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Edited on Thu Jun-26-08 01:35 PM by butlerd
Hoping to learn a little more about him since he is now officially our nominee this year, I recently borrowed and listened to Obama's book (written in 2006 I believe), "The Audacity of Hope", in which he talks about his childhood, family life, and some his thoughts and ideas on difficult political issues such as religion, the economy, and race. After reading this book, I have found that it really helps make a lot more sense out of his positions on various issues even though I don't always agree with him (particularly his more recent comments in regards to FISA) and would consider myself to be a lot more "left of center" and probably more "partisan" than he is in general. Contrary to conservative critics of Obama, most of whom have an almost reflexive tendency to label ANY Democrat as a "liberal", Obama actually presents himself as a VERY "centrist" Democrat in that he appears to take a "middle" road on a lot of issues like Bill Clinton did in the later stages of his presidency. Although, for the most part, I think Obama generally makes a good case for his positions and I think that his beliefs are sincere and not just "pandering" in order to win. I also don't think that there is much that he wrote in his book that most reasonable people could really argue with which makes attempts by critics and the MSM to paint him as some kind of "radical" (mostly because of some of his past and present associations) seem far fetched at best. I would say that I'm a bit disappointed that our party (of late) only seems to nominate more "centrist" Democrats rather than the more aggressive progressive/liberal ones that I think we need a few more of nowadays but I think that Obama would make for a great President and listening to him speak provides a stark contrast to the incuriosity and manichean outlook that has dominated our federal policies during the past 7 years and makes me yearn for the time when we had a leader who actually cares enough to take the time to sort through difficult issues.
Anybody else read his book and if so, what are your thoughts on it, particularly as it relates to his candidacy for President?
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