The Audacity of Hope

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“Oh, I have been very fortunate,” he said, nodding to himself. “Much to be thankful for.There’s not much I wouldn’t do over.” Suddenly he paused and looked squarely into myeyes. “I only have one regret, you know. The foolishness of youth…”We sat there for a moment, considering the gap of years and experience between us.“We all have regrets, Senator,” I said finally. “We just ask that in the end, God’s graceshines upon us.”He studied my face for a moment, then nodded with the slightest of smiles and flippedopen the cover of one of the books. “God’s grace. Yes indeed. Let me sign these for youthen,” he said, and taking one hand to steady the other, he slowly scratched his name onthe gift.
Chapter FourPoliticsONE OF MY favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town hall meetings. I heldthirty-nine of them my first year in the Senate, all across Illinois, in tiny rural towns likeAnna and prosperous suburbs like Naperville, in black churches on the South Side and acollege in Rock Island. There’s not a lot of fanfare involved. My staff will call up thelocal high school, library, or community college to see if they’re willing to host theevent. A week or so in advance, we advertise in the town newspaper, in churchbulletins, and on the local radio station. On the day of the meeting I’ll show up a halfhour early to chat with town leaders and we’ll discuss local issues, perhaps a road inneed of repaving or plans for a new senior center. After taking a few photographs, weenter the hall where the crowd is waiting. I shake hands on my way to the stage, whichis usually bare except for a podium, a microphone, a bottle of water, and an Americanflag posted in its stand. And then, for the next hour or so, I answer to the people whosent me to Washington.Attendance varies at these meetings: We’ve had as few as fifty people turn out, as manyas two thousand. But however many people show up, I am grateful to see them. Theyare a cross-section of the counties we visit: Republican and Democrat, old and young,fat and skinny, truck drivers, college professors, stay-at-home moms, veterans,schoolteachers, insurance agents, CPAs, secretaries, doctors, and social workers. Theyare generally polite and attentive, even when they disagree with me (or one another).They ask me about prescription drugs, the deficit, human rights in Myanmar, ethanol,bird flu, school funding, and the space program. Often they will surprise me: A youngflaxen-haired woman in the middle of farm country will deliver a passionate plea forintervention in Darfur, or an elderly black gentleman in an inner-city neighborhood willquiz me on soil conservation.And as I look out over the crowd, I somehow feel encouraged. In their bearing I seehard work. In the way they handle their children I see hope. My time with them is like adip in a cool stream. I feel cleansed afterward, glad for the work I have chosen.At the end of the meeting, people will usually come up to shake hands, take pictures, ornudge their child forward to ask for an autograph. They slip things into my hand—articles, business cards, handwritten notes, armed-services medallions, small religiousobjects, good-luck charms. And sometimes someone will grab my hand and tell me thatthey have great hopes for me, but that they are worried that Washington is going tochange me and I will end up just like all the rest of the people in power.Please stay who you are, they will say to me.Please don’t disappoint us.IT IS AN American tradition to attribute the problem with our politics to the quality ofour politicians. At times this is expressed in very specific terms: The president is a
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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
Page 12 and 13: Chapter OneRepublicans and Democrat
Page 14 and 15: Bork nomination and Willie Horton,
Page 16 and 17: But whatever conditions might have
Page 18 and 19: Privately, those of us in governmen
Page 20 and 21: Throughout the fifties and early si
Page 22 and 23: decided nevertheless that in style
Page 24 and 25: It was Bill Clinton’s singular co
Page 26 and 27: But these Republicans are not the o
Page 28 and 29: I made this same argument in a lett
Page 30 and 31: that suggests he’s on a schedule
Page 32 and 33: I say this not because I am seduced
Page 34 and 35: I don’t mean to exaggerate here,
Page 36 and 37: These values are rooted in a basic
Page 38 and 39: penalty feared that any efforts at
Page 40 and 41: sexuality from intimacy. They may n
Page 42 and 43: “You follow him into the bathroom
Page 44 and 45: back in the eighties, I would often
Page 46 and 47: “Nothing. You wanna talk to Mommy
Page 48 and 49: the document itself. For Senator By
Page 50 and 51: seen for a judicial confirmation. W
Page 52 and 53: Not many of my fellow Democrats app
Page 54 and 55: universal rights presupposes the eq
Page 56 and 57: remain true to the rules that the F
Page 58 and 59: yielded to fact and necessity. Jeff
Page 60 and 61: slaves and former slaves, men like
Page 64 and 65: 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
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was something about the way she was
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I was sitting in the office of Warr
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So let’s be clear. The rich in Am
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Chapter SixFaithTWO DAYS AFTER I wo
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group wanted to come in. Again the
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But the growing political influence
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Most of all, she possessed an abidi
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salutary, a check on personal ambit
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Testament prophet. And while I foun
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fortify a young woman’s sense of
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explain why abortion violates some
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American citizens a civil union tha
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Chapter SevenRaceTHE FUNERAL WAS he
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Instead, we sat in church, eulogizi
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office, including a black state com
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By the time we pulled into Cairo, I
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Today not only is the city filled w
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by large corporations, trade unions
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Americans figure that they haven’
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around to guide the kids, keep them
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color of our skin—and the conclus
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It would be nice if there were thou
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Indeed, until their numbers finally
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overseas. To address this problem,
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Spanish and be the better for it. C
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power, grew in size and influence.
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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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The Audacity of Hope

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