Rock-star Columbia economist and The End of Poverty author Jeffrey Sachs isn’t ready to trade in globe-trotting, Bono-sidekicking do-gooding for a meager job like president—a big letdown for the members of the incipient “Sachs for President Draft Committee.” “Barack Obama was adamant about not running, but once enough people wanted him to run, he was forced to change his mind,” says Joe Marogil, 28, an accountant and a member of the five-person board (three are in grad school) that sent Sachs’s office a plea and got a call back asking, “Are you serious?” Oh, yes. The committee bought a full-page ad in the Columbia Spectator begging Sachs to run. (He never saw it.) It held a meeting at Columbia. (Only student journalists came.) It launched a Web campaign: There are four Facebook.com groups pushing Sachs to run, with 167 members total (Obama has more than 500 groups; one has over 300,000 members). “I’m flattered,” Sachs says. “But my plans are to teach my class next fall.”
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