Last night Hugh Hewitt played clips from the audiobook of Dreams From My Father, read aloud by the author. I was surprised to hear Obama’s familiar voice, occasionally using the N-word and the F-word. (Hugh bleeped it out for radio broadcast, obviously, but Obama uses the actual word on tape.)

The audiotape was released in 2005, after he was elected to the Senate. It’s a free country, and Obama can use any language he likes. But as Hugh noted, the audiobook was abridged, and the reference to doing cocaine was removed. But the N-word and F-word remained, and it seems like an unusual choice for an elected official who had to be at least thinking about running for president when he recorded it. You have to wonder what could be done with that audio in the age of YouTube.

Hugh noted this was the recording that Obama won a Grammy for (one of two, as he won a second for his second book), and wondered whether anyone had listened to the audiobook. I suggested that Obama won that Grammy because he was Obama; the judges at the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences liked him more than they liked the other nominees — Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, Sean Penn and George Carlin.

UPDATE: Campaign Spot reader Jeff notes the irony that the Saturday Night Live parody of Hillary’s 3 a.m. ad featured Obama swearing like a sailor, and Hillary rebuking him for it, calling it “one of your worst traits that the public doesn’t know about.”