A few of my thoughts...

While I would prefer a more moderate (or middle ground) leadership. I think there are many valid issues that we as a nation we need to start considering. I certainly understand the concern about cocaine, but I want to hear far more on the context (place and time etc) before I decide what weight to give that detail.

I have met Obama, and found him to be intelligent, engaging, thoughtful, moderate (but more on the liberal side, while I tend to fall more to the conservative side of moderate) politically savvy, and an excellent listener. Attributes that I think are noticable on television, and in public speeches. I also think they are all positives (generally) for a president.

He had not yet begun his run for Senate officially, but I am sure he had decided to run at that time. We had a spirited exchange on a couple of issues, hard for lawyers to be around each other and not have 'spirited' exchanges.

While I like him personally, and feel he could be a good president, I have others I prefer to be president. Whether one of them (or Obama himself) will even be mong my actual choices in Nov 2008, who knows.

I do think there is a great deal of pressure on him to run now. I feel he would be a far better candidate if he waited 4-12 years, got a little more seasoning. I also think we would have an opportunity to see him under adversity, which is where we'll see what kind of leader he really is. Wouldn't hurt to serve in an executive position (cabinet, govenor, VP) to broaden his perspective.