The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Barack Obama covers the waterfront in his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope — politics, race, faith, values, international relations, family, the struggles of the poor and the middle class in this country and around the world. A former professor of Constitutional law, he discusses the long history in the development and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

He is a superb writer and is obviously a man of remarkable intelligence and sensitivity. Though he comes through as definitely liberal and as wholly at odds with the Bush Administration, he makes a sincere effort to look at opposing views on subjects of the greatest controversy among American voters. He tries to give Republicans and conservatives their due. A professed Christian himself, he even tries to understand some of the holdings of evangelicals. Some liberal readers might find his even-handedness wishy-washy, but this reviewer did not.

He discusses his own life, with its variety of struggles serving as metaphors for many of the problems facing citizens of this country and peoples of the world. He is surprisingly candid about the problems he faced as a black man, as a youth with no father in the house, as a young married politician trying to balance the demands of office and family. He relates how he was blind to the complaints of his over-stressed young wife, and his subsequent feelings of guilt over his neglect of her and their two daughters.

He goes into his tentative and then dedicated resolve to become a politician so he could make a difference for good. He tells of his “thoroughly cockeyed idea of running for the United States Senate,” and of the long odds against him. He relates how he was ranked ninety-ninth in the Senate when the Kerry people chose him to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. His address there, of course, made him a national figure.

The title of his book comes from a phrase that his pastor had once used in a sermon, “the audacity of hope.” It is an apt title, because while Obama sees all the enduring problems that the middle class and the poor are facing in this country, he is upbeat about the possibilities for improvement. He believes that “the fundamental decency of the American people,” the “set of ideals that continue to stir our collective conscience, a common set of values . . . a running thread of hope” have made our democracy work.

For many liberal readers, the book may instill — as it does for this reviewer — a love for the humanity and the balanced erudition of the man. It may also stimulate — as it does for this reviewer — an inclination to vote for him despite previous thoughts that he was too inexperienced in politics on the national and international levels to be president of the United States.

Like most politicians, Obama has a laundry list of ideas for improvements in government. But in him one senses a sincerity and dedication and insight that could make a few good things happen — especially if he were to become president.