Anti-Obama Books

Catching up on the "to do" list and I thought I'd mention a couple interviews Dan Yorke had with some authors of "anti-Obama" books.

The first was with Jerome Corsi, author of Obama Nation (podcast). Corsi is a lightning rod right out of the box thanks to his co-authoring of the book about John Kerry a la the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth controversy. He talked to Yorke about the "cult of personality" that has grown up around Obama and that Obama is largely a creation of Saul Alinsky disciples, Black liberation theology and other radical, leftists. A lot of politically savvy folks have heard it before, but Corsi delves deeper into some of the personal associations that others have only touched on. Understandably, Corsi feels a bit under siege, but that is owing both to his subject matter and his apparently confrontational writing style.

Dan also interviewed David Freddoso, author of The Case Against Barack Obama (podcast). Freddoso writes for National Review and his book sounds well-researched. He talked about how Michelle Obama's father came up through the Chicago's political machine and how Obama benefited from this. Further, when the time came, Obama supported candidates of the Chicago machine over real reformers. He also discusses Obama's ties to Tony Rezko. Freddoso also explains that the Chicago media has done a great job of looking into Obama's background (seems like he relied on those accounts to a large degree when researching Obama's Chicago years). However, the national, New York/Washington, D.C. press has yet to really pick up on those stories to any real degree. Further, Freddoso illustrates Obama's extensive ties to lobbyists and his support for such business-as-usual legislation as the 2008 Farm Bill to show that Obama really isn't the reformer he claims to be.

I haven't read either of the books (only excerpts), but of the two, Freddoso's sounds the more measured and journalistically credible. Corsi is more willing to take a rumor and amplify it. Here's a positive review of Freddoso's. This is a more skeptical review of both Corsi's and Freddoso's books, which notes Corsi's reliance on debunked rumors and faults Freddoso mostly for his stretched analysis, not his journalism.

ADDENDUM: I later found that Jim Geraghty (also of NR, which he makes clear) agrees that Freddoso's is the more responsible and credible.