The Audacity of Obama

Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, has made quite a name for himself in only two years in the nation's capital. While he has done little in the form of serious legislation, he has nevertheless become the 'hope' of many in the Democratic party to lead them to the Promised Land in the 2008 elections. He has as many former presidential hopefuls in the past have done published a book to 'introduce' himself to a waiting public eager for a new face and a new savior. His book The Audacity of Hope is the number one non-fiction bestseller in the nation this week with total sales of 502,594 since its release.

But let's be honest about the Obama hoopla. It has engaged the national attention with a 'sound and a fury' befitting the selection of the Anointed One. His recent foray into New Hampshire to test the political waters on a national stage speaks volumes, more to his audacity and the public's suspension of disbelief than to any real substantive inspection of his legislative credentials. On the national front as a senator, Obama has little to offer for critical analysis because ...well, he's done little of importance or note, other than giving a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and garnering the displeasure of Arizona senator John McCain.

It is with his record as an Illinois state senator that Obama can be confronted, for it shows that Obama has cast his lot with the liberal wing of his party, taking legislative positions clearly to the far left. A look at his voting record on significant issues illustrates Obama's left-leaning proclivities. As reviewer Yuval Levin in Commentary online reports in his critique of Obama's book,

Obama has almost nothing to say, for instance, about his tenure in the Illinois legislature, where his voting record put him on the Left of every major question—from gun control, to taxes, to abortion. In expressing admiration for the “Gang of Fourteen”—the U.S. Senators who last year worked out a compromise to avoid an explosive showdown over judicial nominations—he glosses over the fact that he refused to join them, or for that matter that he was one of only 22 Senators to vote against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. Similarly, in laying out the case for free trade, he barely mentions that he voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement approved by the Senate last year.

Far from the 'moderate' image he projects in his appearances of late, he clearly has followed the dictates of those who have pushed him into the national spotlight. And, more bluntly Slate E-zine blogger Mickey Kaus asks, "...on the issues, what's Obama done that's original or pathbreaking?" From a reading of his record, he has done nothing, but look handsome, sound sincere about nothing, pretend naivety about running for the presidency, and gloat in the adoration of the masses (if his New Hampshire tour is a basis for judgment).

Obama's appeal is based on nothing of substance save that the public wants a change for the better, a knight in shining armor to ride to the rescue, to prove again that politics is a noble profession. Once the spotlight is on Obama the candidate for president, however, his record will come to the fore, and he will be viewed in a less flattering glow, a politician with ambitions worthy of a Hillary Clinton, a John Kerry, a John McCain, or a Rudy Giuliani.