Barack Obama often says he wants to increase American exports, so maybe the State Department’s decision to export American literature isn’t an entirely bad idea. After all, world libraries could help increase the cultural stature of the US through the works of Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Walt Whitman, although probably not so much with the works of Jacqueline Susanne or Sidney Sheldon. So which great American author did State choose to promote American culture?
The State Department has bought more than $70,000 worth of books authored by President Obama, sending out copies as Christmas gratuities and stocking “key libraries” around the world with “Dreams From My Father” more than a decade after its release.
The U.S. Embassy in Egypt, for instance, spent $28,636 in August 2009 for copies of Mr. Obama’s best-selling 1995 memoir. Six weeks earlier, the embassy had placed another order for the same book for more than $9,000, federal purchasing records show.
About the same time, halfway around the world, the U.S. Embassy in South Korea had the same idea and spent more than $6,000 for copies of “Dreams From My Father.”
So the State Department is shilling Obama as an author? Doesn’t that have a bit of a Chairman Mao/Little Red Book feel? Apparently State isn’t as interested in giving away memoirs from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. One watchdog group says this is a great opportunity to save some cash:
Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group, said if the federal government is looking to cut costs, eliminating purchases of Mr. Obama’s books is a good place to start.
“It’s inappropriate for U.S. taxpayer dollars to be spent on this,” she said. “This sounds like propaganda.”
Nonsense! It’s merely an opportunity for the entire world to love Dear Leader, or at least for Obama’s books to stay on the charts.
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member