…that Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s book. He now says he did.
21 thoughts on “A Reason Not To Believe”
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
But I also can’t see how it matters who wrote or who passed the Porkulus Bill, I can’t see how it matters who wrote or wants to push the Obamacare Bill, I can’t see how it matters who believes in gravity, I can’t see how it matters who thinks Star Trek is real…
I don’t trust Ayers to tell the truth as a matter of principle, but everyone follows their own (perceived) interests. I can really see Ayers feeling bitter about the betrayal of not getting any credit for the book and having his relationship repudiated by Obama during the campaign.
Not to mention, I’m sure the insufficient Leftism he most likely perceives in the Administration is also a source of irritation for him, and a reason to strike at Obama. It might be true after all.
Rand, did you see Jonah Goldberg’s excerpt from the National Journal’s story on this. Click on my name for the link.
Jonah Goldberg:
It sounds like Ayers is jerking some chains. From National Journal
Inside Washington
Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
Payment Due
Who actually wrote Dreams From My Father? The book cover says Barack Obama, but one corner of the right-wing blogosphere thinks Obama had a ghostwriter—and that it was Bill Ayers, onetime Weatherman, current academic, perpetual radical. National Journal caught up with Ayers at a recent book festival where he was exhorting a small crowd of listeners to remember that they are citizens, not subjects. “Open your eyes,” he said. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Act, and doubt.” When he finished speaking, we put the authorship question right to him. For a split second, Ayers was nonplussed. Then an Abbie Hoffmanish, steal-this-book-sort-of-smile lit up his face. He gently took National Journal by the arm. “Here’s what I’m going to say. This is my quote. Be sure to write it down: ‘Yes, I wrote Dreams From My Father. I ghostwrote the whole thing. I met with the president three or four times, and then I wrote the entire book.'” He released National Journal’s arm, and beamed in Marxist triumph. “And now I would like the royalties.” —Will Englund
From “corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjYyYjcyMzIxNjljMDdjZTllOGFhZGVmNTc2OGJiNTM=”
Rand, did you see Jonah Goldberg’s excerpt from the National Journal’s story on this.
Yes, I did.
Thanks, but also: my apologies – I jumped the gun. The Pajamas Media link you provided also tells Will Englund’s story verbatim on page 2. I was so amused by Englund’s version that I wanted to share it, and I made only a cursory check of your link before commenting. 2008 trained me to associate Ayers with you!
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
Because if he didn’t write it, it knocks out a major pillar from the mendacious edifice on which he was elected — that he was this brilliant intellectual with deep insight into the human condition. It also hurts his credibility on other fronts. If he lied about that, what else is he hiding and lying about?
Rand,
Is “everything” available as an answer?
Ha! The purloined letter strategy. 🙂
Rand,
I was doing that all tongue in cheek. That’s why I went to belief in Star Trek, or that gravity NOT mattering being the same as this. The Leader of the Free World, for the umpteenth time being caught, being less than truthful.
Of course it matters, and I see that. It means, once again, BHO has stated for the record, that HE did “x, y or z…” and it’s just another big fat fib. He has ZERO credibility if we can find him lying every other day, right? Foreign heads of state, especially our enemies, see it as weakness. And not the lying part, the getting caught, and not controlling his country’s media enough that it gets out.
The guy is such a stuffed shirt that it’s farcical at this point. He is a puppet and unfortunately he hasn’t felt the hands pulling the strings, ever. He thinks that he’s the leader. That he’s truly in charge of the American Left. That by “being” the President, even though he relies on the cast of usual players among the liberal elite, to feed him talking points, books, papers, speeches, etc, blah, blah, blah, well, he’s the “real” boss.
It’s sad for him I think. I’d hate to be that age and still be a shill, but not know it.
I think part of the reason it matters is this: why did Ayers write the book for Obama? It’s not like Obama was then famous (so he could pay Ayers back in influence) or like Ayers would get a pile of money for it, usual motivators for ghostwriters. No, Ayers can get published and make money all on his own.
So what was in it for Ayers? It’s hard not to imagine that he saw the chance to play a bit of puppet-master to the handsome young “articulate” black politician On His Way Up. Get the guy elected, and he’ll remember my help, or…well…if he doesn’t remember my help I can help him remember by mentioning the possibility of my giving a really open interview on my participation, heh heh.
Now if he thought this way — and certainly Ayers has the paranoid and grandiose mindset to do so — it’s naive and silly. I don’t think playing secret puppet master to the President is likely to work very well, or even at all.
But, still. If Ayers and his colleagues made the attempt at a Manchurian Candidacy, and the attempt was successful enough to get the faker elected, then even if the guy in office will simply fumble and fail, the fact that he could get elected President in the first place is frighteningly close to some screwball Hollywood tragicomedy. It makes you truly angry that our press did not do their God-damned job and run this stuff thoroughly down when it mattered, in the primary elections.
This should be easy enough to check. There are literary forensics techniques that could give definitive evidence whether Obama or Ayers is the author.
There are literary forensics techniques that could give definitive evidence whether Obama or Ayers is the author.
I’m pretty sure that would require having other examples of Obama’s writing with which to do the comparison. If you can find any, get back to us. Cashill did it with Ayers’ other works, but he had no Obama comparisons to work with…
Can those forensics techniques tell us whether or not Algore wrote the Unabomber manifesto?
Barack Obama’s other book, the one titled The Audacity of Hope, is also written in the first person. Do you have some reason to think he didn’t write that one too? (I consider this book the much more important one, as it relates to policy and how he would govern, but it is chock-full of first person stories and anecdotes.)
To me it comes down to their respective positions as potential spokesmen for that point of view. Ayers was a former terrorist and therefore a liability; Obama was a fresh new face on his way up.
If Ayers is a true believer in his radical agenda, getting Obama’s name on it instead of his own would seem to be a plus.
Ayers might not have known Obama would be president someday, and in fact it might have been better for the message of that book if Obama hadn’t.
McGehee,
What message of Dreams From My Father are you referrring to? Do you think either of Obama’s books proposes a radical agenda?
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
It might matter more to his supporters than his detractors. Especially certain supporters, like the ones in the media who consider it de rigueur to include the words “speech writer” whenever Sarah Palin’s name comes up. If they consider that such a damning fact, imagine how embarassing the revellation that Obama didn’t write his own book would be. Not to mention the fact that it would also have been either fraud or plagiarism for him not to credit a co-author, as well as an implicit lie told over and over on the campaign trail and elsewhere whenever he drew upon it to impress an audience. I’d have to believe he’d lose at least some of his journalist devotees over it, and as that support erodes so does the power of his presidency.
(But I’m still not convinced Ayers isn’t just messin’ around.)
I think Ayers likes messin’ with people’s heads. It’s a power trip for him.
*IF* Ayers did ghostwrite the book, it’s a brilliant thing to do. It sounds so over-the-top that anyone who believes it instantly looks as foolishly credulous as the Trig-Palin-is-Bristol’s-son True Believers, and no mainstream journalist will ever bother to investigate (not that they would anyway). It puts him back in the media spotlight. If he’s ever exposed, he can always say “I told you so, idiots!” and grin at us. And (as Bill Baar pointed out in the third comment to the PJM piece) if he ever needs it, his claim is a message to Barack Obama: “Don’t even think about deviating from The Agenda — I made you, and I can break you with one press conference and my draft copies of the manuscript.”
Bob, I figure that if there are so many similarities between Sins and Ayers’ known writings, there’s got to be radical stuff in the book.
I don’t know firsthand because Abby Hoffman hasn’t stolen me a copy to read.
Hah! And one more point of brilliance to Ayer’s “purloined letter” strategy, *IF* he really wrote the book: As Stephen Diamond pointed out …
It is entirely possible that the Obama camp thinks it best to let the actual details of the Ayers/Obama relationship drift out now so that they can, like all radioactivity, decay long before the 2012 campaign.
Look for derisive cries of “That’s old news!” if evidence of Ayer’s authorship is exposed during the 2012 election campaign. By then, most people will be tired of the claims — and the claimants — even if they’re correct.
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
But I also can’t see how it matters who wrote or who passed the Porkulus Bill, I can’t see how it matters who wrote or wants to push the Obamacare Bill, I can’t see how it matters who believes in gravity, I can’t see how it matters who thinks Star Trek is real…
I don’t trust Ayers to tell the truth as a matter of principle, but everyone follows their own (perceived) interests. I can really see Ayers feeling bitter about the betrayal of not getting any credit for the book and having his relationship repudiated by Obama during the campaign.
Not to mention, I’m sure the insufficient Leftism he most likely perceives in the Administration is also a source of irritation for him, and a reason to strike at Obama. It might be true after all.
Rand, did you see Jonah Goldberg’s excerpt from the National Journal’s story on this. Click on my name for the link.
Jonah Goldberg:
It sounds like Ayers is jerking some chains. From National Journal
Inside Washington
Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009
Payment Due
Who actually wrote Dreams From My Father? The book cover says Barack Obama, but one corner of the right-wing blogosphere thinks Obama had a ghostwriter—and that it was Bill Ayers, onetime Weatherman, current academic, perpetual radical. National Journal caught up with Ayers at a recent book festival where he was exhorting a small crowd of listeners to remember that they are citizens, not subjects. “Open your eyes,” he said. “Pay attention. Be astonished. Act, and doubt.” When he finished speaking, we put the authorship question right to him. For a split second, Ayers was nonplussed. Then an Abbie Hoffmanish, steal-this-book-sort-of-smile lit up his face. He gently took National Journal by the arm. “Here’s what I’m going to say. This is my quote. Be sure to write it down: ‘Yes, I wrote Dreams From My Father. I ghostwrote the whole thing. I met with the president three or four times, and then I wrote the entire book.'” He released National Journal’s arm, and beamed in Marxist triumph. “And now I would like the royalties.” —Will Englund
From “corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjYyYjcyMzIxNjljMDdjZTllOGFhZGVmNTc2OGJiNTM=”
Rand, did you see Jonah Goldberg’s excerpt from the National Journal’s story on this.
Yes, I did.
Thanks, but also: my apologies – I jumped the gun. The Pajamas Media link you provided also tells Will Englund’s story verbatim on page 2. I was so amused by Englund’s version that I wanted to share it, and I made only a cursory check of your link before commenting. 2008 trained me to associate Ayers with you!
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
Because if he didn’t write it, it knocks out a major pillar from the mendacious edifice on which he was elected — that he was this brilliant intellectual with deep insight into the human condition. It also hurts his credibility on other fronts. If he lied about that, what else is he hiding and lying about?
Rand,
Is “everything” available as an answer?
Ha! The purloined letter strategy. 🙂
Rand,
I was doing that all tongue in cheek. That’s why I went to belief in Star Trek, or that gravity NOT mattering being the same as this. The Leader of the Free World, for the umpteenth time being caught, being less than truthful.
Of course it matters, and I see that. It means, once again, BHO has stated for the record, that HE did “x, y or z…” and it’s just another big fat fib. He has ZERO credibility if we can find him lying every other day, right? Foreign heads of state, especially our enemies, see it as weakness. And not the lying part, the getting caught, and not controlling his country’s media enough that it gets out.
The guy is such a stuffed shirt that it’s farcical at this point. He is a puppet and unfortunately he hasn’t felt the hands pulling the strings, ever. He thinks that he’s the leader. That he’s truly in charge of the American Left. That by “being” the President, even though he relies on the cast of usual players among the liberal elite, to feed him talking points, books, papers, speeches, etc, blah, blah, blah, well, he’s the “real” boss.
It’s sad for him I think. I’d hate to be that age and still be a shill, but not know it.
I think part of the reason it matters is this: why did Ayers write the book for Obama? It’s not like Obama was then famous (so he could pay Ayers back in influence) or like Ayers would get a pile of money for it, usual motivators for ghostwriters. No, Ayers can get published and make money all on his own.
So what was in it for Ayers? It’s hard not to imagine that he saw the chance to play a bit of puppet-master to the handsome young “articulate” black politician On His Way Up. Get the guy elected, and he’ll remember my help, or…well…if he doesn’t remember my help I can help him remember by mentioning the possibility of my giving a really open interview on my participation, heh heh.
Now if he thought this way — and certainly Ayers has the paranoid and grandiose mindset to do so — it’s naive and silly. I don’t think playing secret puppet master to the President is likely to work very well, or even at all.
But, still. If Ayers and his colleagues made the attempt at a Manchurian Candidacy, and the attempt was successful enough to get the faker elected, then even if the guy in office will simply fumble and fail, the fact that he could get elected President in the first place is frighteningly close to some screwball Hollywood tragicomedy. It makes you truly angry that our press did not do their God-damned job and run this stuff thoroughly down when it mattered, in the primary elections.
This should be easy enough to check. There are literary forensics techniques that could give definitive evidence whether Obama or Ayers is the author.
There are literary forensics techniques that could give definitive evidence whether Obama or Ayers is the author.
I’m pretty sure that would require having other examples of Obama’s writing with which to do the comparison. If you can find any, get back to us. Cashill did it with Ayers’ other works, but he had no Obama comparisons to work with…
Can those forensics techniques tell us whether or not Algore wrote the Unabomber manifesto?
http://www.crm114.com/algore/quiz.html
Barack Obama’s other book, the one titled The Audacity of Hope, is also written in the first person. Do you have some reason to think he didn’t write that one too? (I consider this book the much more important one, as it relates to policy and how he would govern, but it is chock-full of first person stories and anecdotes.)
To me it comes down to their respective positions as potential spokesmen for that point of view. Ayers was a former terrorist and therefore a liability; Obama was a fresh new face on his way up.
If Ayers is a true believer in his radical agenda, getting Obama’s name on it instead of his own would seem to be a plus.
Ayers might not have known Obama would be president someday, and in fact it might have been better for the message of that book if Obama hadn’t.
McGehee,
What message of Dreams From My Father are you referrring to? Do you think either of Obama’s books proposes a radical agenda?
I can’t see how it matters who wrote it.
It might matter more to his supporters than his detractors. Especially certain supporters, like the ones in the media who consider it de rigueur to include the words “speech writer” whenever Sarah Palin’s name comes up. If they consider that such a damning fact, imagine how embarassing the revellation that Obama didn’t write his own book would be. Not to mention the fact that it would also have been either fraud or plagiarism for him not to credit a co-author, as well as an implicit lie told over and over on the campaign trail and elsewhere whenever he drew upon it to impress an audience. I’d have to believe he’d lose at least some of his journalist devotees over it, and as that support erodes so does the power of his presidency.
(But I’m still not convinced Ayers isn’t just messin’ around.)
I think Ayers likes messin’ with people’s heads. It’s a power trip for him.
*IF* Ayers did ghostwrite the book, it’s a brilliant thing to do. It sounds so over-the-top that anyone who believes it instantly looks as foolishly credulous as the Trig-Palin-is-Bristol’s-son True Believers, and no mainstream journalist will ever bother to investigate (not that they would anyway). It puts him back in the media spotlight. If he’s ever exposed, he can always say “I told you so, idiots!” and grin at us. And (as Bill Baar pointed out in the third comment to the PJM piece) if he ever needs it, his claim is a message to Barack Obama: “Don’t even think about deviating from The Agenda — I made you, and I can break you with one press conference and my draft copies of the manuscript.”
Bob, I figure that if there are so many similarities between Sins and Ayers’ known writings, there’s got to be radical stuff in the book.
I don’t know firsthand because Abby Hoffman hasn’t stolen me a copy to read.
Hah! And one more point of brilliance to Ayer’s “purloined letter” strategy, *IF* he really wrote the book: As Stephen Diamond pointed out …
Look for derisive cries of “That’s old news!” if evidence of Ayer’s authorship is exposed during the 2012 election campaign. By then, most people will be tired of the claims — and the claimants — even if they’re correct.
Jim?