When I decided to read and review Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, it was with a schizoid agenda.

As an Obama skeptic, I reckoned it might help justify my remaining a member of what Kos calls “a shrinking band of paranoid holdouts.”

And, in the likely event that Obama will be my last best hope to keep Bush-hugger John McCain from the White House, it might help rally me onto the Obamawagon… with maybe a modicum of enthusiasm.

While the book is doing a prodigious job with the former, it’s making the latter painfully difficult. So difficult that I’m not sure I want to keep on reading it.

In any case, I’m pulling the plug on my plan to review it in full, because I’m finding it seriously depressing, and because if I call bullshit on all of the bullshit, I’m going to get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Chapter One (“Republicans and Democrats”) of my copy is now awash in red ink, as I trace Family Circus-style the circuitous path Obama takes to fashion himself into a self-styled superhero: Triangulator II.

Shorter Obama:

1. Politics used to be gentlemanly
2. But there were problems, like racism and such (and everyone had to be a “gentleman”)
3. In the 60s, some of those problems came to a head, and things got better
4. Still, the Baby Boomers are “arrested development” cases whose whiny entitlement is the cause of today’s political stalemate
5. It should be said that the Republicans have done some terrible things. So, maybe it’s not a stalemate.
6. … But I’m sure the Democrats have been just as extreme (even if there aren’t any relevant examples). And, besides, we’re losers.
7. Bill Clinton played the GOP to a draw. I’m going to succeed like he did. But differently. And more so. In some way.

Fuck! Exactly what I was afraid this was going to be: a masterpiece of equivalation.

Even though Obama seems fully aware that today’s GOP is quite a lot different (i.e., ruthless, corrupt, authoritarian, incompetent, if not in so many words) than today’s Democratic Party (well-meaning but hapless), the two-bickering-partisans narrative is so cheap, easy, and — most importantly — aggrandizing to his more-nonpartisan-than-thou “I’m the good Democrat” campaign, he just can’t resist. God fucking dammit. This guy is the odds-on favorite to “represent me” in November. Fuck!

Lest I be accused of cutting and running without backing up this assessment, here are some snapshots of these stomach-churning twists and turns.  Read more 

As I dig into the first “regular” chapter of The Audacity of Hope, I’m finding a surfeit of points that I want to comment on, and thus I’m finding that I can’t do justice to this topic with twice-weekly posts.

Therefore, I’ll be posting my analysis of one chapter per week (on Tuesdays), instead of the promised two, and I’m updating the earlier posts to reflect that schedule.

My apologies to everyone whose Friday plans this ruins.

Throughout this campaign, Barack Obama supporters have advised skeptics like me to read his book, The Audacity of Hope (along with every policy paper on his website).

While those supporters have done a yeoman-like job in illustrating Obama’s vision of unity, I wanted to get it straight from the source, given the very real possibility that he will be my candidate in November.

And so we begin, with the Prologue. Please note that I am using a trade-paperback edition, in case any references I make to page numbers don’t match the edition you’re reading.

Rather than trying to synthesize the whole book, I will highlight particular passages or themes that stand out to me. I invite others to share their observations on any of the material from the chapter at hand, regardless of whether I’ve touched on that particular topic.

Please join us each Tuesday, as we continue this journey. (For my other exploration of a revered text, stop by sometime over the next ten years or so at Bible Study for Atheists.)

* * *

Audacity begins with stories about Obama’s first campaign, his successful bid for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.  Read more 

I just did my part to support Sen. Barack Obama. Will you, too?

After having been urged by countless Obama fans to read his most-recent book, I just popped a few bucks into my computer’s Amazon slot and hoped for the best. And a couple of days later a copy of the book appeared at my doorstep!

Now, here’s what I want you to do: buy a copy, too, which will provide much-needed capital to the odds-on favorite to be the Democratic nominee for president.

Then, join me each Tuesday, as we review one chapter at a time.

I’m a couple of pages into the prologue, and so far I like what I’ve read. Wouldn’t it be great if the whole book is well-reasoned? Then, those skeptics among us can feel a little better about our frontrunner.

And what if we find some things askew? Well, we’ll talk about those, too. If this guy is going to represent us, I sure want to know what he has to say when he’s putting his best foot forward, which despite the predictably ladeled-on post-game hype, he surely did not today.

The first installment will be next Tuesday, beginning with the prologue.

Be there. Aloha.