In the fall of 2006 right after then Sen. Barack Obama announced to Tim Russert on Meet the Press he was seriously considering a run for the nomination of the Democratic Party for president, thousands of reporters, journalists, bloggers and intellectuals flooded book stores for copies of his two books, “Dreams of my Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.”

For two years they intellectualized about his life story and world view, picked apart every carefully crafted sentence, and marveled at their ability to really get inside the head of this exotic man who might become president.