Barack Obama will give us all the Audacity of Hope

Recently, I've been reading a lot of editorials about Obama being "exotic" but empty. As someone who is currently reading Obama's, "The Audacity of Hope", I can attest that the Illinois Senator is anything but empty. Take, for instance, this passage from the book's prologue:

I suspect that some readers may find my presentation of these issues to be insufficiently balanced. To this accusation, I stand guilty as charged. I am a Democrat, after all; my views on most topics correspond more closely to the editorial pages of the New York Times than those of the Wall Street Journal. I am angry about policies that consistently favor the wealthy and powerful over average Americans, and insist that government has and important role in opening up opportunity to all. I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody's religious beliefs - including my own - on nonbelievers. Furthermore, I am a prisoner of my own biography: I can't help but view the American experience through the lens of a black man of mixed heritage, forever mindful of how generations of people who looked like me were subjugated and stigmatized, and the subtle and not so subtle ways that race and class can shape our lives.

But that is not all that I am. I also think my party can be smug detached, and dogmatic at times. I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don't work as advertised. I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers. I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as our GDP.

I would suggest that anyone who has any doubts about the intelligence and full being of Barack Hussein Obama read this book. You'll find that there isn't enough room left in the man for any emptiness!

As long as I am dispelling this argument against Obama, let me continue with a little bit of background for the presumed candidate.

Unlike previous candidates who shied away from their early indiscretions, Obama has embraced them as examples of the struggles and confusions of a teenage boy - he said, "teenage boys are frequently confused". Where Bill Clinton admitted to smoking marijuana but claimed he "didn't inhale", Obama said on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "I inhaled - isn't that the point?".

Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California, transferred to Columbia College - where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. After graduation, he worked for a non-profit organization that helped local Chicago churches organize job training programs for residents of poor neighborhoods. He then went to the Harvard School of Law where he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review and obtained his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude.

Returning to Chicago, he passed the Illinois Bar exam and went to work for the civil rights law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught constitutional law at the the University of Chicago Law School, a position he continued even after being elected to represent Chicago's 13th District in the Illinois State Senate. He didn't give up his teaching position until he was elected to the US Senate in 2004.

Once Barack Obama makes an offical announcement of his intention to get the Democratic nomination for President of the united States, he will have my full backing. 'nuff said!