What Washington will be watching this Sunday

 By 11:30 on Sunday morning we should have a much better idea if Barack Obama is going to run for President this time round. Obama will be on Meet the Press this Sunday and Tim Russert will pound him about his ’08 ambitions. In a January appearance on Russert’s show, Obama ruled out running. Now he isn’t quite so sure. First, he told Joe Klein that after the mid-terms and the book tour he’ll “think about how I can be most useful to the country.” Now the Chicago Tribune—in a must-read—reports that Obama is regularly calling the Democratic consultant who managed Al Gore’s presidential campaign, Donna Brazile. She tells the paper that Obama “has gotten the presidential bug bite.”

The challenge for Obama this weekend will be to walk back his January comments without going too far. After all, the fact he isn’t a candidate is part of what’s creating the buzz around him. If Obama does decide to run and Hillary Clinton also jumps in, the Democratic primaries could be the most enjoyable since 1960.