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The backstory on Obama's books
American Thinker ^ | May 19, 2008 | Patrick Casey

Posted on 05/19/2008 5:52:20 PM PDT by Enchante

If one had to name Barack Obama's chief accomplishments in public life, his two books would outweigh anything he has done in politics. The New York Times had a fascinating article, The Story of Obama, Written by Obama, on the front page of Sunday's paper. The piece points out that Obama's attraction to the masses is driven not by what he has accomplished in the real world (especially in the Senate), but by his ability to tell a tale -- his own. Unspoken by the NYT is that this phenomena does have its place in history - it is the very definition of "cult of personality".....

The most troubling aspect of the article is, however, how it attributes Barack Obama's success not to anything tangible he has accomplished, other than getting into a few good schools and winning a few elections, but to his ability to weave a compelling tale. Here's a quote from Peter Osnos, formerly the publisher of Times Books, the home of Obama's first book. It's a comment about Obama's literary career, but it could just as easily be a comment about the Senator's political career, as well:

"Barack is worth millions now," Mr. Osnos said. "It's almost all based on these two books, two books not based on a job of prodigious research or risking one's life as a reporter in Iraq. He has written about himself. Being able to take your own life story and turn it into this incredibly lucrative franchise, it's a stunning fact."

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; blueturban; celebrity; democrats; obama; socialism
breathtaking, a fictional candidate with a fictional life story gets millions for lying about his life.....

btw, did anyone know before that Obama spent MONTHS in Bali writing his first book??? Bali is part of .... INDONESIA. Now it is true that aside from terrorism and bombings it is mainly known more as a place for hedonistic western tourists and not as any center for jihad culture. BUT..... it is interesting that he and Michelle chose to spend months there in the early '90s and who knows what contacts he may have had during that time that we have heard nothing about?? Inquiring minds want to know..... did they travel in Indonesia and elsewhere before, during, or after their sojurn on Bali?

"he eventually retreated to Bali for several months with his wife, Michelle, "to find a peaceful sanctuary where there were no phones.""

1 posted on 05/19/2008 5:52:20 PM PDT by Enchante
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To: Enchante
Bali is the only NON-Muslim part of Indonesia -- it's 93% Hindu. The reason Bali was the victim of a set of terrorist bombings is precisely because there aren't Muslims there.

If Obama went to Bali to pick up Muslim contacts, he went to a very strange locale.

2 posted on 05/19/2008 5:56:27 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: Alter Kaker

I know that - I didn’t mean that he picked up contacts IN Bali necessarily (although anyone in the region could visit him there) — I asked whether he might have traveled in that part of the world before, during, or after his sojourn on Bali.

Just something to keep an eye on for more info — I hadn’t known he had spent so much time in that region since he was 10 years old.... and I’m not one of the people who think he is some closet Muslim..... I view him as more of a conventional anti-US leftist with sympathies and allegiances to many of the radical movements around the world. I don’t think he is very ideological OR very religious, IMHO, I think he’s simply a garden variety secular leftist who happened to hit upon a highly successful schtick due to his skin color and eloquence.


3 posted on 05/19/2008 6:07:29 PM PDT by Enchante (Barack Chamberlain: My 1930s Appeasement Policy Goes Well With My 1960s Socialist Policies!)
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To: Enchante
I just hit on what I think is a brilliant monicker, and I in fact was not thinking of its racial dimension, just that the analogy was precise, because it speaks of a man who consciously became famous because he called himself famous in the marketing of his product:

Famous Amos!
4 posted on 05/19/2008 6:21:42 PM PDT by jobim
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To: Alter Kaker
Bali is the only NON-Muslim part of Indonesia -- it's 93% Hindu.

Actually not true.

Indonesia's largest province, Papua is over 75% christian, and North Sulawesi is about 70%

East Nusa Tenggara, which includes the Islands of Komodo, Flores, and west Timor, is predominaently Catholic.

5 posted on 05/19/2008 6:36:02 PM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Enchante

Has Barrry ever had a real job?


6 posted on 05/19/2008 6:52:44 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: yldstrk
Has Barrry ever had a real job?

It is against the Democrat party rules for their politicians to hold a real job. It summarily disqualifies them from high office.

7 posted on 05/19/2008 7:18:31 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: yldstrk
Has Barrry ever had a real job?

That depends on what you choose to believe from his fictionalized "memoir." He says, for instance, that he had a job "clearing a construction site" one summer as a student at Columbia U. in the early '80's.

Somehow, I can't picture it....

Then there was his story that he worked as a "research assistant" for a "consulting house for multinational corporations" in NYC -- suit and tie, private office, private secretary, good salary -- except that wasn't true: he worked at a casual dress, low-paying entry level position for a finanacial newsletter publisher, editing copy at a computer terminal.

Too many people have found gaping holes in the messiah's story, so the NY Times now tells us "it all had a sort of larger truth going on that you couldn't make up."

Except that he does -- make it up.

8 posted on 05/19/2008 7:21:38 PM PDT by browardchad ("We are all mavericks now." -- Rush Limbaugh)
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To: yldstrk
"Has Barrry ever had a real job?"

I would like to know a lot more about his connections and activities as a community organizer.

9 posted on 05/19/2008 8:46:52 PM PDT by OldEagle
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To: OldEagle

I would like to know a lot more about his connections and activities as a community organizer.

http://www.theobamafile.com/ObamaWorks.htm


10 posted on 05/20/2008 1:55:50 AM PDT by Beckwith ('Typical White Person')
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To: All

Awesome video:

The same kind of terrorists who support Obama did this:
http://www.frugalsites.net/911/attack/
Never apologize for them.
Never appease them.
Never forget.


11 posted on 05/20/2008 2:35:33 AM PDT by cyberella
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To: browardchad

Classic liberal Democrat - fake, but accurate.


12 posted on 05/20/2008 2:45:52 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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