Important read for anyone who wants to enter political life.

books:


	• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream Barack Obama Crown, 2006 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 540 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Thoughtful and Ambitious Equals Restless Statesman

The Audacity of Hope is as good a title as any for this book by a young, rookie Senator. And the hope at the heart of his writing and thoughts is well placed, for in this, Barack Obama's Second book, despair lurks in the margins.

He as much as admits to this at several places in the book. He sees the country so completely divided on certain issues that finding a solution to the myriad social and economic problems connected to those issues seems almost like a dream.

Indeed, there is one constant subtext throughout the book: Barack's restlessness at the slow pace of governmental change. The rules and the glacial pace of Senate procedures simultaneously fascinate and frustrate him. He is in awe of just how good the framers of the constitution set up this great political experiment. However, the machine of the Senate, and the current business of politics, seem to him an almost torturous affair. Early in the book, Barack explains that what is debated day in and day out in the Senate is not (contrary to what most laymen perceive,) what the NEW laws should be. Instead, most of the time is spent trying to figure out what the EXISTING laws actually mean. (This experience in the Senate seems to have opened his eyes to just how important the appointment of Judges are.)

He bristles at the tediousness of some of this, and he openly wonders at just how quickly he may find himself caught up in the machinery that has consumed so many before him. For instance he starts one chapter talking about just how nice it is to fly on private jets. He is very descriptive of the pleasures of this elite way of travel. But he is also aware of just how much it separates him from the everyday American's experience.

More apparent though is Barack's ambitious nature seem too large for a long term career in the Senate,

He wants a larger stage on which to operate and to articulate his thoughts, and this book seems to be a prelude to that.

The Audacity of Hope is split up into large chapters encompassing big topics, (Race, Faith, etc.,) and within those headings, Obama struggles with the conflicting and seemingly contradictory stances on many sides of the issues. If you follow politics in the news, many of Obama's analogies and examples will be familiar to you, but if you largely stay away from politics, this volume will give you a pretty good idea of what he honestly thinks regarding these issues.

The answer is simple: Like many in America, he struggles.

One of the most telling sequences of the book is when he talks about how the countdown for an approaching Roll Call vote. He laments that when complicated issues, involving many complex factors, come down to the final vote, you almost always are wishing for more time.

The book is political, and more specifically campaign-oriented in nature, so it can often get a bit wonkish and, well, boring, but Barack has a way of bringing it back to simplicity with a humorous aside.

In light of his more recent popularity, (one hundred thousand people seeing him in Berlin,) it is interesting to read his account of traveling around Illinois alone as a virtually unknown candidate and sometimes speaking to 4 or 5 people. My favorite anecdote involves his invitation to a Union gathering during a primary for one office he was seeking. While he sat onstage waiting to speak, the man introducing him basically announced that the Union would be endorsing somebody else, but adds that "Mr. Obama is here to give us his thoughts."

Once finished with the book, you can understand a little more about Barack Obama's political thinking. And a little about the gamble he seems to be taking in the upcoming election for President of the United States. Obama, if I read correctly, is gambling that MOST people in the United States feel as he does. That most people struggle with these issues in the same ways and would like to see an end to partisan politics.

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Important read for anyone who wants to enter political life.

This book to me was a great primer for people who aspire to be voted into an office. Some very interesting insights.

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Fine Ideas; a great read

Barack Obama has changed politics. Regardless of your social, economic, or political beliefs, he has altered the way many think of a presidential candidate. In "The Audacity of Hope" Barack catalogs his rise to become the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party. He explains each step by organizing categories such as, our constitution, faith, opportunity, politics, and family. He presents and explains his beliefs on many important issues that face modern voters. He recalls his failures, elucidates the present, and sets his future goals. "The Audacity of Hope" is all that it claims to be (do not expect a numbered game plan to solve war and global poverty). The nostalgia and love of his family members alongside politics is interesting to read of and I recommend this book to both Democrats and Republicans. It will help you become more knowledgeable of Barack's plans or prepare you to defend your own. Plus, his writing is as moving as his speeches can be!
Thanks for reading,
C.K.

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Clear thinking; grounded in history

Senator Obama makes a compelling case for positive change. He builds his reasoned case from history, bringing in his personal experience and beliefs. I recommend especially the CD version of this book as you can hear the Senator's voice, so it is much like an extended, compelling speech. He covers several critical topics, providing recommended policy changes for each. To anyone interested in the potential that an Obama administration would have for America, please listen to or read what the Senator has to say.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

?A government that truly represents these Americans?that truly serves these Americans?will require a different kind of politics. That politics will need to reflect our lives as they are actually lived. It won?t be pre-packaged, ready to pull off the shelf. It will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we?ll need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break.?
?from The Audacity of Hope

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners? minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called ?the audacity of hope.?

Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics?a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the ?endless clash of armies? we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of ?our improbable experiment in democracy.? He explores those forces?from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media?that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Senator Obama?s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats?from terrorism to pandemic?that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy?where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes??waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.?

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