For the first nine months in Washington, Obama travelled nearly 40 times to the remotest corners of Illinois, holding surgeries in libraries and village halls. He worked 12-hour days and ate takeaway food at his desk. Every weekend he flew home economy class to see his wife and children in Chicago.
Obama rented a one-bedroom apartment in Washington and began work on his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’, aiming to set out his political vision.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream was published in 2006 and shot to number one on both the New York Times and Amazon.com bestseller lists after Obama was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey. The book advance from the publisher totalled $1.9 million contracted for three books.
Obama’s first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn. The law allowed every American to go online and see exactly how tax dollars were being spent.
He won a Best Spoken Word Grammy Award for the audiobook Dreams of My Father in 2006.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the large crowds that gathered at Audacity of Hope book signings influenced Obama’s decision to run for President. A former presidential candidate described the book as Obama’s ‘thesis submission’ for the US presidency.
The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 30 weeks.
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.
Obama also introduced the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalise deceptive practices in federal elections and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, neither of which was signed into law.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before he became President of the Palestinian Authority, and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi condemning corruption in the Kenyan government.
Barack and his wife Michelle took HIV/Aids tests at Kisumu, which has one of Kenya’s highest rates of HIV prevalence, encouraging local people to do the same.
Thousands lined the streets of Kogelo at Obama’s homecoming to his father’s village.
He visited the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School built on land donated by his paternal grandfather.
On 10 February 2007, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2008 US presidential election.
