Limbaugh falsely claimed "[t]here's no evidence" Obama wrote anything before Dreams from My Father "except a poem"
SUMMARY: On his radio show, discussing Sen. Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that "[t]here's no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to this except a poem." In fact, Obama reportedly authored an article for the Harvard Law Review in 1990. Limbaugh also baselessly suggested Obama did not write Dreams because "[h]e doesn't talk this way," and repeated the baseless allegation that there is a connection between Bill Ayers' written work and Obama's, because Ayers "does write very well."
On the October 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh played several audio clips of Sen. Barack Obama reading from his book, Dreams from My Father, and falsely claimed, "There's no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to this except a poem. ... [W]e haven't seen anything that he wrote at Harvard Law, when he was at Columbia, any of the tests that he's written." Limbaugh also baselessly suggested Obama did not write Dreams because "[h]e doesn't talk this way," and repeated the baseless allegation that there is a connection between former Weather Underground member William Ayers' written work and Obama's, because Ayers "does write very well."
Contrary to Limbaugh's claim that "[t]here's no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to" Dreams, "except a poem," Politico reported on August 22 that it found an "an unsigned -- and previously unattributed -- 1990 article" in the Harvard Law Review about "the question of whether fetuses should be able to file lawsuits against their mothers" and that the Obama campaign "provided a statement on Harvard Law Review letterhead confirming that the unsigned piece was Obama's." Further, a July 30 post by reporter Jodi Kantor on The New York Times blog, The Caucus, stated: "We've asked four legal experts to take a look at then-Professor Barack Obama's course materials and offer some insight into what they say about Mr. Obama's teaching methods, priorities and approach to the Constitution." After providing the experts' analyses of Obama's course materials, Kantor posted eight years worth of exams Obama wrote while he was a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as a syllabus.
Moreover, Limbaugh provided no evidence that Obama did not write Dreams. In connecting Obama's book to Ayers' work, Limbaugh cited WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill. In an October 9 article for the conservative Web magazine American Thinker, Cashill theorized that Ayers wrote Dreams, arguing that Ayers "writes surprisingly well and very much like 'Obama,' "and that "when Ayers speaks, even off the cuff, he uses a cadence and vocabulary consistent with his memoir. One does not hear any of Dreams in Obama's casual speech." Cashill has devoted several WorldNetDaily columns to advancing this claim.
From the October 10 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: From Obama, reading from his book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. Now, this is a key passage. He is admitting, in this passage of his book that he reads himself, to his own radicalism. He says he couldn't escape it if he tried. Here we go.
OBAMA [audio clip]: Black nationalism provided that history. An unambiguous morality tale that was easily communicated and easily grasped. A steady attack on the white race, the constant recitation of black people's brutal experience in this country, served as the ballast that could prevent the ideas of personal and communal responsibility from --
LIMBAUGH: Stop the tape. Stop it, stop -- stop it. Ed, stop it. What is this? Ballast? He doesn't talk this way. You know, there are stories out there he may not have written this book. There's a guy named Jack Cashill -- Cashill -- not sure how he pronounces it --- who's gone back and he can't say for sure. But he's read Ayers' books. So Obama -- in both these books -- Obama first submitted a manuscript, it took him 10 months to do it; the publisher rejected it. It was worthless.
So, he went back -- they'd given him a big advance -- I'm really shortening the story here, and now, Jack Cashill has compared some of these passages in Obama's book to Bill Ayers, who does write very well. There's no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to this except a poem, and the poem was as dumb as "A River, Rock, and a Tree" [sic] that Maya Angelou did at the Slickster's inauguration back in 1993. There's no evidence that he has any kind of -- we haven't seen anything that he wrote at Harvard Law, when he was at Columbia, any of the tests that he's written. But if you listen to the -- if you read his books, you listen to his audio reading of the book here, you don't hear this when Obama goes out and speaks. I would like for him to be given a test on his own book.
Has anyone ever attempted to call in to Rush's little pukefest of a show and ask if he's spoken to Jeff Christie........ er.... his other personality recently??
And not just his homosexuality wzwriter..... but his deep seeded racism and his appearant hate of women (sexism) in the many ways he disregards them (mom must have really screwed him up.... but $300 million probably offers him some comfort?).....
Unless its Hot Teacher of the Year nominee..... or is it VP of the USA (I can never remember) Sarah Palin.... in which case he spews off talking points acting as if he gives a damn!
Anybody can claim that someone did not "author" their own book. It's one of those ridiculous arguments that simply can't be proven or disproved. Therefore, I will place the burden of proof on Rush and so far he can't show anything but some hearsay and speculation.
It's throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping a strand or two will stick. McCain and his campaign are sinking fast, it's hail Mary time and although an Obama presidency will make these rightwing blabberers richer over the next four years, they have to act like they really want McCain to win, even though they probably don't.
This even makes them more hypocritical, if that's possible.
I absolutely agree. I agree that people like Rush Limbaugh cherish the possibility of having a democrat in office so they can have an easy target everyday. Afterall, I believe Rush Limbaugh owes all his fame and fortune to Bill Clinton. Before Bill Clinton, Rush was just known as that "fat guy" over on the AM channels.
it's hail Mary time
GOP:
QB: John McCain
WR1: Sarah Palin
WR2: Sean Hannity
WR3: George W. Bush
WR4: Mitt Romney
WR5: Bill O'Reilly
LT: Karl Rove
LG: Newt Gingrich
C: Jeff Christie
RG: Jerome Corsi
RT: Mark Levin
DNC:
LDE: James Carville
LDT: Howard Dean
RDT: Jamison Foser
RDE: Harry Reid
MLB: Barack Obama
LCB: Bill Clinton
RCB: Keith Olbermann
NB: Alan Colmes
DB: George Soros
FS: Rachel Maddow
SS: Nancy Pelosi
(and that doesn't include backups and alternate package positions [TE, OLB, K, P...])
I think it's funny that the righties are latching on to this one. First, it will blow up in their face. Second, hilarity will ensue. Third, Obama wins the election.
I just checked and his book is selling for $1.99 ( I sorta " rushed " to judgement here )
But he didn't write it. Even if he didn't admit to a ghostwriter, I would just "know" it wasn't his writing.
I should have probably added this in the other thread - but here's as good a case as any.
In any case, I think I heard someone on Boortz (caller perhaps?) note that some memoirs have been ghostwritten - In other words, what's TBFD if Obama had his book ghostwritten?
Just remember, TO was misquoted in his own autobiography.
I know this isn't about him, but has John McCain written his own books, or has someone else written them for him?
CHRISTIE: Stop the tape. Stop it, stop -- stop it. Ed, stop it. What is this? Ballast? He doesn't talk this way. You know, there are stories out there he may not have written this book.
Something in a book sounds different than something in a speech, and something in a speech sounds different than something impromptu.
And one last note -
Ghostwritten by chance?
Franken claimed that Rush's books were ghost written by John Fund.
I can tell you for sure that many people I know do not write in the same manner in which they speak. My grandfather is one. He often bumbles in his speech but his writing isn't bad at all.
Also, Obama never formally met Ayers until the year this book was published. They would have had to write very very quickly in order to do this in LESS than a year.
Thirdly, I just find this to be very subtly racist. "Ayers writes well. Barack Obama claims to have penned an eloquently written memoir. Well, since they know each other, Ayers had to have written for Obama." Limbaugh should have just said, "How can n****r write so well?"
"I just find this to be very subtly racist"
Oh please, there is nothing racial about this crap from Limbaugh. It is all about linking Obama to Ayers by any means possible. Is everything racially tinged to some of you?
"Is everything racially tinged to some of you?"
Nope. But it is to those commentators who are obviously using bigoted code words and phrases.
No, not everything is racial, but this is. Limbaugh has a history of saying racially insensitive things (such as calling Obama a Magical Negro or saying Mexicans are dumb (then crying you were taking out of context, as if those things could ever be in context). Add that to the implication that Obama did not write his book, but Ayers, who is a good writer did (which implies that Obama is both a bad writer and a liar), and if it's not racist, it comes pretty close.
Tommy,
I agree that race should not be an automatic assumption on anyones part in here....... but we are talking about Rush Limbaugh and the rightwing ideology.
Even if Rush meant not to assume race..... many of his listeners will.... and that can not be denied.
Which is why I think Tman418 is right (metaphorically speaking)..... at this point Rush might as well say the word..... plenty of his listeners no doubt do (reality speaking)!
He has a history of using racially charged positions to divide and ridicule opponents. He uses racially insulting dialects frequently. He tries to deflect the blame for the poor economy, the results of Hurricane Katrina, and the failings of football teams away from management and from the Republican's to the poor and minorities.
So I have to agree with TMan on this one.
Limbaugh, among other things, is a racist scumbag.
Oh please, there is nothing racial about this crap from Limbaugh.
There's nothing subtle about Jeff Christie, either, His arrogance, ignorance, racism, sexism, and deeply-closeted homosexuality are out there for everyone to see, if they're willing to see it.
Racist? It's people like you that overplay the race card to the point that people become immune to acknowledging any racism that might actually exist.
I won't comment on "overplaying the race card" one way or the other, but in this case Rush is so far out on a limb, the alegation so absurd on it's faced, and so thinly supported by evidence that it's hardly necessary to "play the card" in order to make him look... well like a fool, for a start.
[Rush] may be a racist, but that's not what going on here. Obama's liberal and a Democrat. Therefore [in his mind] anything goes. He's really not even thinking about race. If he was, or if he ever actualy thought at all, he may have worded his statement more carefully. (Although I doubt he cares one way or the other - as all he does is preach to the choir.) But do you think he'd ever accuse Thomas Sowell of not actually authoriing the articles or papers that has been attributed to him? Or Clanrence Thomas, reagrding his Supreme Court opinions? There may be a racial element, but he's doing it to bash a lib/dem.
I heard this tool Cashill on Medved's show earlier, and they let in a "democrat caller" who sounded out of his mind (I think he was one of the Michael Medved Players troupe, who call from the other room to make the wingnut guests look reasonable).
The guy's got nothing except a subjective idea of stylistic differences and similarities, and a load of conspiracy theories that depend on a real willingness to believe the most far-fetched connections.
Besides, I'm a little angry with Cashill for stealing my thunder by putting this out just as my article is hitting the internets. It's based on my hunch that Badfinger wrote and played all of the Beatles albums.
quote----I heard this tool Cashill on Medved's show earlier, and they let in a "democrat caller" who sounded out of his mind (I think he was one of the Michael Medved Players troupe, who call from the other room to make the wingnut guests look reasonable).
I almost think that is Colmes reason to be opposite Hannity.
There are millions of people for whom 'there's no evidence' they've ever written anything who consider themselves writers--if you base it on stuff that got published.
For years and years there was no evidence that I was a writer--unless you count the boxes full of manuscript and notebooks full of stuff.
Then out of nowhere! I start writing for Marvel Comics--at my peak, a book a week.
That couldn't have been me, right? I must have had a ghost writer, right?
What ridiculous, nasty nonsense.
And, some people say there's no evidence that we ever landed on the moon.
I hate to waste time using logic here, but isn't it just possible that a person attending law school might learn to write? You know, court briefs and such?
The fact that their most highly paid Propagandists is wasting time on this horsehockey leads me to believe that they got nothin'.
They are flailing in the dark, hoping they'll hit something.
Thanks a lot for even mentioning "Rush Limbaugh" and "Penis" in the same entry. Excuse me while I contact my therapist.
LOL... Please note that the question is whether Rush HAS one and not whether he IS one...which is not in dispute. ;>)
Well... There's the illegal viagra.
Rush is not trying to thow spaghetti against the wall - He is trying to nail jello to the wall - in hopes that some of it will stick. After all its totally logical:
1. A lot of leftist radicals were intellectuals.
2. Obama's book sounds smart.
3. Therefore (take your pick):
a) Obama is a leftist radical, or
b) The book was ghost written by a leftist radical.
Gee... do you think Barack Obama is in love with himself since he can't stop writing books about his short life?
No, mostly I think it's to stop people from asking "who is Barack Obama?"
1. MM: "Limbaugh also baselessly suggested Obama did not write Dreams."
MM's claim was not "baseless." It was based on the research of Jack Cashill. There are eye-opening simillarities between the writings of Obama and Ayers. Both Ayers and Obama utilized a nautical term, "ballast," in the same way. Ayers has nautical experience; Obama has none.
In other words, Limbaugh's suspicions are not "baseless."
2. MM: "Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that "[t]here's no evidence that Obama has ever written anything prior to this except a poem."
The so-called "evidence" is an unsigned article and some exams??
Wow! Very convincing! </sarc>
Do you have anything else besides the single word "ballast"? I know what ballast means. I'm sure you can find books that have the word "zeitgeist" in common, that doesn't prove the same person wrote both books. Maybe since Obama went to college, he knows how to use words.
Clearly the book was written by Simpsons writers. "The driver is essentially ballast."
And what Shoes89 posts here is the MMFA equivalent of what comes out of the bilge pumps - smelly and useless.
Cashill's "research" is baseless. Therefore, Flush Drugbaugh's suggestion is baseless.
True, ballast is a nautical term. It is also an aeronautical term. It is also an electrical term. It is also a road and rail construction term.
Does Ayers fly planes, install wiring, or drive a grader on his days off?
Shoes,
"Ballast" is not only a nautical term but it can also mean "something that gives stability or substance". Here a few articles written that use the term "ballast".
http://blog.oup.com/2008/08/vice_president/
"Traditionally, presidential nominees have picked their running mates for geographical and ideological balance. However, over the last decade and a half, presidential nominees have increasingly selected vice-presidential candidates to provide intellectual and moral ballast to the national ticket."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/how-they-ruminate-over-running-mates/2008/06/22/1214073053842.html?page=2
"There are others who would provide the ballast Obama needs on national security. Senator Joseph Biden, who stood this year against Obama, is one; a retired general, Wesley Clark, who backed Clinton during the campaign, is another."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/us/politics/19clinton.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1219151352-M1A4wi7/7RxlLjLAcEMHqQ
"acknowledged Mrs. Clinton’s history-making candidacy, and praising her as a smart, seasoned policy wonk who could add ballast to Mr. Obama’s message of hope and change."
So I guess by your logic, all of these articles were "ghost written" by Ayers.
Also, don't forget, nautical language is very common. "Rising tide" "murky" "sinking ship" "wave of hope". They often serve as the best metaphors in analytical writing. Don't forget, there is no proof whatsoever that these idiots can provide that Obama didn't write "Dreams from my Father".
Do you really think that just because Ayers can write using nautical language that Obama can't? It's a big conclusion.
As for that unsigned article, no one else has claimed it was theirs. Also, Obama didn't meet Ayers until the year this book was published.
Oh well, McCain is on a "sinking ship", following a "wave" of bad attacks from his campaign and his own supporters. He's looking a bit "murky" to the general public. All he can hope for is that an "anchor" is put on Obama's rise and that a "rising tide" comes from underneath him. But I think McCain is just going to "tread" along the "current" and "tack" the wrong way. If only someone can show him what he needs to do to "jive", maybe he can actually carry the Straight Talk Express with pride again. However, Obama seems to show the most "ballast" by sticking to the issues and not these ugly, low blow attacks.
Hey Shoes, did Ayers ghost write the last paragraph of my post?
Well said. I like the cut of your jib.
Just paying the devil eh?
I've always been between the devil and the deep blue sea.
brabantio, I am guessing that you actually wrote "JAWS" since you have an excellent knowledge of the sea. Or am I thinking of "JAWS's" the autobiography of Jeff Rushbo Christie. ;>)
I think it may be Shoes89's day in the barrel.
Same with Clinton. He talked about building a bridge to the 21st century. Clearly his speeches were ghost written by a civil engineer...
Uh, oh. I see where you are going with this. Bin Laden was educated as a, wait for it, civil engineer.
Therefore, bin Laden ghost wrote Clinton's speeches!!
Not only does that fit the pattern Rush has sussed out, it explains so very, very much.
</humor>
Something tells me that the phrase "eye opening" doesn't have the same meaning for you as it does for the rest of society.
You seem to take every ridiculous accusation against Obama as "gospel" but you'd be the first to call someone else out if they used the same tactics on you're beloved Republicans.
Not cool Shoes, not cool.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaiii. Members of his fsmily live there.
Hawaii is a group of islands. It is chock full of mariners and fishermen.
And yet you use as an argument that Obama has no nautical experience.
Your argument is not only unsubstantiated but counter to common sense.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is Jeff Christie constantly flip-flopping about Obama? During one sentence he says Obama's lying, and in the next, he says Obama doesn't know what he's talking about. In order to be lying, you have to know what you're talking about, right? If he doesn't know what he's talking about, how can he be lying?
What a sad, pathetic little man (figurativley speaking, literally of course Rusty is magnificantly bulbous, cavernous if you will).
Rusty is infected with the same degenerative disease Bill O the Clown is infected with - an inferiority complex that stretches from here to West Virginia. It bothers them to no end that we have a young, bright, articulate, educated man who has a real shot at becoming president. In fact, anyone who is actually thoughtful bothers them. Apparently, bumbling fools (see GWB) are easier to relate to.
When others get the attention that they deserve (naturally) it drives them nuts. So what do they do? Denigrate those who do and for that I give the guy high marks. Bravo Rusty!! (But I might have a little chat with your fact checker - room for improvement. Look at it as an opportunity).
And Rusty - please, come on out of the closet - no one cares.
You see, the really stupid thing about this recent spate of attacks about "who" wrote Obama's books is just stupid, and tells me one thing. The republicans have NOTHING to attack Obama with, other than who wrote his book, or who he knows, even remotely. They have nothing. Nothing at all. It's kind of funny actually.
Now, think for a minute. If one of these a-holes who keep making this claim that Obama didn't write his book ever went to college, they would know one thing. You have to write. A lot. Especially in law school. To say that the man never "wrote" anything is plain old absurd, mostly because I'm pretty sure there are reams and reams and reams of paper that Obama has written through his academic career, not to mention during his tenure as a Constitutional law professor. You know Rush, you can write things, and NOT have them published, and because they haven't been published doesn't mean you haven't written anything ever. Rush, you're an idiot. If you had an ounce of education, you'd know, like I said above, to actually make it through school, you've got to write a lot of things throughout the course of your academic career. And you guys are actually going to argue because Obama used ballast in a nautical sense that someone else must have written the book because Obama doesn't have any nautical experience? Seriously? That's your main argument? You guys are freakin' amazingly idiotic. You know, some people know what words mean, and where they came from. I'm not a sailor, but I knew what ballast meant, and how it was used on ships throughout history. Guess what? I've never been on an oceangoing vessel either.
I can't believe the idiocy coming out now. It's utterly breathtaking.
Now that that's falling apart, their next play is "The Bradley Effect".
This raises a lot of questions about this illusive candidate.
Such as...? (assuming you think he's a real person, and not actually "illusive").
Oh my, now there's an interesting concept, a President without a security clearance! How is that going to work? Once he is elected that gets turned around since he cannot have a clearance? Seems like a Commander in Chief would need one, no? Not to mention that someone who holds the highest office in the land would need one. More likely, the security vetting is part of the filing to run for President process, if it has not already occurred as part of being in the Senate.
In your next shopping spree, you might see if you can purchase a brain.
LISTING TO RUSH, HANNITY, MARR AND THE REST OF THESE NUTJOBS YESTERDAY TO SEE IF THEY GOT ROVE MEMO AND THEY DID. TALKED ABOUT THE ECONOMY NOW THAT THERE BOY MCCAIN IS DOWN IN THE POLLS. IT WAS SAD AND SCARY TO LISTEN TO THESE SO CALLED MORAL CHRISTIAN PUTTING OUT ALL THIS HATE FOR OBAMA. IT'S SO FUNNY HOW EVERYTHING THAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT OBAMA MCCAIN AND PALIN HAS DONE IT TOO. BUT RIGHT-WINGERS , THE MEDIA WHO HELP THEM GET INTO OFFICE BY NOT TELLING BOTH SIDES AND SOME DEMS AND INDEPENDENTS WHO WILL CLOSE THERE EYES TO PEOPLE LIKE BUSH AND MCCAIN LIES AND ATTACKS BECAUSE OF FEAR OF THE TERRORIST OR A BLACK MAN WILL PUT THESE HATEFUL PEOPLE IN OFFICE EVERY FOUR YEARS AND MARK MY WORD RIGHT NOW MCCAIN IS DOWN BUT I'AM REALLY SAD TO SAY THIS MCCAIN WILL WIN IN NOV. BECAUSE I STILL THANK DEEP DOWN SOME DEMS AND INDEPENDENTS WILL PUT MCCAIN OVER THE TOP BECAUSE OF FEAR AGAIN!!!!
The burden of proof is always on the accuser, it's one of Rush's tricks to fool his audience.