The Audacity of Hope

I may be a little "partisan" on this one, but I really think that every fair-minded American should give our new President's book, The Audacity of Hope, a read. I don't say that because I think it'll turn all the conservatives liberal and we'll all get along and live happily ever after, but it provides important insights into the inner workings of modern politics, as well as an honest glimpse into what makes Barack Obama who he is as a man and as a politician. The only reason there's so much animosity swirling around these days when it comes to political figures is that the media LOVES to create outrageous caricatures of them to feed to the masses. The impressions we have of politicians come directly from the media - they're in complete control - apart from any attempt that an individual might make at offering a glimpse into who he or she REALLY is, as Barack Obama has done with this book. It's the only fighting chance that any politician has of ever getting his or her story out to the masses, because politicians can only personally meet and shake hands with so many people. It's incredibly unfortunate and unfair, how the media chooses to polarize and exaggerate - it happened to the previous administration and now Fox is doing it to the current administration. It's to be expected, of course, because it's what the public craves, so it's what the news outlets provide. Being charitable doesn't hike ratings, and like any television station, the 24-hour news stations have advertising slots to sell. I hate the media for that - I really do. ALL of them.

Anyway, the book also serves as an incredibly interesting primer on the workings of the senate, and of political campaigns. For someone interested in politics at all, it's an easy-to-understand version of what goes on underneath it all, and how things get so convoluted. Since the average citizen can't stand to watch C-SPAN for more than about an hour, much less the days or weeks it often takes to hash out the details and underpinnings of a particular bill, we get our news about legislation in quick, summary sound-bites on the evening news. This makes it INCREDIBLY easy to take a bill that, in it's details, is darn-near morally reprehensible, and make it sound like a bill that any sane senator couldn't help but vote for. Busy Americans don't have time for details, and it's easier to accept the media's spin than to probe the question yourself - we're all guilty of it. There's just TOO MUCH information out there to comb through it all ourselves, so we accept what the media feeds us, out of necessity. And with the advent of 24-hour news, even the "journalists" we're trusting don't have time to comb through all the details! Anyway, it's when people refuse to accept the existence of "spin" and decide that some particular media outlet is the only trustworthy news source out there that this animosity starts to spike, and unfortunately there are FAR too many Americans who insist on operating this way. Rather than accepting that the truth lies somewhere between CNN and Fox News, we cling to the station that's "on our side", throw up the blinders and let it all wash over us... the fear-mongering, the spin, the shameless exaggeration, the personal attacks, and the out-right ridiculous commentary that both sides stream 24 hours a day. I mean, come on - we live in a country where news personalities like Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly have their OWN SHOWS. Only in the realm of politics could people who act that nutty actually get ratings. But if their "on our side", like I said, we put the blinders on and cheer them on and ignore the fact that to any visiting outsider, they look like complete nut cases. Ugh. I hate it. That's not at all what the book is about... I went off on a tangent about two sentences into this paragraph... sorry :)

Moving on, my impression of this book so far is that it's a genuine attempt on the part of the author to invite America in, and to relay a personal account of where he comes from, what he believes, and where his values lie. It's like an opportunity to get to know the guy a little bit. It makes me want to read books like this written by all kinds of politicians - not only because they're interesting people, but because I hate media spin so much and I'd love the opportunity to sorta get to know some of these controversial political figures on both sides of the aisle. Of course, since he's writing about HIMSELF, he's surely presenting the best of himself - recognizing that is part of recognizing that the truth usually lies somewhere between two extreme perspectives. But he certainly doesn't paint some kind of perfect picture either. He just writes so well and so genuinely that it feels like a conversation in your living room.

I have to say, I wouldn't mind reading an autobiographical account from President Bush on his time in the White House. I'd really love to find out that he truly believed what he said and wasn't intentionally deceiving the country in so many ways and for so many years - the reason that I so vehemently opposed that administration. I do suspect that the President himself was mislead by his own higher administration and I don't place full blame on his head - I think Cheney was largely responsible for many of the things that bothered me most - but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, unfortunately and through no fault of his own, the man simply isn't incredibly articulate. It's no big secret. I expect that anything he "writes" in the coming years will be ghost-written and heavily edited and will lose some of the personal, sincere flavor that I enjoy so much about President Obama's book. And that's not a slap to the previous President, it's just my realistic expectation. If you read a book "written" by President Bush and it was very well-written and free from errors and grammatically sound, it wouldn't feel personal because that's not the way he spoke as President - it just isn't. It wouldn't feel like it was him talking to you, ya know? His way with words, or lack there of, was part of his charm with his supporters, and I think you'd lose that if he tried to produce a publishable memoir. Like I said, I'm really not trying to be mean, just realistic. I just don't think it would accomplish what it was meant to accomplish. But if he puts one out, mark my words, I'll read it. You can take that to the bank.