You can't possibly read those quotes and infer that Obama is even leaving an OPENING to not running in 2012. It's just poor reading comprehension. Tom can opine all he wants, but he can't deny having missed this and having accepted it as true. It's not. The headline is a lie and anyone with half a brain could see this when reading the actual quote.

I'd even go further. If you think Obama won't run (opinion) or he might not (opinion), you are dumb as a box of rocks. He'll run and he'll win.

Tom, I know you're checking. Your complete lack of self awareness gives me no pause when wondering whether or not you find me thoughtful.

This poster child for the confluent apogees of affirmative action and the Peter Principle has now reached the end of his protective tunnel where he is interacting for the first time with people and problems that could care less about his hagiography. His greased skid has finally ended on a gravel road for which he is totally unprepared.

His only concern now is the takeover of health care. That is on what his 40+-year Manchurian Candidate training has been focused. That's why jobs and Afghanistan are mere talking points– because those things affect other less-worthy beings, not him. As far as he and his puppetmasters are concerned, ruining the economy and taunting the military is just the cherry on the sundae– punishing us for decades of hegemony.

Once this seizure is complete, he will have no other raison d'etre. If successful, he will have no political capital left; in fact, in all likelihood, he will take most of his party down with him. Of course, this is of no consequence to him. He sees himself as a political martyr in this cause. His legacy and the debasing of America's station in the world are but small prices to pay for the Leviathan's unfettered control over the lives of hundreds of millions of subjects. No, the reverance with which his name will be uttered in the hallowed halls of leftist elitism– along with those of Marx, FDR, and Castro– will be his reward.

When it's all said and done, he and his family will be taken care of by his benefactors. Then he will once again never have to sully himself in the milieu of what he and his (your) ideology has wrought.

Joe C.