Ghost writers and relevance
posted at 12:15 pm on October 7, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Allahpundit and Jonah Goldberg both addressed the Bill Ayers-admits-it story regarding the presumed authorship of Dreams of My Father, credited solely to Barack Obama in the early days of his political career, with two different views. Jonah Goldberg gives the supposed admission room for truth, while Allahpundit — rightly, in my opinion — treats it as Ayers’ ridicule of conservative bloggers for their dogged pursuit of the meme. If true, Jonah says, it would make a “very big story”:
I am not sure what to make of the story that Ayers has now admitted to writing Obama’s autobiography. If it pans out, that is to my mind a very big story. Stay tuned. But I do think I should revise my earlier pooh-poohing of Jack Cashill’s effort to prove the Ayers-Obama connection.
I disagree. First, it’s hardly an earth-shaking revelation that politicians use ghost writers for memoirs, political tracts, or anything else they publish. (Here’s another: they don’t usually write their own blog posts or tweets, either.) Whether they use their staff, as they do for their daily messaging, or a professional writer for books and other lengthy efforts, they usually employ people whose business it is to know how to write, mainly because writing is too time-consuming for active politicians. Sarah Palin used a ghost writer for Going Rogue, for instance, and few people bother with it, because it’s a non-issue. Most ghost writers never get publicly acknowledged, although occasionally politicians will share writing credit.
The effort to determine whether Obama had Ayers as a ghost writer for Dreams made some sense in the presidential campaign, where the media regularly hailed Obama as a literary genius as well as a moderate who didn’t indulge in radical politics. However, even here, there were better arguments to be made than whether Ayers ghosted Dreams or participated to a lesser extent in the book. Obama and Ayers worked together repeatedly on political projects, for instance, detailed by David Freddoso in his book The Case Against Barack Obama, and the Jeremiah Wright tapes reinforced that argument much better and much clearer than speculative analyses of writing styles. As for the literary genius, Obama’s soporific follow-up, The Audacity of Hope, should have made it plain that Dreams was a one-trick pony.
But there’s a larger problem with the argument. Even if Cashill and the advocates of this position prove their case or get an admission — a real admission — what does that change? It will show what we already know about Obama and Ayers, a relationship that got plenty of New Media coverage in the campaign, and also show that Obama hired a ghost writer. Neither of these issues are relevant now that Obama is in office. Whatever relevance they had in exposing a relative unknown passed last November on Election Day. Obama will be President until at least January 2013, and his policies and record of governance is really all that’s relevant. By the 2012 election, we will have plenty to criticize about his performance without worrying about his background.
Cashill’s work might make for a good academic-interest story, but politically, it’s rather meaningless.
Blowback
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Agreed.
AUINSC on October 7, 2009 at 12:17 PM
I don’t think this is as big a deal as others seem to think it is. Is it a sign of Obama’s incompetence, a confirmation that he’s an empty suit? Yes it is. BUT since taking the office of President, Obama has provided us with a plethora of better, more disturbing and relevant examples.
gwelf on October 7, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Pessimist. I’m still hoping for a resignation of impeachment.
Daggett on October 7, 2009 at 12:19 PM
This is a great, rational post that looks at the issue from a sensible point of view and doesn’t throw around accusations, name calling, and partisan jabs.
No doubt it will be received with equal decorum by the angry finger pointers on both sides.
Ahem.
Siobhan on October 7, 2009 at 12:19 PM
This is true, but the subject is still pretty interesting.
BadgerHawk on October 7, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Politically meaningless, except as part of the (justified) narrative that Obama is an empty suit riding a wave of others’ accomplishments to a position of power he can’t handle.
spmat on October 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
of = or
Daggett on October 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
I agree with Allah. He was just yanking her chain, and ours. Pffft.
Bob's Kid on October 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Of course Ayers was joking, but if he did write or edit part of Dreams of My Father (and I am pretty sure he had a hand in it at a minimum) it shows a guilty conscience (if Bill Ayers has a conscience) or alternatively that he is tracking this issue in conservative magazines and blogs. Maybe it just shows even small “c” communists like royalties too.
Mr. Joe on October 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
“A Million Little Pieces”
After it made Oprah’s book club, it had arrived. Any information, after the fact, to show that it was fraudulent–meaningless.
“Milli Vanilli”
After it had made numerous number one hits, it had arrived. Any information, after the fact, to show that it was fraudulent–meaningless.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:20 PM
I’m toast on all these stories. I wrote every speech for 5 CEO’s. By the end, the last CEO toasted me because I had made him sound consistent and kept employees comfortable.
Heck, they all sounded just like me, frankly. *haha
But I never got to set policy or change the CEO’s vision.
If you want a real biography, then you go read biographies. Those guys are my true heroes. They spend 10 years, dig through original sources, take their time.
I love biographers. Frankly, I’d like to marry one.
But autobiographies?
Gimme a break. It’s nothing but a long PR piece, whether it’s Obama or Sarah.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Just more B.S. from the socialists who think they can get us arguing about a meaningless topic. Sorry, we’re not as easy as that, WE think.
tormod on October 7, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Contracts between authors and publishers:
Meaningless.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:21 PM
TOTUS claims that it is was ghostwriter.
ChrisB on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
I disagree. I think it would be a VERY big deal, because Barack Obama is supposed to be some kind of sooper genius. If he didn’t write Dreams, then this is still one of only two bits of writing we know for sure came from Obama’s hand:
Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.
I wrote stuff that awful…when I was twelve. Maybe. When I was 19? Not so much.
Dude’s intellect is a fake. That’s why this is a bigger deal than it would be for most.
S. Weasel on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Boy, she was an idiot on that one. I knew from page 5 on, that was a fake.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Sorry, not buying it. This strategy would leave people like Van Jones in office to do their damage. Obama was about as well vetted as Van Jones, et al were. It’s a job that still needs to be done and it should be done and it’s completely relevant to his reelection.
Rocks on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Except that Barry has bragged that he “actually wrote them myself”.
You lie!
Again.
PaddyJ on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Except of course for CNN and Time, for whom it’s a really big deal.
I guess because she’s so schtoooopid.
Mr. Bingley on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
Ed is right insofar as this should be a non-issue. However, if Mr. Obama was made to be such a literary genius, and then evidence suggests that he isn’t, then doesn’t that mean something?
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:22 PM
“Just another guy in the Neighborhood.”
kingsjester on October 7, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Cashill’s work might make for a good academic-interest story, but politically, it’s rather meaningless.
But Andersen’s story did not come from Caskill, it came from other sources (presumably Michelle Obama herself who said Obama had writers block and needed help from Ayers). It is politically not a big deal now, but it is another example of fluffery and puffery of Obama’s writing skills and the “just a guy from the neighborhood” argument doesn’t work any more next election cycle.
Mr. Joe on October 7, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Is it really a ghost writer , when it’s been official from the start that she had assistance?
the_nile on October 7, 2009 at 12:23 PM
“Just a guy in the neighborhood” is a bit different than “the guy who ghost-wrote my autobiography.” Maybe not earth-shattering, but not insignificant.
rrpjr on October 7, 2009 at 12:24 PM
You haven’t been to LGF lately, have you, Ed?
Pablo on October 7, 2009 at 12:24 PM
Certainly, Ayers was probably yanking the blogger’s chain. However, that is absolutely no indication that he didn’t write the book.
I remember being confronted by a victim of one of my pranks in the college dorms. I had said something along the lines of, “Yes, I did it. I convinced the R.A. give give me the key to your room,” with heavy sarcastic overtones. It threw the suspicion off of me for a bit, even though I was telling him the God’s honest truth.
Ayer’s claim does verify he wrote the book, nor does it refute it.
ynot4tony2 on October 7, 2009 at 12:24 PM
I’m still waiting for the LA Times to release the tapes.
txag92 on October 7, 2009 at 12:24 PM
I completely agree.
However, isn’t there a significant proportion of Mr. Obama’s persona perched atop the thought that he is such a literary and oratorical talent? If that weren’t the case, then this would be a non-issue.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:25 PM
You’re right Ed,it means nothing now to us who didn’t vote for him but maybe someone else will wakeup:)
ohiobabe on October 7, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Yeah, it’s right there with Biden’s plagiarism.
Pablo on October 7, 2009 at 12:26 PM
It would prove Obama is a liar. But then anyone who cared about such things knew that already. His first act in running for President was to make a lie out of his promise not to run when he ran for Senate.
Exactly why a huge portion of our population puts their faith (their “hope”) in a known liar would make for an interesting psychological study.
Socratease on October 7, 2009 at 12:26 PM
I think, still, that Ayer’s was using the bluff of telling the truth in order to seem to be a liar, while still telling the truth.
I think it must rankle Ayers that the Anointed One is getting all the toys based, partly, on a book which Ayers “wrote”.
Dhuka on October 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Some of those interested in this know it’s nothing but a
“good academic-interest story” (much better than atheists, Megan McCain, Beck rants, and most “Dudes”), but you are right it won’t change anything. Those inclined to care don’t support Obama anyway.
For me it’s interesting because Dreams was taken by some as prima facie evidence of Obama’s first-rate brain. I love watching the facade crumble.
flyfisher on October 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Wow, you missed the point by light years.
It’s not whether or not Obama used a ghost writer. The point is that he used a radical domestic terrorist for a ghost writer, one that he claimed he hardly knew and was just some guy in the neighborhood.
If Sarah Palin used David Duke for a ghost writer, it would be a really big issue. Guaranteed.
Daggett on October 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM
I respectfully disagree a little bit, Ed. Lots of pundits– even “conservative” ones like Chris Buckley (don’t laugh)– cited Dreams as a major reason to vote for Obama; it was evidence of his elegance and brilliance. If it’s found he’s a fraud and it’s none other than a domestic terrorist behind his genius work, that’s a lot of egg on a lot of faces, and a huge chink in the Obama Narrative.
Pasalubong on October 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM
I agree with most of the post, except that the author of the latest Obama bio says friends of the Obama’s told him that Ayers had a lot of input on the book, after Obama became totally stuck while trying to put it together.
Also, Obama said that Ayers was just some guy from the neighborhood he hardly knew, and we know from other sources, including Ayers himself, that that’s a lie.
juliesa on October 7, 2009 at 12:28 PM
+1
Pasalubong on October 7, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Umm, you’re missing the most important component:
Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist and Obama claimed there was no serious relationship between the two. If he’s ghostwriting his books, it means Obama lied about his relations to a terrorist and falsely accused Republicans of smearing him. It would be pretty devastating IMO.
Darth Executor on October 7, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Crap. Beat me to it.
Darth Executor on October 7, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Nobody except the “underlings” write their own stuff. Sarah is being edited now.
Thank goodness.
She’s got the basic vision and ideas, but she’s learning now what’s needed to fill that out.
These helpers are actually helping her, too. She’ll be much better informed by the time we get to the stage where she’s having to speak to media.
I watched Obama get better, too. That was why I was surprised by his Gate’s comment. I thought he was further along.
Obviously, it was a weak moment. His real prejudices revealed themselves.
But that still doesn’t mean he couldn’t step back and correct course.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:29 PM
This concerns me far more. Anyone willing to find out about the conference and who was involved?
sweeper on October 7, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Disagree.
Political power is based upon trust. Mr. Obama stated he was an author, and people believed him. Mr. Obama stated Ayers was just a guy in the neighborhood, and people believed him. Mr. Obama stated that he wouldn’t raise taxes, not one dime, and people believed him. Mr. Obama made people believe he was a centrist, and they did.
If there are issues that erode the trust that the citizenry place upon a politician, then those issues need to be made known. Just like in music, in books, and in blogs. I trust that Ed and AP do the work here at HotAir, until I have evidence to the contrary. Likewise, Americans trusted that Mr. Obama wrote that book by himself, he said so, until we have evidence to the contrary.
Trust.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I can’t actually imagine Obama writing anything. Writing requires WORK, something he’s never done his entire life. Why would he change?
bradley11 on October 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
It’s not that he had a ghostwriter, it’s who it was: a Communist revolutionary terrorist, whom he still wants us to believe was a mere acquaintance.
This ongoing disengenuous aspect robs it of the “old news” epithet.
Akzed on October 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Remember, the people love to complain about pundits, but when you cite them constantly, it’s a clear sign that people do look to them to tell them how to think.
I honestly think that’s foolish. These are professional writers, whipping out columns on deadline, and hoping to make their kid’s soccer game.
Some columns are well thought out. Others are trash.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I disagree. If proven true, it is an admission of a known domestic terrorist and communist speaking for the President of the United States. Where else does this occur? What policies are framed by this individual, and not by the POTUS? What influence does Ayers have over Obama? Does this include potential avenues for extortion or blackmail to further the desires of Ayers and his comrades?
With what we already know about Ayers/Obama, the POTUS could not be granted a security clearance.
I wouldn’t be so fast to pooh-pooh the ramifications here. Where there’s smoke, there might be a fire. Right now, there is smoke leaking out of the White House.
BobMbx on October 7, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Also, as others have said, Obamas supporters bragged about how nice it was going to be to have a literary genius in the White House, and made fun of other politicians who have ghostwriters, even though ones like McCain and Palin give their writers credit.
The only thing Obama has ever written that has literary merit is that one book. All of his other poems, books, articles, etc. are pedestrian.
juliesa on October 7, 2009 at 12:32 PM
The only people who it should or would matter to are the people who bought the story hook, line and sinker. Perhaps the Ayers authorship possibility should even devestate them.
As for the rest of us, well, we knew it was malarkey, regardless of author. If it matters to us at all, it’s just to say “I told you so!” to the true believers. And that wouldn’t be very nice of us, would it?
misslizzi on October 7, 2009 at 12:32 PM
The Safe Schools Czar.
ChrisB on October 7, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Does it really matter if someone like Ayers wrote the book. It’s a piece of dung either way. I think the MSM should be impeached for dereliction of duty and covering up Obumble’s real past. Shame on them.
Jarhead68 on October 7, 2009 at 12:32 PM
When dealing with liberals you have to understand how they think. They arrive at “conclusions” based on narcism. The conclusion that makes them seem compassionate, sensitive.
They never add the “qualifiers” (the if-thens). The enemy is a “freedom fighter” – period. No matter how many atrocities they commit – because they never add the qualifiers. No facts ever matter (no matter how clearly you report anal rape).
You must discredit the original conclusion. “Obama is a genius” because of the book. No matter how many times he stutters, of forgets the names of his own children.
That is why this “would” be important. The narcissistic left would be incensed to find they were duped. The left can be viscous, the SNL skit would just be the beginning.
Agrippa2k on October 7, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Yeah, it’s past its sale date. Who cares about the truth?
This is why conservatives keep losing. We keep agreeing to the rules the left wants us to use — rules that invariably let them cheat, lie, and steal while punishing conservatives for the merest bit of imperfection.
Crawford on October 7, 2009 at 12:33 PM
I strongly disagree, Ed.
To me, the issue isn’t whether Obama wrote the book alone with only his huge brain to help him– it is whether he repeatedly lied about the depth of his relationship with Bill Ayres (‘I don’t pall around with that unrepentent terrorist– he’s just a guy in my neighborhood’!).
LASue on October 7, 2009 at 12:33 PM
(emphasis added)
I disagree. Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a board on which Ayers and several corporate do-nothings and socialites sat–and together, these clowns blew $161,000,000 (million) supposedly trying to improve Chicago public schools. Outside of, say two writers at the National Review, this got no coverage. Obama had no executive experience, and yet he allowed himself to get hijacked (or participated willingly, not sure which is worse) by Ayers radical educational agenda. Stanley Kurtz tried to publicize what these idiots wasted the money on, but nobody else echoed the theme. The press should have been all over this because, according to Kurtz, money wasn’t directed to the schools to improve “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” Instead, the money got directed to “third party partners” who were outside of the school authorities and, indeed, were many of these nickel-and-dime community activist groups that accomplish nothing but getting inner-city residents complaining about what they’re not getting.
Forgive me, this Ayers-Obama Annenberg connection didn’t get explored nearly enough. As American prosperity is getting flushed down the toilet, I’d have like to have seen a full accounting of how Obama and Ayers wasted $161 million accomplishing no improvement in the Chicago public schools that “participated” in that program.
It’s still a disgrace that Obama’s role hasn’t been more closely scrutinized. It would show this guy was a screw up from the beginning.
BuckeyeSam on October 7, 2009 at 12:34 PM
I can’t imagine someone of his stature ever working as a ghostwriter.
He is the head of a major college department. Trust me. He has no time to write for Obama.
Whoever started that rumor is a fool.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:34 PM
And, as we have learned over the last few months, so is reading.
So, if our legislators are too busy to read or write, just what are they doing?
BobMbx on October 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Sorry if I didn’t make my point clearer– I think most pundits are irrelevant and hacky, but, if true, this story would then really be the final nail in their coffin. It would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt to even those who follow them that the intellectual pundit class is shallow and blind.
Pasalubong on October 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
As for whether or not Ayers is playing Loki the Trickster or showing Mr. Obama why one can’t throw certain people under the bus without consequences, I do not know. Perhaps Ayers believes those with influence upon national issues should be able to write themselves, and is fed up with helping perpetrate a fraud, and is speaking out in hopes of bringing forth a new paradigm. Like I said, I don’t know.
I, however, must thoroughly disagree with the above statement. If what Ayers says is true, then it speaks volumes for the integrity and abilities of Mr. Obama in the present, as well as the character discernment abilities of his supporters. These are fit subjects for current attention.
Further, principles of justice would seem to say that those denigrated by those supporters during the last campaign would have the right for the issue to come to the fore now–so as to destroy theirs and Mr. Obama’s moral credibility. Especially considering the common “Republicans are dumb, Palin is dumb, Bush is dumb” rhetoric that often came out. It would also highlight the truly shallow nature of our political contests, as well as the sycophancy of the media.
Finally, did anyone see “The Emperors Club”? Because if what Ayers says is true, OBAMA WOULD BE BELL. A liar and a fraud, a political social climber, one who smiles and smiles but is still yet a villein (old sense of the term–common, base, petty), and one whose exposure for what he was would be one of the few times such characters ever get their true comeuppance.
If what Ayers says is true, then true justice, and true prudence, says it must be discussed, and discussed now. If it is true.
Horatius on October 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Great minds think alike.
Daggett on October 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
OT but it looks like Chrysler is going under and taking our $81 billion with it:
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/10/02/chrysler-may-not-make-it-another-year.aspx
The American people got took hook, line and sinker by the TARP.
Johnnyreb on October 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
I agree with Ed.
Prior to the election, it was a big deal, because Obama was lying that his relationship with Ayers was limited to a few social events.
Now that we know Obama routinely lies about most everything and surrounds himself with Marxists, it’s old news.
John the Libertarian on October 7, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Of course, but then, nobody in 40 years has ever held any education reform movement to task over results.
They “work.” They get together and pontificate.
It goes nowhere.
That’s standard.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Sorry- missed your post. You said it better than I did.
LASue on October 7, 2009 at 12:36 PM
i hope everyone would be a little careful with this. Ayers would love to setup this story via a small-time conservative blogger, only to later come down on her and conservatives in general for their wacko conspiracies.
i am totally sure the man can look you in the eye and lie thru his teeth.
r keller on October 7, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Are they going to give away a free Milli Vanilli album and a Chicago 2016 T-shirt with any further sales of this book?
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Nothing obama did before 2008 matters?
how about Van Jones and other czars? Maybe they should get an opportunity to start a new page too?
Phoenician on October 7, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Ed, you have a very good point, but, (there it is) this could be said of a great many things — they are in the past, so move on — that have been used in criticizing Obama currently except that they are relevant.
Sure Obama used a ghost writer, but was it a ghost writer he hardly knew and was just a guy that lived down the street? It is big. It’s just as big as if Obama’s other hidden past contained radical surprises which were uncovered now.
And no, I don’t mean his birth certificate. I mean, for example, what’s in his medical records, what the topic of his was, what his gpa’s were, etc, etc, etc.
Dusty on October 7, 2009 at 12:38 PM
Well, I agree, except it’s laughable to think Ayers is the ghostwriter.
It’s someone like me, frankly. Some “nobody.”
Ayers has a good gig going. He’s no ghostwriter.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:38 PM
The bigger issue is that someone barely old enough to have had much of a life has written two biographies, not who actually wrote them. I still don’t get “the compelling life story” that is not to different of many who are children of divorce and/or life as a military dependent.
Cindy Munford on October 7, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Ed, it is not a question of whether barack obama used a ghost writer. The scandal is in who that ghost writer was. If he used, not a professional ghost writer, but a self-admitted radical bomber to write his seminal political book to sell himself as a moderate to the masses, that is a big story indeed.
keep the change on October 7, 2009 at 12:39 PM
I guess we shouldn’t judge him on something that happened when he was like 32 years old…
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Again, the new biography of the Obamas Barack and Michelle says that Ayers did help on the book, according to friends of the Obamas.
No one has disputed the facts presented in the book.
juliesa on October 7, 2009 at 12:40 PM
LOL*
I agree, Cindy. That was my own reaction.
But I think that’s why it might have really struck people, too.
They loved elevating their own story.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Ed’s sandbagging on this one. Come on, Ed. Get off the fence. You’re a skeptic, but not this big of a skeptic.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:41 PM
We have a fight ahead. The left was confused in the moments after the election. “He won?!” “Does that mean I have to stop hating America?” “What does it mean?”
They have decided to believe that Obama is “oh so special”. Not an example of “black Americans” potential. He must be an exception. “Only such an outstanding individual, etc…”
So don’t expect anything to diminish their reverence. However, such a brilliant guy can be a fiendish liar. That is the angle. “So brilliant – can we trust him?”
Agrippa2k on October 7, 2009 at 12:41 PM
ding ding
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Read this Allaidiot.
Media Mum On Dreams Fraud
http://www.cashill.com/intellect_fraud/media_mum.htm
It’s the smoking gun. But Atheist’s being constipated in their thinking can’t get there heads around the truth about God or who wrote Obama’s first book.
inchdeep on October 7, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Sorry, but no. If the admission was proven and made public, it exposes Obama as a liar. He has said over and over again that he wrote the book. He has been feted for having done so for going on 15 years.
Palin’s book is a poor analogy, as the fact that she has a collaborator (who is being compensated accordingly) is no secret.
*We* may already know about the relationship between Obama and Ayers, but the MSM-dependent public doesn’t, thanks to the media taking him at his word when he said Ayers was “just a guy in the neighborhood.” If Obama let a domestic terrorist ghostwrite his book and lied about it, that is major news. It doesn’t matter when it happened.
Missy on October 7, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Bill Ayers is a communist and was involved in murders and bombings. Ayers is the leader of a group whose mission states:
It is disgusting to me that any American should not and could not make political hay out of this.
Obama’s involvement with a communist underground movement should be shocking to anyone.
faraway on October 7, 2009 at 12:44 PM
If we can establish that Ayers wrote, or even did ANY work on Obama’s book it is big news for the following reasons:
1) Obama and the State Media were able to deflect charges that the two men were close. I believe the line the left uses is, “they were two guys who lived in the same neighborhood.”
2) It takes away from the Obama is a polymath and a genius meme.
3) It takes away the primary attack the left is planning to make against Palin’s book.
4) It is another strong sign of how far the media is in the tank for Obama – obvious enough to us, but something the mushy middle needs to have rammed home.
5) It allows us to press further on the many aspects of Obama’s background that the media refuse to look into – his college grades and writings*, his drug addition, his other radical connections, etc.
*Speaking of which, isn’t it the Washington Post’s believe that the most important thing we can learn about a politician is what they wrote while in college? Has anyone in VA tried to poke them about their disinterest in Obama’s?
18-1 on October 7, 2009 at 12:45 PM
I blog on progressive sites, also.
Here’s really my take.
They will defend him, regardless of how silly.
But they aren’t happy either.
What’s interesting being someone like me is that I can spot the convergence of opinions.
The progressives hated TARP. So did the far-right.
The progressives believe that he ISN’T being transparent.
So does the far-right.
The progressives think he’s not twisting arms enough. That is similar to the far-right complaints that McCain is “progressive.”
When I post, you’re both flip-sides of the same coin, I’m not kidding.
Frankly, heaven forbid if both far-left and far-right ever figure out they are alike.
That would be real trouble.
AnninCA on October 7, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Even for the life that he has had, he doesn’t seem to have done much with it. I know this was probably even brought up in the primaries, but Obama was hardly a stellar student at Columbia. I’d be too embarrassed to even apply to Harvard with a nothing college career like that.
Then again, that does seem to be a common lib educational promise: to make something out of nothing without putting much work into it.
misslizzi on October 7, 2009 at 12:46 PM
18-1 on October 7, 2009 at 12:45 PM
great points and analysis.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Bingo.
I think if anyone who claimed to have written a book, when they didn’t, is substantial evidence toward being a liar.
And can we trust liars?
BO with every turn is presented with constantly mounting evidence of his lies.
This is just another piece of potential evidence supporting the liar theory.
And honestly, I’m sure that if BO was ever proven to be born in another country, nothing would be done about it.
I am sickened that the American public is so apathetic about a person’s truthfulness.
People lie intentionally & unintentionally.
BO is of the former.
Why do I want a liar as a president?
Badger40 on October 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Palin isn’t being criticized for using a ghost writer, but that her ghost writer is a…gasp…Evangelical Christian. If that is relevant to the left, then the hypocrisy is that the domestic terrorist Billy Ayers may have written Dreams. That and the fact that Hussein takes credit for it’s “literary brilliance!”
texgal on October 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM
hells frozen over, I agree with you.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Which ones?
faraway on October 7, 2009 at 12:49 PM
So would you concur that if Francis Bacon did, in fact, write all of Shakespeare’s plays that nothing would be changed ?
J_Crater on October 7, 2009 at 12:49 PM
This issue is relevant insofar as to the level that brilliance was claimed by the MSM and elites into the skills of Obama.
ted c on October 7, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Ha. Oftentimes people only appear brilliant when propped up by others who wish to ride their coattails to fame & power.
This is one of those instances.
BO is our affirmative action president.
He is far from brilliant.
He’s been planted & carefully watered by those already in power.
They have installed their robot in the White House.
Badger40 on October 7, 2009 at 12:50 PM
I am sure you mean this in the same way that Bush’s policies and record of governance were really all that was relevant in the 2004 campaign, and not the bogus 60 Minutes story about his National Guard service that the libs and MSM wanted to make the focus. I guess relevance is relative, depending on if you have an “R” or a “D” after your name.
mwdiver on October 7, 2009 at 12:50 PM
It would lessen his blame Bush marginal in his failures.
the_nile on October 7, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Yeah. Only thing to change is the adoration of the man himself.
But educating people on the truth takes a long time.
Myths continually are propagated.
BO will still be consdiered brilliant by many, long after he is fully proven as the liar & doofus that he truly is.
Badger40 on October 7, 2009 at 12:51 PM
You are 180 out on that analysis and here is why.
1. Far Left wants government to take over everything. The Far right is exactly the opposite, and they hate any government control of anything.
2. Far Left believes in gay marriage. Far Right would never ever stand for any law that even hints at allowing gay marriage.
3. Abortion. Enough said on that one, same as above. Maybe even a bit worse.
4. Rinse and repeat with pretty much and contemporary issues.
Johnnyreb on October 7, 2009 at 12:52 PM
That’s all well and good until the “something” made of nothing turns out to be the POTUS. Then advancing only as fast as the slowest person in the room is pretty frightening.
I think it is safe to say the Mr. Obama has taken narcissism to an art form.
Cindy Munford on October 7, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Looks like Chris has some explaining to do if this is true. I’ve heard more than one liberal host extoll the brilliance of the man “who writes his own books.” And I disagree with Ed…this if true isn’t a big deal to those of us who know Obama for who he is, but it’ll make the middle independents scratch their heads.
Matticus Finch on October 7, 2009 at 12:53 PM
This, as others have touched on, is indeed significant. Bill Ayers is not just ‘another guy’, a professional writer hired to ghost write but someone who actually blew crap up in the name of revolution, admittedly and unrepentantly and whom Obama said he barely knew. Bullcrap, yet more evidence, but in the grand scheme…
/sigh, people aren’t paying attention to important details, that’s how this clown got elected, why would they start now. So I guess I agree that this isn’t going to hurt him anymore than one more mark against him. Flat out lie, his association with Ayers.
All that assuming its true which…who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in fact ghost written but less sure that Ayers was the guy.
The thing here is ‘why did he say it?’ Hrmm….Look at Letterman right now. He did a pretty crappy thing and his ratings are through the roof and people love him because of the way he presented it. Supporters rallied around Bill Clinton when he got in trouble for using an intern as a humidor.
Ayers throws it our there, maybe its true, maybe not, but its not a big secret anymore. There is enough question to Ayers credability that there is wiggle room in the typical liberal’s sanctimonious mental gymnastic justification.
In other words, they love him all the more for it. We’ve seen this happen with celebrities and professional athletes all the time.
Texas74 on October 7, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Most honest authors who use ghostwriters or major assistance (the old “as told to…” routine) credit said help, often on both book jacket and title page.
Osama Obama claims to have authored his pathetic “masterpieces” himself. That’s dishonest.
If Palin gives proper credit to her “ghost” or helper — we won’t know until print copies get out there — no problem. I suspect she will, particularly after the name was already revealed.
It would be interesting to know what (and how) Ayers was paid for his “help.”
MrScribbler on October 7, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Ed, at least Sarah Palin admits to having a ghost writer help her.
Obama was taking sole credit, as well as was pushed to the presidency because he was such a “smart writer”, an “intellect,” “no one could write like he did since Thomas Jefferson,” etc.
Idiots like Christopher Buckley, Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, etc. catapulted this guy to another level because he was supposedly the smartest man ever with an IQ unmatched. That we needed someone with his writing prowess to lead the country.
Although we weren’t brainwashed, many were. Especially because of this stupid book.
I agree with Jonah that this will be a huge story.
cubachi on October 7, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Obama was sold as some brilliant, speechifying, winged Adonis flying over history and briefly dipping to take pity on us poor mortals. Worse, HE believes that. Events have brought him down to earth and endless lousy speeches and bad decisions have yanked a bunch of feathers. But work like Cashill’s is what will clip his wings permanently and keep him from ever getting off the ground again. It not only has meaning politically, it’s vital.
Obama needs to be revealed for what he is, entirely pedestrian and hopelessly out of his league.
Rocks on October 7, 2009 at 12:57 PM
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