That’s the question asked by author Jack Cashill. I happened to catch an interview of Mr. Cashill on the Rusty Humphries radio show a couple of nights ago, and from what I’ve heard and read since then, he raises a good question. While I haven’t read Obama’s memoir, nor do I have any desire to read it, it’s said to be very well written, and it’s not just leftist Obama cheerleaders who say so.
The issue leading up to that one is this; how could someone like Barack Obama — who had not published anything prior to that book, and by his own admission had written only “bad poetry” — write something as prosaic as the book that carries his name? According to Cashill, “The style is above his pay grade, way above.”
Interestingly, Cashill goes a step further than asking whether Obama used a ghost writer for his book; he says it was Obama’s good friend and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Check out his reasoning here, and here.
I guess the question I’d ask is how someone with as undistinguished a past as Obama’s could have an agent cut a deal to publish his memoirs in the first place. Ok, he went to Columbia and Hahvahd, and was the president of the Harvard Law Review, although he never published a single work while in that position. It just seems his life is too unremarkable to be writing memoirs at 35 years old. It’s like he’s trying to live his life backwards; writing the memoirs first, hoping that the interesting stuff will come later.
Some might ask whether it makes any difference at all if Obama’s memoirs were written by someone else; ghost writers are used all the time. The trouble is that Obama has claimed the work is entirely his own. Even more troublesome — if Cashill is right — is who did the writing. Obama’s association with Ayers was well known before, but this would tie them even tighter. Like Cashill says, “That Obama had anything to do with this man should disqualify him for the presidency.” Amen. But don’t hold your breath waiting for the mainstream media to look into the relationship, or “Dreams” authorship.
Update: Well, whaddyaknow. The media is actually picking up on this story, if only a little. Governor Sarah Palin is hammering away at the Obama/Ayers connection, and finally getting some traction with media elites who are still glassy-eyed about Obama. Jack Cashill wrote an excellent piece on American Thinker last week that strengthens the case even more. This and the unearthing of some real proof of Obama’s ties to the Socialist “New Party”… Plenty of ammunition for McCain to drive this guy into the exile he deserves. But first we’ve got to convince McCain to take off the gloves and hammer Obama like there’s no tomorrow.
You’re joking, right? After all, this is the same man who chose a plagiarist as his VP choice – why would there be any surprise on this score?