Posted on 07/12/2009 2:42:20 AM PDT by Scanian
In previous articles on the subject of President Obama's writing skills, I have focused on his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, not his 2006 book, Audacity of Hope for one reason: Dreams, according to esteemed British author Jonathan Raban and others, captures Obama's "authentic voice."
On the strength of Dreams, Raban called Obama "the best writer to occupy the White House since Lincoln." Raban is in good company. "I was astonished by his ability to write, to think, to reflect, to learn and turn a good phrase," said Nobel prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison of Dreams. "I was very impressed. This was not a normal political biography.''
Although Audacity has received respectful reviews, it has not gotten the raves Dreams has. The New York Times describes Audacity "as much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech."
Still, despite the book's "flabby platitudes," the Times assures its readers that "enough of the narrative voice in this volume is recognizably similar to the one in Dreams From My Father." Without intending to, the Times likely captured the thinking behind the creation of Audacity.
If portions of Audacity sound like outtakes from stump speeches, it is because they are outtakes from stump speeches. This can be proved. What cannot be proved, but what seems likely, is that Obama included just "enough of the narrative voice" from Dreams to maintain continuity between the two books.
The question remains -- who provided that narrative voice? In the criticism of my last two American Thinker articles, only the Washington Post addressed the central issue, and it did so facetiously: "The book [Dreams] is beautifully written and yet, in Cashill's opinion, Obama is - and always was - a crappy (his word, not mine) writer."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Bill Ayers
If Sarah Palin had written a book, there would be 30 full-time investigators looking into who wrote the book. But anything about Obama is just accepted as gospel. Never in recent history has a major presidential candidate received so little scrutiny.
I believe Ayers is the only guy around Obama with the skill to write a book like this.
The curious thing...you can’t find anything else of any substance...even what he wrote in college...to compare against. This is what makes Audacity of Hope such an amusing piece of written material.
The last part of this deal...is that it’s a political essay. Normally, when a guy talks later in life from a written essay of such a magnitude....he always goes back and references a comment with an interviewer with “the book”....all writers do that. There is not a single interview that he has ever done....where he discusses the political dialog from the book and references back to book. He can’t...because he didn’t write it.
The "ends" justify the "means."
It's true about Obama and Palin.
What sort of young person, who has accomplished NOTHING, gets a book deal for his ‘autobiography’?
Remember Biden's comment about Zero back during the primaries?
When asked to explain Rraki's popularity, Biden muttered something about his being surprisingly "...clean and well spoken."
Wow. Really? A black dude who's clean and well spoken? Sounds like presidential material to me...
What a bad joke.
;-/
After some thought, I’ve made up my mind about BO. He - like his father - is simply a con man. He has covered up every curious detail of his past, and our incurious MSM has not only accepted this, but continues to celebrate him.
I may not live long enough to see it, but if the truth ever comes out, it will make fascinating reading. What lingers in my mind is Bill Ayres, and what hold this man who hates America has over America’s President.
All Obama's notes on yellow legal pads would now be historical documents. Bet the Smithsonian would love to have them, and also bet they'd be harder to find than an original Obama birth certificate.
Very insightful comment. Posts like yours are what make FreeRepublic the best!
Or college grades.
The reality of hopelessness.
His producers write all his material. Obama is merely an empty-suit actor, with no ability other than to look how his producers want him to look, and to read the scripts prepared for him how his producers want it read.
Simon & Schuster gave a $125,000 advance to an unknown writer because of his work on Harvard Law Review.
Americans, especially our veterans and law enforcement officers, are a phenomenally honest and moral people committed to the rule of law.
That Bill Ayers and his wife are living and breathing today, ( Yes, even prospering) is proof of that.
Yep, or SATs or LSATs, or medical records, or any of the usual records people leave behind that would support how wonderful and brilliant the MSM has been telling us this poser is.
I totally agree with your entire post.
Of course Ayers is a filthy marxist. Unfortunately, he is a tremendously gifted writer. 0zer0 cannot put one sentence together without a ‘prompTer.
Ayers has a brother who is an English professor in California- not clear if he met obama while he was at Occidental..another possibility
Someone who has been chosen to be bought and paid for as a political tool
The kind who is being groomed by radical “managers” and has left-wing “angels” pulling strings for him.
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