There is a gap between Obama's rap and his act.
Like many charismatic people before him, his skill is in projecting what people want to see, what they want to believe in, what they want to have, etc.
I think when he talks about hope, he is talking about his own internal and ongoing struggle to rise above his own past and the influence it has on him.
When he says "yes we can" he is saying that "no, we have not." "No, I have not."
Listening carefully to his speeches reveals the man beneath the message, and the man is a dreamer who is hoping to one day arrive at a place where he is fully comfortable in his own skin...
The "Audacity of Hope" is founded on a level of stark personal hopelessness, with an attempt to rise above it. I don't think Obama has truly risen above the conditions that led him to where he is today. It is very common to find charismatic people preaching to the masses about solutions to their problems, while at the very same time being unable to solve their own.
It is seemingly inspirational for those who are struggling with the same issues, and appeals to the emotions so vividly. but it is a con job when their own condition is fundamentally unsound. The foundation is not based on reason or practical knowledge, but rather on fanciful hopes and dreams with no actual practical plan to achieve them.
There is something seriously wrong and flawed with a process that makes getting elected president the greatest accomplishment of a man or woman prior to actually being president.
Great accomplishments should be the requirement for becoming president, not simply winning a popularity contest or using rhetoric and oratory skills in a manipulative manner to get there...
Quote from trendlover:
Yes this is waht confuses me. Obama speaks intelligently and with the understanding that people need to move beyond the hatred, racism and playing the victim in order to go to a new level and make changes. Then it is revealed he has spent 20 years as a supporter of a church that keeps playing the race card and crying the victim and lashing out at white people. Obama could have easily found another place of worship that was not so radical, that was not so full of hatred for white people, and which promoted finding ways to educate and improve the black situation instead of just teaches them to keep crying victim. That is Obamas contradiction that most likely has ended his chance at the presidency.