Two years before he won the U.S. presidency, Barack Obama gave Americans “The Audacity of Hope.”

A New York Times bestseller, the nonfiction book catches Obama as the political upstart, still on the verge of immense power. It was published in 2006, a couple of years after he delivered his memorable keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, in which he coined the title.

Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” should read like a sneak preview of the policies he would adopt as President. For most of the book’s 375 pages, then Sen. Obama lays out his political stances in the context of a racially, religiously, and economically tense country, at war overseas.

Audaciously, he imbues nonpartisanship into such policy recommendations. For one, he castigates President George W. Bush for his extraneous Babylonian war even as he deplores Democrats for growing paranoid of military intervention. He even minces no words for Bill Clinton.

“The Audacity of Hope” ties the loose end of Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father.”

Where Dreams introduces Obama as the product of Kenyan-American coupling, Hope follows Obama as the multicultural man, well-traveled, and inclined towards multilateral cooperation.

Fans of the earlier book should find less dishy delights in “The Audacity of Hope,” though. While the elder tome candidly pointed out a younger Obama trying out pot and “a little blow,” Hope speaks politics viscously.

Unaltered in the tricky journey from Dreams to Hope, nonetheless, are Obama’s characteristic humor and optimism. The newer book is chock-full of the would-be President’s asides on family, friends and America’s corridors of power. At one point, Obama shares how Bush sanitized his hands right after shaking them with him.

More than ever, “The Audacity of Hope” has become a very compelling read. As an object of posterity, the book should be worth the buy, now that its author is Commander-in-Chief.