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

I'm not a fan of Barack Obama and I did not vote for him in the presidential election.  However, I still felt the need to learn more about the man whom America chose as our current president.  So I decided to read The Audacity of Hope, which was written by him and published in 2006.

I honestly tried to keep an open mind while reading this book.  I really wanted to get to know Barack Obama and understand why so many people are enamored by him.  He's personable.  I get that.  He's intelligent.  I get that too.  But really, after forcing myself to read The Audacity of Hope (and going past my library due date because reading it was a chore to me), I'm just not that into him. 

The book is set up into sections such as Opportunity, Faith, and Race.  While the section titles sound interesting, a lot of them are boring and hard to get into.  Also, the overuse of big words turned me off.  I felt like Mr. Obama was trying too hard to impress his readers.  I don't need a lot of big words in a book to make it interesting.  I couldn't help but think that a lot of people who voted for him in the presidential election, would not be able to keep up with this book.   

I also felt like Barack was trying too hard to be modest, which did not impress me.  I realize that in writing a book about himself, Mr. Obama would boast about his accomplishments and his vision for America.  That said, I almost felt like he was trying to dupe his readers into thinking that he's just one of us, but his constant modesty portraying his greatness proved otherwise.

My biggest issue with The Audacity of Hope is the inconsistency of Mr. Obama's statements in the book with his policies now that he is the President.  I think that President Obama needs to go back and read his own book.  He consistently bashed the Bush adminstration's spending but his own administration has far surpassed those numbers. 

Mr. Obama denounces that "we say we value the legacy we leave the next generation and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt."  Um, isn't that exactly what he has done in his first few months as President?

Barack also states that "government intrusion into the magical workings of the market - whether through taxation, regulation, lawsuits, tariffs, labor protections, or spending on entitlements - necessarily undermines private enterprise and inhibits economic growth" and that "the bankruptcy of communism and socialism as alternative means of economic organization has only reinforced this assumption."   Where do I even begin with those statements?  Under President Obama, the United States government now has ownership of several banks and an automotive company, and is considering regulating what automobiles can be built.  They also weren't going to allow the banks to repay them for loans, thus keeping government control of the banks.  If that isn't the beginning of socialism, I don't know what is.  Again, President Obama needs to read his own book.

Mr. Obama also supports Abraham Lincoln's "simple maxim:  that we will do collectively, through our government, only those things that we cannot do as well or at all individually and privately."  Did he mean that to include automotive companies?  In his book, Mr. Obama concludes that "the bottom line is that fuel-efficient cars and alternative fuels like E85, a fuel formulated with 85 percent ethanol, represent the future of the auto industry."  Really?  The last I heard, E85 isn't the big alternative fuel that it was hyped up to be.  I see few gas stations that offer this fuel and don't know one person who uses it.  To be fair, this book was published three years ago and things have changed since then.  My point is that the government should not be involved in the automobile industry, including making regulations that inhibit growth and put unfair demands on automakers.  Let the free market take care of that.

Okay, so it's obvious that I was not impressed with The Audacity of Hope and had a lot of issues with what Barack Obama wrote and what he's done thus far while in office.  The only thing that I can say is that actions speak louder than words.