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Lou Dobbs appeared on his pal Bill O'Reilly's show last night in his first interview since leaving CNN $8 million richer last week. And O'Reilly asked him the question that's been on many minds in recent days: Is Dobbs thinking about running for a U.S. Senate seat?

Dobbs offered up this vague—but still frightening—response:

A lot of things are on my mind, I'm not going to be coy about that. My wife and I are thinking about a lot of opportunities. I'm very blessed that I have a lot of opportunities. I guarantee you 100 percent I'm going to remain in the public arena.

You can take that as a "maybe." (Does that mean it was Dobbs who anonymously purchased the domain name DobbsforSenate.com? Maybe!) But let's just be thankful that Dobbs is only setting his sights on the already-busted state of New Jersey and he isn't mulling a presidential bid. As long as no one is making "Dobbs/Palin 2012" t-shirts, we can all rest easy.

Lou Dobbs Suggests Senate Run "On My Mind" [CBS News]
Lou says network didn't want to offend president [NYP]