1st Black Prez?
Obama vs. Osama?

Democrat Barack Obama has sought the advice of top campaign workers in Iowa and has established a seedling support network in this state as he prepares to decide whether to seek the 2008 presidential nomination.The first-term Illinois senator has surrounded himself with advisers rich in experience in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state.Obama has vaulted to the top tier among prospective candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination, even as the new star in the party says he has not made up his mind about running.The Iowa connections of Obama's campaign advisers and the senator's behind-the-scenes inquiry into the Iowa caucuses are hardly an announcement that he is running for president. But they show he is visualizing the presidential campaign process, in the event he decides to run.Obama said last month he was considering a campaign for president, as enthusiastic crowds turned out for his political appearances on behalf of other candidates and as he traveled the country promoting his best-selling autobiography.Shortly after the Nov. 7 election, Obama telephoned John Norris, the Des Moines Democrat who ran John Kerry's winning campaign in the 2004 Iowa caucuses."He basically called to talk about the lay of the land in Iowa," said Norris, who described Obama's inquiries as "earnest" and reflecting genuine uncertainty about his future.Iowa's presidential precinct caucuses are scheduled as the first nominating event of the 2008 campaign. Several Democrats have already expressed interest in competing in Iowa, although only Gov. Tom Vilsack has declared his candidacy for the nomination.Vilsack, who filed papers forming a campaign organization on Nov. 9, plans a public kickoff of his campaign this week, with events in Mount Pleasant, which he calls home, and in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nevada and South Carolina.Besides Vilsack, the Democrats who have spent the most time courting the party's activists in Iowa include Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is believed to be weighing a campaign for the Democratic nomination.However, she has steered clear of Iowa since the 2004 presidential election while she has campaigned for re-election in New York.Clinton was re-elected handily this month, but she had not begun reaching out to Iowa activists as of last week.Norris told Obama during their recent telephone conversation that the 2008 Iowa campaign would be lively and that Vilsack's presence in the race likely would not deter participation."I said I think it's obvious other candidates are going to compete," Norris said. "Other people are getting in, and Iowa will be a factor. The outcome will be a factor."Obama did not ask if Norris would be willing to advise him, should he decide to run.Obama's three trips to Iowa since his election to the Senate in 2004 came this fall, beginning with his appearance at U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in mid-September.That event brought thousands of Iowa Democrats and dozens of journalists from Chicago and around the nation to Indianola, where the steak fry was held.Obama spent little time during the visit, or the two subsequent stops this fall, meeting privately with party leaders.Des Moines Democrat George Appleby saw Obama at Harkin's event and noted the appeal he seemed to have with the crowd of 3,000 at the Warren County fairgrounds.Appleby had been helping former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner make the rounds in Iowa.After Warner decided in October that he would not run for president, Appleby got in touch with Obama's people."I have talked with the Obama people, and I have agreed to do some initial stuff for him, pending his making the decision to go or not to go," Appleby said."They tell me he will make a decision within a couple of weeks."Since acknowledging interest in the 2008 race, Obama's name has shot to the second spot, behind Clinton, on most national preference polls for the Democratic nomination.Iowa City Democrat Dick Myers, the former minority leader in the Iowa House, has also agreed to serve as a caucus contact for Obama, should he decide to run, aides said.Obama also would have campaign workers at his disposal with institutional knowledge of Iowa politics.Acting as a key contact for Obama in Iowa is Steve Hildebrand, a longtime aide to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle. Hildebrand ran Al Gore's campaign for the 2000 Iowa caucuses.Also part of Obama's team is David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media consultant who produced Vilsack's ads during his 1998 and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns.Axelrod also produced ads for Edwards, including for his 2004 Iowa caucus campaign.Longtime Democratic pollster Paul Harsted, who has worked for Harkin and Vilsack, is also signed on with Obama.The group of advisers suggests that Obama could mount a credible Iowa caucus campaign, said his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, who was Kerry's national spokesman for a time during the 2004 presidential campaign."Obviously, should he choose to run, he'll have a team that's very talented with good knowledge of the state," Gibbs said.