Conservative Writer Pushes Conspiracy Theory That Weatherman Wrote Obama Memoir
Conservative author Jack Cashill has been diligently working to find connections between the collected works of former Weatherman Bill Ayers and President
Jul 31, 2020708.6K Shares11.2M Views
Conservative author Jack Cashill has been diligently working to find connections between the collected works of former Weatherman Bill Ayers and President Obama’s first memoir, “Dreams From My Father” — a strange accusation that gathered some steamin the final fevered weeks of the 2008 election, and one that has been dismissed since then. But Cashill is out with a “breakthrough” paper on the theory, aided by a mysterious “Mr. West” who prefers to remain behind the curtain. “The media punishment,” explains Cashill, “that Joe the Plumber received has much to do with this nearly universal reticence.”
In any case, the latest evidence:
- Both men misquote Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” and refer to the city as “Hog butcher to the world” instead of “for” the world. Google turns up 60,000 other examples of this slight misquote.
- Six characters in “Dreams” share names with people in Ayers’ books, including “Freddy,” “Tim,” and “the old man.” (Two of the books Cashill cites were published after “Dreams.”)
- Both men talk about “knowledge” and “power.”
And so on. Cashill makes two admission/observations that are key to his analysis and probably deserve quoting. First:
“„For the record, “baleful” means “threatening harm.” I had to look it up.
And:
“„Not familiar with the term “bill of particulars?” Uncertain myself, I looked that one up too. It means a list of written statements made by a party to a court proceeding. Ayers and Obama each refer knowingly to a “bill of particulars.” Doesn’t everyone?
Actually, lots of writers use those terms: I quickly counted fivejournalistswhoreferredtoa “bill of particulars” in writing about Obama. And that’s pretty much all you need to know about Cashill’s quixotic adventure, which I’m sure will persist until January 2013 or 2017 at least.
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Paolo Reyna
Reviewer
Paolo Reyna is a writer and storyteller with a wide range of interests. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.
Paolo enjoys writing about celebrity culture, gaming, visual arts, and events. He has a keen eye for trends in popular culture and an enthusiasm for exploring new ideas. Paolo's writing aims to inform and entertain while providing fresh perspectives on the topics that interest him most.
In his free time, he loves to travel, watch films, read books, and socialize with friends.
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