PrintOctober 7, 2009
Ayers Admitted Authorship to National Journal - Just Kidding
The news that Bill Ayers admitted authorship of Obama's 'Dreams From My Father' posted on these pages yesterday generated a lot of interest and comment. While many are convinced Ayers is the author, some doubted the veracity of the story that he admitted it, others dismissed it as simply a tease, Salon.com ridiculed it (what do you expect), still others thought the whole thing irrelevant either way.
It has come to light that he said almost the identical thing to a National Journal reporter recently. Jonah Goldberg at National Review put up a post today in The Corner quoting the Journal's Will Englund:
Who actually wrote Dreams From My Father? ... National Journal caught up with Ayers at a recent book festival ... When he finished speaking, we put the authorship question right to him. For a split second, Ayers was nonplussed. Then an Abbie Hoffmanish, steal-this-book-sort-of-smile lit up his face. He gently took National Journal by the arm. "Here's what I'm going to say. This is my quote. Be sure to write it down: 'Yes, I wrote Dreams From My Father. I ghostwrote the whole thing. I met with the president three or four times, and then I wrote the entire book.'" He released National Journal's arm, and beamed in Marxist triumph. "And now I would like the royalties."
This is pretty much identical to what he said Monday. Okay, in light of that, I'm inclined to agree with the skeptics that maybe he was just having a joke with us. Or maybe it was a little more than that. Maybe this is the beginning of another smear campaign, wherein anyone who suggests Bill Ayers wrote Obama's book is castigated, like people who question Obama's eligibility.
It seems pretty clear that Ayers did write most or all of the book for Obama. This is stated plainly in Christopher Andersen's biography. And while no one, left or otherwise, would deny Ayers lies, Andersen's veracity has never been doubted before now.
As to its relevance, this is a blockbuster story, because it completely discredits Obama's carefully crafted image. From that standpoint it makes sense that Ayers would try to ridicule those of us peddling it. As Jack Cashill makes clear at American Thinker today,
First, it reveals Obama to have been a shameless liar in his disavowal of Ayers during the campaign. Second, it suggests a dangerously intimate relationship with a man whose hatred of the United States borders on the pathological. And third, it makes a total sham out of the literary world's anointment of Obama as "the best writer to occupy the White House since Lincoln," the understanding on which the Obama genius myth is based.
Remember, influential people decided to back this president based on his supposed authorship of Dreams.
Well, whatever Ayers hoped to gain, this story is not going away.
The evidence shows that Ayers has been a very influential person in Obama's life, going back at least to the early 1990s, and likely back into the 1980s. In the 1990s, Ayers obtained Obama access to the deep pockets of Chicago foundations, where Obama used them to grease the skids for his political career. Ayers was a key player in many of the pro-Obama leftist organizations that helped him get elected president. Until Ayers was tossed under the bus along with Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the campaign last year, many believed he was still a key influence, a mentor even.
But the story remains relevant and provides yet more fuel for those of us who believe that President Obama gained office on false pretenses, is a danger to this country and thoroughly unfit to serve.
Ayers may well be trying to marginalize those who legitimately question his role as Obama's ghostwriter on Dreams. But he is playing with fire, considering the evidence that is at hand.
