Review: The Audacity of Hope–Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

November 8, 2006

Barack Obama

This book gets five stars from me because it is much more thoughtful and much less platitudinous than the standard run of the mill “getting to know me” books that every politician with any ambition puts out.

The author understands all the key points including how broken government is, how uncivil Congress is, how out of touch we are with reality. He understands that government does have important safety net roles to play, that education and investment in science & technology are the foundation for the future, and so on and so on. This down-to-earth yet explicit and integrated perspective puts him head and shoulders above the even the best of the best from the past.

Bottom line: this book confirms the author's status as a first-rank leader (I don't insult him with the lesser term of politician) of great promise. The promise is implicit in this book, not explicit.

Now I want to see a book that addresses the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challengers, and how he proposes to create a common-sense trans-partisan government that ends the winner take all nature of both the Cabinet and the Congress, and integrates real world information with real world budgets to get us to where the Comtroller General of the USA, the Honorable David Walker, says we need to be: providing for the future.

A for effort. The first book finished elementary school. This book finishes high school. I wait with bated breath for the serious book with all the details.