Swift Obama Response

15 August 2008 |permalink | email article

‘Smear’ best describes a new book, “The Obama Nation,” by James Corsi – number one this weekend and for a second week on the New York Times’ best seller list.

Its context recalls similar attacks by the author and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004 which had much to do with sinking John Kerry.

The book makes many questionable accusations about Obama, including that he covered up his extensive toes to Islam (he is a Christian), and “has yet to answer” whether he stopped taking marijuana or cocaine (he said he stopped in the early 1980s).

Kerry, who never aggressively fought back, was the target of a vicious advertising campaign suggesting that he exaggerated his distinguished war record in Vietnam. He’s formed a new web site, TruthFightsBack.com, to fight smears.

Obama’s campaign will not make Kerry’s mistake. Whenever Corsi is booked for a network program, aides will quickly contact producers to rebut the book’s charges and attack factual errors.

It’s working. On Wednesday night, Larry King and his guests assailed Corsi for his unprofessional past and poor sourcing. Politico has explored the author’s lurid past as an anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim right wing fringe blogger.

The publisher is Mary Matalin, the right-wing Republican strategist and former Cheney adviser who’s married to Democratic strategist James Carville. 

Notebook

Bush’s untrustworthy ally, Musharraf, Pakistan’s beleaguered president, is resigning to avoid impeachment. A continued alliance with the U.S. in the war on terror may no longer be certain. … Karl Rove predicts that four battleground states will decide the election – Colorado, Virginia, Michigan and Ohio. The spreads today shows Obama ahead in Michigan (+3.2), Ohio (+0.5) and Colorado (+1.6); McCain leads in Virginia (+0.6).

Quote of the Day

“There is no excuse for what the McCain campaign is doing on the “putting America first” front. There is no way to balance it, or explain it other than as evidence of a severe character defect on the part of a candidate who allows it to be used.” – Joe Klein in Time.

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