The Democrats Rising Star: The Obama Myth

Obama, who was elected senator from Illinois in 2004 and is now perhaps the most prominent African American politician in the U.S., is angling to play a similar role in the U.S. as he weighs a possible run for the presidency in 2008.

Consider the junior senator from Illinois' own words in his new book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.

Early on, the reader learns that Obama shrugged off his college radicalism during the Ronald Reagan administration. "My friends and I stopped thinking and slipped into cant: the point at which the denunciations of capitalism or American imperialism came too easily," writes the man who declared on the eve of the 2004 elections that he would be willing to support the bombing of Iran.

Elsewhere, Obama offers a caricature of the left's views in order to assert his own supposed realism. "I would find myself in the curious position of defending aspects of Reagan's worldview," he writes. "I couldn't be persuaded that U.S. multinationals and international terms of trade were single-handedly responsible for poverty around the world; nobody forced corrupt leaders in Third World countries to steal from their people."

While critical of Reagan's wars in Central America and his support for apartheid South Africa, Obama backed the Cold War: "Given the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, staying ahead of the Soviets militarily seemed the sensible thing to do."

The U.S. occupation of Iraq? Obama offers criticism, but no alternative--other than increasing the military budget.

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