'08 reasons why Obama will run for president | Chicago Tribune

'08 reasons why Obama will run for president

By Eric Zorn- Published January 20, 2005

"I am not running for president. I am not running for president in four years. I am not running for president in 2008."

--Barack Obama, Nov. 3, 2004

Oh, but he will.

And here, for your Inauguration Day reading pleasure, are the top 8 reasons why the new junior senator from Illinois will change his mind about '08.

1. He can't be sure when the bloom will fade.

Sure, Obama is a huge celebrity now, an eloquent, charismatic embodiment of the best the Democratic Party can offer. But The Next Big Thing multiplied by Overexposure plus Time equals Yesterday's News.

Momentum like he has now is a powerful commodity, and there's no guarantee--not even much chance--that he'll still have anything like it in 2012.

2. The Democratic field appears weak.

Hillary Clinton has come out on top of every survey I've seen in which pollsters ask Democrats whom they'd like to see atop the ticket in 2008.

But I suspect this is the name-recognition factor at work, and that when primary season rolls around, Democrats will see her as a poisonously polarizing figure who will build a bridge back to the 20th Century and those dreadful Clinton Wars.

Other names mentioned along with Obama include John Edwards, John Kerry, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Joseph Biden, Tom Vilsack, Mark Warner, Russ Feingold, Evan Bayh, Harold Ford Jr. and Bill Richardson.

Among average Democrats, Obama's is the only name that doesn't tend to provoke either a yawn, a puzzled look or an anguished cry of, "Please, God, not again!"

3. The Republican field looks weak too.

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