In his new book, Sen. Barack Obama accuses fellow Democrats of being “confused,” with the Democratic Party becoming “the party of reaction.”

Obama begins a national publicity tour on Oct. 17 in Chicago for his second book, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”

The first-term Illinois Democrat last Sunday keynoted Sen. Tom Harkin’s fundraising steak-fry in Iowa, the presidential launching-pad state. The stop fueled speculation about Obama’s political future.

Obama uses tough-love rhetoric in attacking Democrats, which is not surprising to anyone who has followed his speeches and comments.

“We Democrats are just, well, confused,” Obama writes, “Mainly, though, the Democratic Party has become the party of reaction. In reaction to a war that is ill conceived, we appear suspicious of all military action.

“In reaction to those who proclaim the market can cure all ills, we resist efforts to use market principles to tackle pressing problems. In reaction to religious overreach, we equate tolerance with secularism, and forfeit the moral language that would help infuse our policies with a larger meaning.”

He also notes two meetings with President Bush, recalling how he found the president seemingly transformed in the course of one sitting.

“Both times I found the president to be a likable man, shrewd and disciplined but with the same straightforward manner that had helped him win two elections,” Obama writes.

But, Obama writes, at his second encounter, at a breakfast meeting, “There had been a moment ... that I witnessed a different side of the man. The president had begun to discuss his second-term agenda, mostly a reiteration of his campaign talking points ... when suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch.

“The president’s eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost messianic certainty.”

So, what about Obama’s future? In a New Yorker profile of President Bill Clinton, the former president muses to editor David Remnick that Obama “has the intelligence and the toughness necessary to be President but has to be careful about running too soon, like John Edwards.”

Think about that assessment in light of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ambitions. The New York Democrat is gearing up for a 2008 presidential run; her White House campaign will emerge from the shadows after she wins, as expected, a second term in November.

For now, she is the only top-tier 2008 Democratic White House potential candidate. If Obama got in, and that’s a big if, the dynamic is changed. In some ways, because of Obama’s surging stature, Obama is Sen. Clinton’s biggest possible rival.

On Wednesday, Obama unveiled two big proposals in a speech on energy independence aimed at agenda setting: having taxpayers pick up the tab of the Big Three automakers for retiree health costs in exchange for developing fuel-efficient cars; and mandating by federal law that cars have flex fuel tanks, which would be a great deal for the ethanol-producing states including Illinois and Iowa.

Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it