OBAMA CANDIDACY APPEARS IMMINENT

Signs point to a Barack Obama announcement this week, and it appears that announcement will confirm he intends to run for president.

Politicalwire reports Obama is rumored to be preparing to declare his candidacy on Oprah Whinfrey's show this week.

Ben Smith, one-time reporter and blogger for the (NY) Daily News and about to join a start-up online newspaper in Washington, is reporting on New York political blog Room Eight that Obama has been calling family, friends and likely large donors to tell them he's running.

The Associated Press reports Obama his hired policy, press and research staff for a presidential run.

The Chigaco Tribune today profiles Obama's inner circle.

And the Illinois Democrat has also begun running Web ads.

EDWARDS IN HARLEM THIS AFTERNOON
Another of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination, John Edwards, will take to the pulipt in Harlem this afternoon to discuss the Iraq war and his efforts to get Congress to block funding for President Bush's planned escalation of the war. He'll be speakking at the fabled Riverside Church, where 40 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King urged oppoosition to the Vietnam War.

Edwards has recorded a preview of his speech, and you can watch it live here at 4:00 pm.

WAR ESCALATION PLAN ALREADY REFLECTING ON '08 RACE

The New York Times has a good wrap-up today on where there major presidential candidates of both parties stand on Bush's escalation plan. The story theorizes that Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton have taken the most politically precarious positions.