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Thursday, June 14, 2007

This is the first in a series of reviews on books written by the 2008 presidential contenders. See the Well-Read Wonk archives for more reviews. By Barack Obama ISBN 030-72-3769-9 Crown 384 pp. Purchase This Book By Barack Obama ISBN 1-4000-8277-3 Three Rivers Press 480 pp. Purchase This Book

Barack Obama has been a media darling throughout his presidential campaign, but alongside many of the lengthy personal portraits in the papers are stories that ask where the substance is.

Those who think the Illinois senator lacks an economic platform, and are too anxious to wait for the media to decipher it, may want to check out Obama's second book, "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream." Chapter 5, "Opportunity," provides some clues as to how he will approach economic issues. In fact, it's the longest chapter in a book that weaves together his musings on a number of major issues, peppered with recent anecdotes from his personal life.

There's also an entire chapter devoted to the senator's family. In recent months, his wife Michelle has been a source of fascination for reporters on the trail, but her husband's book gives readers a sense of her personality and parental skills from an insider's perspective.

Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha pop up throughout the book in a way that allows Obama to describe what motivates him personally when he considers his stances on issues. One of the most powerful passages in the book concerns Obama's call for more affordable access to health care. He recalls an instance when, as a baby, Sasha was hospitalized for three days with meningitis.

"I still shudder when I think of those three days; how my world narrowed to a single point, and how I was not interested in anything or anybody outside the four walls of that hospital room -- not my work, not my schedule, not my future."

Obama recounts some of his experiences speaking with people across the country about the challenges in their lives -- for instance, a Galesburg, Illinois man he met on the 2004 campaign whose son needed a liver transplant. Such encounters were new to Obama at the time, so they elicited perhaps a stronger response than they would from politicians who've been desensitized to everyday people's stories after lengthy careers in the public arena. For readers hoping to dissect Obama as a candidate, his descriptions of these encounters demonstrate much about how he thinks.

"The Audacity Of Hope" isn't so much a sequel to the senator's first book, "Dreams From My Father," as it is a supplement. In the 1995 autobiography, readers are exposed to the events of his first 34 years in a traditional narrative format. The 2006 anthology, however, doesn't need to be read chronologically, because it is more a collection of his thoughts.

And if the second book traces how Obama arrived at many of his policy positions, the first is an eye-opening primer on Barack Obama the person, not the politician. American presidents subject themselves to more scrutiny than other citizens will ever have to face, and Obama showed his willingness to do so in "Dreams" by laying out how he handled race relations while growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as how he moved beyond some of the "mistakes" he made.

Divided into three parts, Obama's early autobiography delivers many of the personal details his supporters want to learn about the potential Democratic nominee. The first part, "Origins," humanizes the now rising star with vignettes from his boyhood.

The second part, "Chicago," reveals that even before his first election to public office, Obama may have started thinking he was destined for greater things. His pursuits as a community organizer working in the Windy City's urban churches are described in detail, and his experiences with a handful of issues -- his successes and failures -- foreshadow his leadership potential.

Just as race merits an entire chapter of the would-be first black president's second book, the third part of "Dreams" traces his inaugural voyage to Africa to explore his ancestry and shows how Obama has reconciled his African roots with his American upbringing.

One thing remains clear after synthesizing both books: Obama, as he claims, is unlikely to make fear the centerpiece of his campaign and will probably remain true to his predilection for hope, as the second title suggests. Ending his first book with the story of his African family coming together with his American family for his wedding, he concludes: "I felt like the luckiest man alive." At the close of the second book, after reflecting on his realization that compromise is necessary in the political process and that he's OK with that, he declares, "It is that process I wish to be a part of. My heart is filled with love for this country."

--Erin McPike, NationalJournal.com