Senator Barack Obama shares his thoughts on how to make America a better country.  Touching on such topics as race relations, immigration, opportunity, and the Constitution, Obama provides interesting perspectives that deserve to be listened to and considered.  The chapters are long, so have a bookmark handy.

I write this review on maybe the most ironic or providential of days for writing a review of Sen. Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. It is Tuesday, Jan. 2nd and the day that former President Gerald R. Ford is finally laid to rest after a national funeral ceremony at Washington’s National Cathedral.

President Ford was known for his decency, hard work, integrity and multitude of talents, not the least of which was the ability to bring a deeply hurting country some measure of healing and resolution after Watergate. Whether or not Sen. Obama caves to public opinion and the siren song of the Oval Office in 2008 or further in the future, he has the real possibility of being the same kind of public servant and president as Ford.

But I digress; this is about the book, not the man. The book is written in nine chapters: Republicans and Democrats, Values, Our Constitution, Politics, Opportunity, Faith, Race, The World Beyond Our Borders and Family. It is solidly written, if not (as is one of the common pitfalls among Senators) a bit like drinking out of a raging fire hose. Sen. Obama has managed to cram a six or seven hundred page book into 364. The title is explained at the very end of the book, in the Epilogue. “The audacity of hope. That was the best of the American spirit, I thought—having the audacity to believe despite all the evidence to the contrary that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict; the gall to believe that despite personal setbacks, the loss of a job or an illness in the family or a childhood mired in poverty, we had some control—and therefore responsibility—over our own fate.”

The senator is so congenial in his basic nature that he has managed a political rarity: the ability to see both sides, respect the views of both sides, point to his opponent’s strengths and good ideas and state his own in such a way that does not disparage the other side. Sen. Obama does use many long and senatorial words (you may need a dictionary close by as you read), and he does tend to get a bit wordy, long-winded and overly analytical at times. But, these things seemed to have been noticed by his wife Michelle (who is credited with assisting in the structure of the book) and his editor, and after waxing eloquent for a few paragraphs longer than needed, he seems to check himself and wrap up the thought quickly and succinctly and move on to the next point.

This book is best for those of us, like myself, who are serious, hard-core policy wonks. I say this unabashedly and as a warning to the casual reader. This book is chock full of political ideas and discussion, and unless you are a lover of politics, ideas and debate, you may feel overwhelmed or unable to process the sheer volume of information. Having said that, there is real value in every American citizen reading this book. As a good, honest assessment of current issues and American policy, for the chapter on our constitution alone, every person who has ever voted or ever plans on voting or benefiting from any government program, including Social Security, you need to read this book.