Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. The Chicago Tribune describes the book as a "political biography that concentrates on the senator's core values", and credits the large crowds that gathered at book signings with influencing Obama's decision to run for president. Obama's policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq." Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama's new book, The Audacity of Hope' . The book, divided into nine chapters, outlines Obama's political and spiritual beliefs, as well as his opinions on different aspects of American culture. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. That's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about something more substantial. I'm not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. In the end, that's what this election is about. In his speech addressing the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Obama said: In 2006, Obama released The Audacity of Hope, a book-length account that expanded upon many of the same themes he originally addressed in the convention speech. In the less than twenty minutes it took to deliver the speech, Obama was catapulted to sudden fame, with many analysts predicting that he might be well positioned to enter a future presidential race. While a Senate candidate, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, entitled The Audacity of Hope that propelled him to national prominence. that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting." Having attended Wright's sermon, Obama later adapted Wright's phrase "audacity to hope" to "audacity of hope" which became the title for his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, and the title of his second book. To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope . Watts painting Hope, which inspired him to give a sermon in 1990 based on the subject of the painting – "with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God . Sampson in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1980s, on the G. F. Wright had attended a lecture by Frederick G. The title of The Audacity of Hope was derived from a sermon delivered by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Further information: 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address