The Classic Liberal Blog

"This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago,
who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not
somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis." - Barack Obama

Prior to being elected President of the United States, there was much speculation as to who wrote Barack Obama's book, Dreams From My Father.

Who Wrote Dreams From My Father?

Prior to 1990, when Barack Obama contracted to write Dreams From My Father, he had written very close to nothing. Then, five years later, this untested 33 year-old produced what Time Magazine has called -- with a straight face -- "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."

The public is asked to believe Obama wrote Dreams From My Father on his own, almost as though he were some sort of literary idiot savant. I do not buy this canard for a minute, not at all. Writing is as much a craft as, say, golf. To put this in perspective, imagine if a friend played a few rounds in the high 90s and then a few years later, without further practice, made the PGA Tour. It doesn't happen.

Andersen Book Blows Ayers' Cover on 'Dreams'

In his new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," Best-selling celebrity journalist, Christopher Andersen, has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so.

Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams. With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers."

Well, guess what? In an exclusive from the BackyardConservative, Bill Ayers himself, admits to writing Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father.

Bill Ayers No Dream

There I was, sitting in Reagan National Monday morning, sipping a Starbucks by the United counter before going through security. I had a little time, so I was browsing through the news. Some military guys had borrowed a chair from my table. I looked up from time to time to enjoy the sun streaming through. That's when I saw Bill Ayers, an instant blight. Scruffy, thinning beard, dippy earring, and the wirerims, heading to order. I gathered my things, got my camera ready, and snapped a shot right when he got his coffee.

Then, unprompted he said--I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said--Michelle asked me to. I looked at him. He seemed eager. He's about my height, short. He went on to say--and if you can prove it, we can split the royalties. So I said, stop pulling my leg. Horrible thought. But he came again--I really wrote it, the wording was similar. I said I believe you probably heavily edited it. He said--I wrote it. I said--why would I believe you, you're a liar.

He had no answer to that. Just looked at me.

How The VRWC Really Works

To be fair, the mechanics the White House's Communication Stream described in 1997 were not entirely fanciful. What it failed to address, what Gregory and pals failed to address on Meet The Press, was whether these stories were true and, if so, why so circuitous a stream was necessary. The answer to both is fairly obvious. The more accurate the reporting on a story that unnerves the Democrats, the more likely the major media are to block it.

There is no more stunning example of this than the reporting on Christopher Andersen's new best-seller, Barack and Michelle: The Portrait of an American Marriage. Very nearly every major news outlet in the English-speaking world felt compelled to review the book. Yet not a single reviewer, as far as I could tell, dared mention the book's most newsworthy revelation, namely that Bill Ayers substantially aided Barack Obama in the writing of his ballyhooed1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father.

Andersen dedicates six pages to this story. If true, his claim deserves attention for any number of reasons. 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.

More Responses:

• Will Obama Deny Bill Ayers' Accusation?
• Gee, Bill, maybe you should try explaining this to Rachel Maddow
• Backyard Conservative got a Memeorandum thread! Oh, and Bill Ayers confesses to writing Obama’s book!
• Bill Ayers Tells A Conservative Chicago Blogger That He Wrote Dreams From My Father
• memeorandum