US Senator Barack Obama mulling White House run

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - African American Senator Barack Obama, a rising star of the Democratic Party, said Sunday he is considering a running for the US presidency in 2008.

Asked on NBC television's "Meet the Press" program if it was fair to say he is thinking about running in 2008, the Illinois lawmaker answered: "It's fair, yes."

For months, the first-term senator had ruled out running for the White House, even while giving all appearances of interest in the race.

But he said Sunday he had reconsidered "given the responses that I have been getting over the last several months."

He added that for the time being, he is devoting his energies to campaigning for fellow opposition Democrats running for office in next month's congressional and statewide elections against Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress.

"My focus is 2006 and making sure that we take the Congress. After November 7, I'll sit down and consider it," Obama said.

"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, 45, is not quite two years into his first six-year Senate term, having been elected in November 2004.

The African American lawmaker appeared on last week's cover of Time magazine as a possible presidential prospect, and has been on tour plugging his latest book, "The Audacity of Hope," which sets out his political views.

Analysts point out that his recent travels have taken him several times to the Midwest state of Iowa, a major testing ground for presidential hopefuls due to its early role in choosing each party's candidate.

He has also made himself available in recent months for numerous magazine profiles and features in addition to Time's. He appeared in a fashion spread in Marie Claire and was shot by photographer-to-the-stars Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Men's Vogue magazine.

Asked about his relatively junior status -- 98 of the other 99 lawmakers in the US Senate have more seniority -- Obama said Sunday he did not believe that his youth and relative inexperience to be major impediments.

"I'm not sure that anybody is ready to be president before they're president," he told NBC.

"Ultimately, I trust the judgment of the American people that in any election they sort it through," he said.

"We have a long and rigorous process and, you know, should I decide to run -- if I ever did decide to run -- I'm confident that I would be run through the paces pretty good."

If he does run, Obama would face a stiff challenge for the Democratic nomination from Senator Hillary Clinton, should the wife of former president Bill Clinton declare herself to be a candidate.

He will also have to deal with intense media scrutiny, after several years of gentle and generally approving coverage, which often compares him to former president John Kennedy and other famous statesmen.

Last week New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd took him to task for "his modeling gigs in Men's Vogue, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair" and other publications and called on him to "do some honest work, like running for president."

"Does Barack Obama want to be a celebrity or a man of history -- or is there no longer any difference?" Dowd asked.