O-O-Obama

Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. Which perhaps indicates a second, more intimate theme to this book - namely, how I, or anybody in public office, can avoid the pitfalls of fame, the hunger to please, the fear of loss, and thereby retail that kernel of truth, that singular voice within each of us that reminds us of our deepest commitments.

== Newly elected Senator Obama, "The audacity of Hope", 2006