That line’s from a Stephen King novel, by the way. I wouldn’t bother normally, but thanks to Biden, we now all have to be particularly careful about our literary references these days.

Anyway, Patterico noticed that a lengthy Snopes article debunking an Obama email thread (and yes, many of them are doozies) had itself one glaring oopsie: it stated that “Senator Obama never stated categorically that he would not run on a national ticket in 2008.” Apparently Snopes doesn’t use Google, because this exchange was easy to find.

Mr. Russert (From videotape) When we talked back in November of ‘04 after your election, I said there’s been enormous speculation about your political future. Will you serve your full six-year term as United States senator from Illinois? Mr. Obama: (From videotape) Absolutely.

… I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough, sooner or later, you get weary, and you start looking for new ways of saying things, but my thinking has not changed.

Mr. Russert: (From videotape) So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?

Mr. Obama: (From videotape) I will not.

Back to Sunday, Oct. 22:

Mr. Russert: You will not?

Mr. Obama: Well, that is how I was thinking at that time, and I don’t want to be coy about this — given the responses that I’ve been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility, but I have not thought about it with the seriousness and depth that I think is required. My main focus right now is in ‘06 and making sure that we retake the Congress. After November 7th, I’ll sit down and consider it, and if, at some point, I change my mind, I will make a public announcement, and everybody will be able to go at me.

To be blunt, I didn’t believe him when he said that he wasn’t going to run; I simply didn’t think that it mattered all that much. He’s a fairly typical politician: his lips were moving; ergo, he was lying. Besides, there’s so many more things to ding him on. That being said, Obama publicly backtracked on this in 2006. Doesn’t Snopes make it a point to do actual checks on this stuff first?

Moe Lane