Audacity of Hope (#310; Topic P)

The first person, on the Democratic side, who threw his hat into the ring by announcing the formation of an exploratory committee (to assess the candidate's ability to generate campaign contributions) is an African-American, a senator from a midwest state from its state university I earned my PhD. He wrote a book, a bestseller no less -- The Audacity of Hope. I had an occasion to read some of the chapters, particularly the epilogue. In the epilogue, the senator talked about his experiences in attending the Democratic Conventions in the past. In early years, when he was a nobody, he dreamed about attending a convention but the dream was simply a dream -- nothing new here, any nobody -- and I am one -- can only dream about such occasions throughout one's life. In a later convention, when it was held in Chicago, he landed at the O'Hare airport and presented himself at a car-rental counter to pick up a car he had reserved. Interestingly, the clerk denied that he had a car reserved; he had to call the credit-card company. What happened next was not stated in the book; the sentence immediately following talked about something completely unrelated to this unresolved issue of denying him a rental car -- some deletion? poor editing? no idea. In any event, we all knew that he gave a rousing speech at the convention that propelled himself into a hot property, showing his likeliness on covers of news weeklies and encouraging him, as noted above, to be the first to form an exploratory committee. Yes, he has come a long way; yes, his audacity has worked for him; yes, his hope has materialized; yes, we are happy for him. But, I probably would not combine the words audacity and hope in the same phrase -- at least not for me, and probably not for millions others. For more than a dozen years in the past, when I registered as a Democrat, I voted, in one presidential primary in Maryland, for Jesse Jackson, when he was a candidate. After moving to the retirement community 20 months ago, I decided to revert to my earlier designation -- as an unaffiliated/independent. Now, of course, I do not have to worry how I should cast my vote during the primary (independents are not permitted, at least in Maryland, to cast votes in primaries). Another candidate, Hillary Clinton, is as much a member of a minority as this African-American is.