Barack Obama is an excellent speaker; there is no doubt. He sounds good; he is inspiring; he talks a lot about positive concepts like hope and change. Barack Obama is also a liberal. He believes in more government, in abortion on demand, in socialized healthcare, in gay rights, in affirmative action, and so on. Barack Obama doesn’t speak much about those beliefs in detail, though, because they aren’t popular; hope and change are. It’s actually a brilliant strategy, because if we as Americans are not going to challenge him on what exactly he means when he says “hope and change,” then there is no point on him elaborating. That being said, even if he does continue to only give us surface level stuff, trust me…there is much to analyze.

You may have heard of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.” Wow…it sounds so hopeful. What does it really mean, though? I haven’t read the book (and don’t plan on it), but I can give you some insight into Obama’s thought process by simply breaking down the title. It was a book written by an American to Americans, yet he claims that it requires audacity to hope in this great country. The reality is that America may be the lone place in the world where the act of hoping is not an audacious one. America is the strongest, most stable, most prosperous nation in the history of the world. It is America that is the land of opportunity. It is America that is looked to for guidance by the rest of the world in times of peril. It is America that invokes millions upon millions of immigrants to risk their lives to come here. It is America, and America only, where a man like Barack Obama…a black man from a Muslim lineage…a man raised by a single mom…could even have the chance to succeed enough in life to run for the highest office in the land. America is the land of hope; America is the sole light in this dark world; America is the place where one is never truly hopeless. It is in America where you aren’t limited to merely hoping for change, but where you actually can change.

Perhaps Barack Obama doesn’t see America in the same light as most of us do. Perhaps that’s why he won’t wear an American flag pin on his lapel, or why he won’t put his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Perhaps that’s why his wife has lived for decades without feeling one iota of pride for her country until now. Maybe Barack Obama is too busy living the American dream to notice the billions of people from around the world who will never have the chance to. These people have nothing but hope…no opportunity, just hope. For them, for the young couple in Kosovo, or the teenager in Sudan, or the elderly woman in China, it is audacious to hope. It is bold, daring, courageous and even emotionally risky to hope for a better life in a remote village in India. It is well known that hope deferred makes the heart sick, so to put yourself out there and really hope for a better life as an orphan child in the Philippines takes some raw audacity. For you and me, though, for the Obama’s, for everyone privileged and blessed enough to call themselves citizens of the United States of America, hope comes easily. It is all around; it’s a way of life; it’s but a byproduct of our incredible freedom, of our boundless opportunity. It is something we unfortunately take for granted every day. Therefore, for Barack Obama to say that one requires audacity in order to hope in America is simply audacious in and of itself. It’s more than that, though; in fact, it’s actually quite laughable. Barack seems to possess a very narrow understanding of the world (as would his policies). In light of this, I urge you to be careful, for even if you aren’t fooled by Obama’s socialist beliefs, in as much I pray that you won’t be deceived by his lofty rhetoric either. Many have suggested his flowery speeches are merely empty pep talks; I wish it were so. The truth is that they are much worse; they are but a glimpse into the mind of a man who has a dangerously distorted view of his country. The audacity of hope…in America? Please, it is more like the audacity of Barack Obama to make such a ridiculous statement.