Barack Obama Wrote “Dreams of My Father” All By Himself
The Race:
Barack Obama (D) vs. John McCain (R): President of the U.S.
Discuss and Debunk
The Smear:
A right wing pseudo-journalist has made the absurd assertion that William Ayers is the “ghostwriter” of Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.”
The Truth:
Barack Obama is, in fact, the one true and only author of both “Dreams from My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” Were it not for the noise this ridiculous accusation is generating, this would not be worth our time to debunk. But, we have to admit, this one did cause quite a few chuckles in the TruthFightsBack offices.
A fringe, partisan, right wing charlatan recently published an “analysis” of Obama and Ayers’ writings on a fringe, partisan, right wing website and decided that a handful of meaningless “similarities” pointed conclusively to Ayers’ authorship of Obama’s memoir. It seems an odd attack against someone universally regarded as one of the best political writers and orators of our time, but there you go.
Let us count the ways in which this is utter hogwash.
For one thing, as we have already made clear, Obama and Ayers aren’t friends at all. See our original Obama-Ayers debunking here: truthfightsback.com
But this is one of those assertions that is so ridiculous and empty, it’s not really worth a positive debunking; it suffices to simply point at the unbelievably flimsy “evidence” and laugh amongst ourselves.
For example, one central piece of “evidence” is the fact that both Obama and Ayers have used water metaphors! By that standard, we could say that “Master and Commander’s” Patrick O’Brian is equally capable of having written Obama’s book, or anyone else who has ever written about a boat. Also asserted is the idea that Obama had published few other works before “Dreams.” But being that it was his first book, it would have been difficult for Obama to publish something…before he ever published something. So by this standard, anyone who has ever written a first book could have had their book written by William Ayers. Amazing!
Or, a favorite for us, the piece mentions that Ayers once went to sea on a merchant ship, and Barack Obama used “ballast” as a metaphor in his book. Since no one could possibly know what “ballast” was who hadn’t spent months in the merchant marine, Bill Ayers must have written the book! Laughable.
Many in the conservative media would like to see this outright lie gain some credence, and through nonsensical, fake analysis lend it an air of scholarly respectability. It’s important to know, however, that this attack is 100% made up by unscrupulous partisans with access to right wing websites. It demeans the literary achievements of a U.S. senator, and insults the intelligence of the American people. |
