenyan-American political superstar, appears to be edging closer to a run for the White House in 2008. The 45-year-old son of a Kenyan economist has done nothing to squelch the growing frenzy. Obama no longer denies interest in joining the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He now suggests he will decide as early as next month whether to enter the contest, and he makes clear that family considerations will strongly influence his thinking. "When the election is over and my book tour is done, I will think about how I can be most useful to the country and how I can reconcile that with being a good dad and a good husband," Obama told Time. "I haven't completely decided or unraveled that puzzle yet." "I said to him, 'Do you really think sticking around the Senate for four more years and casting a thousand more votes will make you more qualified for president?'" Durbin told The Chicago Tribune. "The critical element that remains that he has to face is whether he is willing to be separated from his family for longer periods of time and I think he is staring that right in the face." The Audacity of Hope, which takes its title from a line in Obama's arena-shaking speech at the 2004 Democratic presidential convention, is rated by many reviewers as an above-average political autobiography. It is the eagerly anticipated successor to Dreams from My Father, in which Obama described his often-painful search for his Kenyan roots. His father, who shared the same name, was an advisor to Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta. The elder Obama, who left his white American wife when his son was less than two years old, died in a motoring accident in Nairobi in 1982. allafrica.com
