Excerpts are now available on WashingtonPost.com of Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson's new book "The Battle for America 2008."

Balz and Johnson (a college professor of mine, by the way) will be on "Meet the Press" this Sunday for an additional preview before the book hits shelves Tuesday.

Join us after the jump for an excerpt on President Obama, and check out the paper and website for excerpts on Sarah Palin on Monday and on Senator Ted Kennedy's endorsement on Tuesday.

"There aren't that many people put in the position I'm put in. Some of it's just dumb luck. Some of it maybe has to do with me embodying some characteristics that are interesting for the time that we're in. But when I made the decision to do this, it wasn’t with the certainty that I was the right person for the job. It was more the sense of, given what's been given to me, I should probably just give it a shot and see whether in fact there's something real there." -President Barack Obama