I spent most of today reading Senator Obama's The Audacity of Hope. It was time well-spent.

I am increasingly impressed with the clarity of his thinking (even when I disagree), the felicity of his expression, and his capacity for honest self-reflection and self-evaluation.

Other than the above, three things of interest really leapt out at me about the Senator's nature/thought process while reading:

1. His openness -- more than that, his interest -- in talking to people who he disagrees with or who disagree with him, in order to get an idea of their perspective and where they're coming from. (Included here is the strong absence of demonization of those who disagree; they are accepted as able to have a different opinion without being deluded or willfully wrongheaded.) The ideas of understanding, conversation, persuasion, and compromise -- in the most positive senses of those words -- runs through his writing.

2. His ability to admit that he doesn't have all the answers, but in spite of that he has: A) ideas on what said answers should cover, and B) ideas of how to get to those answers in a clear, transparent, and participatory way, in order to reach the best answer for the greatest good.

3. His unshakeable belief in the American people and the American system, and helping each interact with the other for best effect, with a clear-eyed comprehension of the difficulties, problems, and snarls that can happen in their interaction.

(In terms of the cliched political question "would you like to have a beer with this guy?", that's a big 10-4, good buddy. And the topic of beer talk, for me, would be the history of American Independence and the Constitution. TAoH has an exceptionally nice chapter on the Constitution, and I've love to pick the Senator's brain with regard to one of my personal Founding Father heroes, John Adams. There's a little in that chapter, but he mostly talks about Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton.)

Like Dreams From My Father, I highly recommend reading this book.

Tags: books, reference