This was inevitable: A swift boater has launched a smear campaign against Barack Obama.
Jerome Corsi, one of the instigators of 2004’s infamous “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” smear campaign against then-Democratic candidate John Kerry, has published a book filled with lies, smears and distortions to attack Barack Obama. His book, which is expected to debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, is already being denounced for its lack of truth, distortions and downright sloppiness.
The book is part of a larger effort by the far right, including the managers of John McCain’s campaign, to define Barack Obama, and to demonise him. They can’t do that by telling the truth, so they’re using lies, smears and distortions instead, just like they did on behalf of Bush-Cheney. There’s been some mainstream media attention given to the falsehoods in this piece of trash, but not enough.
Corsi himself is at the extreme fringes of the Republican Party. He believes that Bush has been working to create a “North American Union” from Canada, the US and Mexico, and he blames NAFTA for the collapse of the Minnesota bridge. He also believes that there’s unlimited oil beneath the earth’s surface. And yet, he’ll be treated as credible by some in the mainstream newsmedia.
I’ve pledged that I’ll do my part to expose and refute the lies, smears and distortions that Republicans—official or unofficial—will use in this campaign. But for a multi-point demolition of the outright lies in this book, you can download a PDF (called “Unfit For Publication”) from the Democrats here, or to simply read more, you can go the FightTheSmears page dealing with the book.
2 comments:
There's a great editorial in the Washington Post about the book. Here's the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081403051.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
It ends with:
Mr. Corsi has dismissed criticisms of his book as "nit-picking," an odd defense coming from an author happy to inflate any possible omission into a full-blown evasion. Mary Matalin, the Republican political strategist who heads Threshold Editions, the Simon & Schuster division that published "The Obama Nation," described the book to the New York Times as "a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that." That would not be our description.
Not for the first time, money triumphs: Matalin surely knows damn well the book is a steaming pile of horse shit, but her desire to make money means she can't say anything other than how wonderful it is.
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