The Audacity of Hope

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So let’s be clear. The rich in America have little to complain about. Between 1971 and2001, while the median wage and salary income of the average worker showed literallyno gain, the income of the top hundredth of a percent went up almost 500 percent. Thedistribution of wealth is even more skewed, and levels of inequality are now higher thanat any time since the Gilded Age. These trends were already at work throughout thenineties. Clinton’s tax policies simply slowed them down a bit. Bush’s tax cuts madethem worse.I point out these facts not—as Republican talking points would have it—to stir up classenvy. I admire many Americans of great wealth and don’t begrudge their success in theleast. I know that many if not most have earned it through hard work, buildingbusinesses and creating jobs and providing value to their customers. I simply believethat those of us who have benefited most from this new economy can best afford toshoulder the obligation of ensuring every American child has a chance for that samesuccess. And perhaps I possess a certain Midwestern sensibility that I inherited from mymother and her parents, a sensibility that Warren Buffett seems to share: that at a certainpoint one has enough, that you can derive as much pleasure from a Picasso hanging in amuseum as from one that’s hanging in your den, that you can get an awfully good mealin a restaurant for less than twenty dollars, and that once your drapes cost more than theaverage American’s yearly salary, then you can afford to pay a bit more in taxes.More than anything, it is that sense—that despite great differences in wealth, we riseand fall together—that we can’t afford to lose. As the pace of change accelerates, withsome rising and many falling, that sense of common kinship becomes harder tomaintain. Jefferson was not entirely wrong to fear Hamilton’s vision for the country, forwe have always been in a constant balancing act between self-interest and community,markets and democracy, the concentration of wealth and power and the opening up ofopportunity. We’ve lost that balance in Washington, I think. With all of us scramblingto raise money for campaigns, with unions weakened and the press distracted andlobbyists for the powerful pressing their full advantage, there are few countervailingvoices to remind us of who we are and where we’ve come from, and to affirm our bondswith one another.That was the subtext of a debate in early 2006, when a bribery scandal triggered newefforts to curb the influence of lobbyists in Washington. One of the proposals wouldhave ended the practice of letting senators fly on private jets at the cheaper first-classcommercial rate. The provision had little chance of passage. Still, my staff suggestedthat as the designated Democratic spokesperson on ethics reform, I should initiate aself-imposed ban on the practice.It was the right thing to do, but I won’t lie; the first time I was scheduled for a four-cityswing in two days flying commercial, I felt some pangs of regret. The traffic to O’Harewas terrible. When I got there, the flight to Memphis had been delayed. A kid spilledorange juice on my shoe.Then, while waiting in line, a man came up to me, maybe in his mid-thirties, dressed inchinos and a golf shirt, and told me that he hoped Congress would do something aboutstem cell research this year. I have early-stage Parkinson’s disease, he said, and a sonwho’s three years old. I probably won’t ever get to play catch with him. I know it may
be too late for me, but there’s no reason somebody else has to go through what I’mgoing through.These are the stories you miss, I thought to myself, when you fly on a private jet.
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ContentsTitle PageDedicationPrologu
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my marriage, all of which, statisti
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Mostly, though, I just traveled, of
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pages provide a manifesto for actio
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Chapter OneRepublicans and Democrat
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Bork nomination and Willie Horton,
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But whatever conditions might have
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Privately, those of us in governmen
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Throughout the fifties and early si
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decided nevertheless that in style
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It was Bill Clinton’s singular co
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But these Republicans are not the o
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I made this same argument in a lett
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that suggests he’s on a schedule
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I say this not because I am seduced
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I don’t mean to exaggerate here,
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These values are rooted in a basic
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penalty feared that any efforts at
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sexuality from intimacy. They may n
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“You follow him into the bathroom
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back in the eighties, I would often
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“Nothing. You wanna talk to Mommy
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the document itself. For Senator By
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seen for a judicial confirmation. W
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Not many of my fellow Democrats app
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universal rights presupposes the eq
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remain true to the rules that the F
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yielded to fact and necessity. Jeff
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slaves and former slaves, men like
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“Oh, I have been very fortunate,
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moron, or Congressman So-and-So is
Page 66 and 67: eighteen-month-old Malia, the state
Page 68 and 69: As for most politicians, money isn
Page 70 and 71: In many ways, I was luckier than mo
Page 72 and 73: pensions, their crop supports, thei
Page 74 and 75: who’s calling you a traitor, you
Page 76 and 77: Still, I was reminded of what my ve
Page 78 and 79: viewing preferences, global climate
Page 80 and 81: our troops, say, or some modest inc
Page 82 and 83: those who sent them to Washington
Page 84 and 85: I could see how people might get us
Page 86 and 87: Shanghai as in California. And over
Page 88 and 89: and the advent of big-box retailers
Page 90 and 91: Worst of all, it will mean fewer op
Page 92 and 93: instruct farmers on the latest agri
Page 94 and 95: In this more competitive global env
Page 96 and 97: rebuild the social contract that FD
Page 98 and 99: It also means paying teachers what
Page 100 and 101: whether the Bush Administration’s
Page 102 and 103: Brazilian government has no place i
Page 104 and 105: Like most Democrats, I strongly sup
Page 106 and 107: CAFTA debate, when I and a group of
Page 108 and 109: The same principles are at work whe
Page 110 and 111: Clinton economic adviser Gene Sperl
Page 112 and 113: was something about the way she was
Page 114 and 115: I was sitting in the office of Warr
Page 118 and 119: Chapter SixFaithTWO DAYS AFTER I wo
Page 120 and 121: group wanted to come in. Again the
Page 122 and 123: But the growing political influence
Page 124 and 125: Most of all, she possessed an abidi
Page 126 and 127: salutary, a check on personal ambit
Page 128 and 129: Testament prophet. And while I foun
Page 130 and 131: fortify a young woman’s sense of
Page 132 and 133: explain why abortion violates some
Page 134 and 135: American citizens a civil union tha
Page 136 and 137: Chapter SevenRaceTHE FUNERAL WAS he
Page 138 and 139: Instead, we sat in church, eulogizi
Page 140 and 141: office, including a black state com
Page 142 and 143: By the time we pulled into Cairo, I
Page 144 and 145: Today not only is the city filled w
Page 146 and 147: by large corporations, trade unions
Page 148 and 149: Americans figure that they haven’
Page 150 and 151: around to guide the kids, keep them
Page 152 and 153: color of our skin—and the conclus
Page 154 and 155: It would be nice if there were thou
Page 156 and 157: Indeed, until their numbers finally
Page 158 and 159: overseas. To address this problem,
Page 160 and 161: Spanish and be the better for it. C
Page 162 and 163: power, grew in size and influence.
Page 164 and 165: Even the darker aspects of Indonesi
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alleviate, ethnic hatreds and relig
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as Wilson’s stubborn unwillingnes
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As the Cold War wore on, the key el
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regarding the moral obligations we
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and-dried. Like most analysts, I as
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within hostile territory, self-cont
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near the number of Arabic-speakers
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misguided if they think we can simp
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bin Laden understands that he canno
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and who applied this knowledge to t
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who are rich.” Forty-five years l
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connected local elites but do littl
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Committee for the Marshall Plan, ma
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“Huh?”“I found ants in the ki
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Eventually I wore her down. After a
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For adults, at least, the effect of
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Americans today have 22 fewer hours
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Tired and stressed, we had little t
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We can also give parents flexibilit
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good men who treated me with affect
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It is left to Michelle to coordinat
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I squeezed Sasha a little tighter i
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the Democratic primary for the Illi
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said that a convention wouldn’t c
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That’s what satisfies me now, I t
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Several good friends, including Dav
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ALSO BY BARACK OBAMADreams from My
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