The Audacity Of Gravitas: Restore Intelligence To The White House

Barnes & Noble Booksellers 267 7th Ave, Brooklyn, 11215

Hillary was the front runner. But she can not be seen running for president now, or at least that is what she thinks. This was great timing on Obama's part. He gently whispered. He might run for president, and sucked all the oxygen in the room. He did not do it to sell more books. But that prompted me to go and buy his new book. The Audacity Of Hope. This man can talk about faith and family without coming across like he were apologizing to the fundies. Fuck the fundies. The fundies can go to hell.

I drove over to the nearest Barnes & Noble, the one on Park Slope. I ended up parking two block lengths away, which was great, because the walk was so nice, it always is.

I am half way through the book by now. What a read. I also bought the guy's first book a long time ago. My recurring thought through that book was, this guy could be a star novelist. He has such a romantic eye for little details. He is gifted. He can write.

This is a policy book that anyone can pick up and read. What timing! Those who end up president must know beforehand. He knows.

He does not have to cough it. Faith and family is important to him. He just has to find a way to share what's already his. And he does it with style.

Parts of the book read like poetry.

This book has been written to suggest Obama has gravitas. This is the man for the new century. Lincoln was in his first term in Congress when he became president. Did someone just mention that Obama has been in the Senate only a few years?

Lincoln helped the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Obama's eight years will take America into the Information Age. Much of the "moral issues" stuff has been the anxiety of a people clinging to the known. There has not been a clarity offered by the leadership, a transformative leadership for a transforming time, that will say, much change will occur, but you will be better off at the end of it, and I will make sure you are better off also through it, the journey itself will be good.

He is not too young, too black, too Senatey. He can win, he can deliver. You will not see the best of Obama until he is in the White House. You ain't seen nothing yet. He has a certain grace with power. Some people get more clumsy the more powerful they get. Not so with Barack. He is the opposite. He just gets more and more graceful. His ma taught him table manners.

This book leaves just enough room for a presidential campaign. You still will need to listen to a score of brainy, think tank types on all sorts of policy issues. It hurts to say early that you know it all, although you might know much. There will be the political advisors who will want to tell you which way the wind is blowing, although you have a compass in your jacket pocket already, but it is better kept away from their view.

You have met many ordinary Americans, but you have to leave room for all those who you will only meet on a campaign trail. So there are stories but not too many.

I have been reading the book, but then I am going to study both books and write fuller reviews. I would want Obama to know I have really really read the books. I am going to slice and dice.

America right now is like the Roman Empire about to fall. This White House is so intent on wrecking the future. But the empire does not have to fall, because America is no empire. It is the beacon of hope for much of the world. And Obama will help change course. Obama will provide leadership. Obama will inspire.

Obama has done his homework. He is at ease. He is on his way. He will take quite a few Southern states.

Obama bridges many gaps in his book. The widest gap might be between the people and the politicians they elect. He makes an attempt to humanize his colleagues.

Both his parents are dead. But he feels their presence in life in a very real way like he feels the presence of God. You don't feel sorry for him that his parents are dead. He is so optimistic. He lifts you and me up. You feel good about the guy, that is what.

Obama will raise more money in small, online contributions from average people than Dean did when he ran for president, and Dean raised close to 50 million. That money will be enough to take him through the primaries. But then he is just as good at raising money the old way, from rich people who are prochoice and progressive, for example. And so money is no problem.

Organization will be built. Obama 2008 is to be the first Internet election like Kennedy 1960 was the first TV election. You are looking at the matrix of a digital democracy organization, the vertical implications of one person one vote. All Obama has to offer is inspiration. The organization will be a piece of cake. It will make Karl Rove feel like he is old school, from the typewriter era, his Blackberry notwithstanding.

The message is in the book.

'The Audacity of Hope' - Who's Next - Newsweek - MSNBC.com
Amazon.com: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the ...
American Rhetoric: Barack Obama -- 2004 Democratic National ...
Random House | Books | The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Random House | Books | The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Harvard Political Review - The Audacity of Hope
The Audacity of Hope - Arts & Leisure - International Herald Tribune
sweet: Obama: Previews new book, ``The Audacity of Hope'' Writes ...
CNN.com - Obama looks to own past in convention speech - Jul 28, 2004
eBooks - The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - eReader.com
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama - Book Review - New York Times the Democratic Party’s new rock star, is that rare politician who can actually write — and write movingly and genuinely about himself. ...... 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father ...... That book did an evocative job of conjuring the author’s multicultural childhood: his father was from Kenya, his mother was from Kansas, and the young Mr. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. ...... the sense of knowing two worlds and belonging to neither ...... a political document ..... the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq. ..... an elastic, personable voice that is capable of accommodating everything from dense discussions of foreign policy to streetwise reminiscences, incisive comments on constitutional law to New-Agey personal asides ...... Reporters and politicians continually use the word authenticity to describe Mr. Obama ..... he often speaks to the reader as if he were an old friend from back in the day, salting policy recommendations with colorful asides about the absurdities of political life. ...... He recalls a meet-and-greet encounter at the White House with George W. Bush, who warmly shook his hand, then “turned to an aide nearby, who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president’s hand.” ...... youthful efforts to grapple with racial stereotypes, racial loyalty and class resentments ....... Most Republican strongholds are 40 percent Democrat, and vice versa. ..... the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago ..... This volume does not possess the searching candor of the author’s first book. But Mr. Obama strives in these pages to ground his policy thinking in simple common sense — be it “growing the size of our armed forces to maintain reasonable rotation schedules” or reining in spending and rethinking tax policy to bring down the nation’s huge deficit — while articulating these ideas in level-headed, nonpartisan prose. That, in itself, is something unusual, not only in these venomous pre-election days, but also in these increasingly polarized and polarizing times.
'The Audacity of Hope' - Who's Next - Newsweek - MSNBC.com
RelentlesslyOptimistic: Barak Obama - The Audacity of Hope
TIME.com: The Audacity of Hope
TIME.com: Book Excerpt: Barack Obama -- Oct. 23, 2006 -- Page 1
NPR : Obama Shares Political Vision in 'Audacity of Hope'
SoapBlox/Chicago :: Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" - my review
Scrivenings: The Audacity of Hope!
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