If You Haven't read Barack's "Audacity of Hope" Yet, You Should.

[stopbush]

Just read it on a round trip flight I made last week. Overall, you come away knowing that he is basically a very decent and intelligent person. I was struck by the agenda for change he outlines in the book - he is initiating that agenda.

You really owe it to yourself to read it. It puts a lot of things in perspective.

[NJmaverick]

1. K&R because knowledge and understanding can only help

[ClarkUSA]

2. You need to read Obama 08's campaign manager David Plouffe's great book on the campaign next. n/t

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Add my "vote" to that

It was the best political-agenda book I've ever read.

--d!

[autorank]

4. Hope for Afghanistan

We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force." General Stanley McCrystal, Apr 2

[amborin]

6. +1000

[Bluebear]

16. +

[Renegades of Funk]

5. Reading List

I have the Audacity of Hope, but I have yet to get around to reading it. I did however read Renegade: The Making of a President by Richard Wolffe. It was a really good book detailing Obama's decision to run and his campaign.

[LWolf]

7. No, thanks.

I have the audacity to hope his tenure is short, and that he is replaced by someone whose agenda is actually good for the nation.

But then, I'm a teacher. I was listening a few years back when FOX news asked him what Republicans did better than Democrats and he answered, "Education."

[stopbush]

9. It's sad to see a teacher dismissing a book they haven't even read.

Worse than dismissing, panning.

Do you apply the same standard to your classroom? Just wondering.

Wait - you say you were listening to Fox News a few years back. Say no more. I get where you're coming from...

[LWolf]

10. I own more than 5,000 books, and I've read all of them.

A broad range of books. I read more than 300 NEW books every year.

I'm not too worried about missing out on a book that doesn't interest me.

And no; I wasn't listening to Fox News a few years back. I don't do ANY radio or tv news or talk. I read my news online and in newspapers, since you are concerned.

That FOX interview was posted here at DU; I read a transcript. Here is that transcript:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352785,00.html

I've spent plenty of time reading Obama's remarks about policy, and matching his walk to his talk.

[stopbush]

19. You didn't answer my question, but then, I didn't expect you to do so.

[LWolf]

27. Of course I didn't. You didn't ask one.

You just passed judgment: "sad," knowing nothing of my reading habits.

So I clued you in. I suspect I'm better read than you are; definitely more selective. I certainly get the information I need about politicians without resorting to books published for the express purpose of helping them win elections. I call that "propaganda," and look elsewhere for information that will guide my selections on election day.

I listen to and read their speeches, I read their position papers, I look carefully at the larger campaign donors, and I pay attention to what they actually do in political office.

When it comes to politicians, I'm inspired by, or not, and form judgments from, the walk, not the talk.

[Bluebear]

31. Well, no more calls. We have a winner.

:)

[laughingliberal]

14. Unbelievable! He actually said Republicans do 'education' better?

Guess that explains a lot.

[LWolf]

15. It does, doesn't it. :( nt

[stopbush]

20. Here's what he said as it appears on the transcript.

You'll notice that Chris Wallace posed the question, and Obama responded:

WALLACE: As a president, can you name a hot-button issue where you would be willing to buck the Democratic Party line and say, "You know what? Republicans have a better idea here?"

OBAMA: Well, I think there are a whole host of areas where Republicans in some cases may have a better idea.

WALLACE: Such as?

OBAMA: Well, on issues of regulation. I think that back in the '60s and '70s a lot of the way we regulated industry was top-down command and control, we're going to tell businesses exactly how to do things.

And you know, I think that the Republican Party and people who thought about the markets came up with the notion that, "You know what? If you simply set some guidelines, some rules and incentives, for businesses — let them figure out how they're going to, for example, reduce pollution," and a cap and trade system, for example is a smarter way of doing it, controlling pollution, than dictating every single rule that a company has to abide by, which creates a lot of bureaucracy and red tape and oftentimes is less efficient.

I think that on issues of education, I've been very clear about the fact — and sometimes I've gotten in trouble with the teachers' union on this — that we should be experimenting with charter schools. We should be experimenting with different ways of compensating teachers that...

WALLACE: You mean merit pay?

OBAMA: Well, merit pay, the way it's been designed, I think, is based on just a single standardized test — I think is a big mistake, because the way we measure performance may be skewed by whether or not the kids are coming into school already three years or four years behind.

But I think that having assessment tools and then saying, "You know what? Teachers who are on career paths to become better teachers, developing themselves professionally — that we should pay excellence more." I think that's a good idea, so..."

"May" have a better idea isn't saying they DO have a better idea. "Experimenting" with charter schools. If those aren't conditioned responses, what are? And Obama is clear that good teachers should be paid more. is that a R idea? Don't think so.

Our teacher has their panties in a wad over a very conditioned response. Amazing the blinders people will wrap around their heads when they fear their ox is being gored. Characterized what Obama said as saying Rs do better at education than Ds is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst.

[Bluebear]

22. What, on the transcript of a book??

[Bluebear]

28. hello

[golddigger]

8. I'll just wait

for his next book, "The Audacity to lead like a Republican."

[Bluebear]

11. I was struck by his billing and cooing over Reagan & the "failure" of liberalism

'That Reagan's message found such a receptive audience spoke not only to his skills as a communicator; it also spoke to the failure of liberal government, during a period of economic stagnation, to give middle-class voters any sense that it was fighting for them. For the fact was that government at every level had become too cavalier about spending taxpayer money. Too often, bureaucracies were oblivious to the cost of their mandates. A lot of liberal rhetoric did seem to value rights and entitlements over duties and responsibilities. Reagan may have exaggerated the sins of the welfare state, and certainly liberals were right to complain that his domestic policies titled heavily toward economic elites, with corporate raiders making tidy profits throughout the eighties while unions were busted and income for the average working stiff flatlined.

Nevertheless, by promising to side with those who worked hard, obeyed the law, cared for their families, and loved their country, Reagan offered Americans a sense of a common purpose that liberals seemed no longer able to muster. And the more the critics carped, the more those critics played into the role he'd written for them - a band of out-of-touch, tax-and-spend, blame-America-first, politically correct elites.'

[VMI Dem]

12. Is that the one where he outlines the reasons for his opposition to gay marriage?

Thats really decent and intelligent.

[Bluebear]

13. 'I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man &...

a woman as the unit of child rearing most common to every culture."

Special!

[Odin2005]

17. I read It. It's why I thought I was voting for a Dean. We got a Clinton instead.

[Number23]

18. Rec'd. Nice post. It's definitely on my 'should read soon' list.

[LooseWilly]

21. Rather than read Obama's, I think I'll write my own- about the audacity of Obama inspiring hope

It'll be about things like a public option and no mandates. It'll be about "being a fierce advocate." It'll be about the notion of investigating clearly indicated violations of federal law, not to mention war crimes.

It's practically writing itself. It will be fiction, too.

[Hekate]

23. I read it early on, and it has a lot to do with my estimation of his character and judgment ...

... and why I ultimately decided to support him for POTUS. It doesn't mean I think he's always right, either.

It's sad the number of folks who haven't read the book, won't read the book, and are sure they know what's in it based on their dislike of Obama.

Hekate

[Raine]

24. I think I'll skip it. I'd probably end up even more

disallusioned than I already am. :-(

[Edweird]

25. I'm gonna go out on a limb here with 'the horse is already out of the barn'.

[Bluebear]

26. -

!

[rationalcalgarian]

29. "America needs fewer lawyers...

... and more engineers."

I don't have my copy in front of me at the moment so I may not be quoting Mr. Obama exactly. But this statement is the most honest thing I've read about the USA, or any country, in years.

[CTyankee]

30. I remember reading it when I was laid up from surgery in the summer of 07.

I didn't think it was super liberal...no flaming manifestoes. Actually, for someone as flamingly liberal as I am, it didn't strike me as regressive at all. And I am a tough cookie when it comes to certain issues, e.g. abortion rights. So I thought he passed my own "litmus" test, as it were, and was unsurprised at his performance as a candidate and now as president...I am glad he is president...