The Running Man: the sequel

**Posted by Phineas

No, not Arnold Schwarzenegger… unless it’s from Maria’s lawyers.

Rather, the “running man” in this case according to Jim Geraghty is Barack Obama, who spent fully half of the ten years from 1998-2008 running for higher office:

2008: Barring some nefarious plot by Hillary Clinton, Obama will be running for president until November. For purposes of this exercise, we’ll count this as 11 months of campaigning.

2007: Announced exploratory committee on January 16. Formally announced presidential campaign on February 10. I’m counting all 12 months.

2006: Serving in U.S. Senate. While some would argue Obama was unofficially campaigning already, including appearing at events in Iowa, for the purposes of this calculation we will count his campaigning as starting from the announcement of the exploratory committee. 0 months.

2005: Serving in U.S. Senate. 0 months.

2004: Running for U.S. Senate; elected in November. 11 months.

2003: Running for U.S. Senate. 12 months.

Click through for the rest.

Obama announced his reelection campaign last April, 19 months before the next election, with roughly 40% of his term remaining. And what’s he been doing since then?

Running for office isn’t just what he does best — it’s all he knows.

I hope he has good shoes.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)