The Audacity of Hope is something of a published stump speech – a collection of broad proposals, general principles, and personal anecdotes that gives the reader a sense of where Barack Obama would like the country to go, but not a lot of specifics about how to get there. By no means is it a boring read – Obama has incredible skill with words and a gift for storytelling. But the veering between the personal and the political leaves me, as someone who enjoys both subjects, feeling like the book is shallower than it could be. On the other hand, a reader who is less familiar with Obama, his background, or his stances would probably find this to be a useful introduction.
From the beginning, Obama makes clear that he believes that the tone and style of our political discourse must change. He expresses an interest in finding common ground, and suggests that even though he feels his party is more correct than its opposition, there is room for improvement. This conciliatory tone fits with the Obama I read about in his previous memoir, Dreams from My Father, which was written before Obama began his political career. So I don’t believe that he is engaging in pure political calculation here, trying to make himself look good by making everyone else look bad. I must say I was pretty sure that Obama would be running for president when I saw how much time he spent praising ethanol, as that has become almost stereotypical behavior for candidates looking to curry favor for the Iowa caucus.
While I believe Obama is sincere in what he’s saying in this book, there is a problem with his presentation that is especially noticeable in the chapter on religion, which is an expanded version of a speech Obama gave in the summer of 2006. Obama criticizes the political leadership of the religious right and explains how he reconciles his own faith with his political stances. In doing so, he offers a vision of deliberative democracy, the notion that we must justify our position to others in terms that are publicly accessible. I have strong sympathy with the deliberative democratic position, so I was happy to see Obama support it.
But within the chapter on religion, he exhorts other progressives to be understanding of those who have religious faith, and criticizes “secularists� who want to completely remove religion from the public square. What is noteworthy here is that Obama never cites specific examples or quotes that would indicate that such secularism is a major force within his party, even though he does go into detail about the other side. While I have read various blog posts or comments that take a strictly secular perspective, and I am sure Obama has encountered activists and constituents who feel the same, I can’t think of a leader or public figure who has – and Obama has done nothing to remind me. Without knowing what Obama is specifically talking about, it is very easy to ignore the point altogether because it seems unsupported, or to assume that it is a generalization that applies to a vast majority of Obama’s colleagues. Neither is an effective point.
Even though I agree with many of the policy suggestions Obama makes – such as simultaneously increasing teacher salaries and the expectations that we place on educators – I believe that the most effective parts of The Audacity of Hope are the autobiographical segments – the stories of the conversations he’s had at town hall meetings; the strange experience of senators speaking to an empty chamber and a C-Span camera; the challenges his Senate career has posed for his family. Reading the entire book, there’s an interesting dynamic that plays out in those family stories – when Obama met his future wife, she was a successful lawyer while Obama was beginning his legal career. Now Obama is a senator, and much of the burden of raising their children falls on his wife. He seems more than a little chagrined that his wife feels herself pulled in competing directions far more than he does, which is an interesting commentary on the expectation we place on parents in this day and age. Whatever the situation, it’s when Obama starts talking about people that he seems the most genuine, and the reader can best assess what kind of leader he would be.