# Who wrote Obama's book?



## Pentheos (Jun 30, 2008)

Have you ever wondered how someone who had written so little wrote so well? Read this:

https://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html

I always figured that Obama had used a ghostwriter or had some serious editorial intervention. This puts a name to it.

I should add that in my opinion the author makes a very persuasive philological, scientific argument.


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## Relayer (Nov 9, 2005)

Very interesting case put forth by the article's author.

Any real proof of his theory would surely be a McCain campaign dream come true. 

The idea that Ayers is yet another radical "affiliate" that Obama had little real knowledge of strains credulity, no doubt.


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## Concordia (Sep 30, 2004)

So law students don't have to write much?


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

Concordia said:


> So law students don't have to write much?


He probably wrote a lot... of sample legal briefs. I think the point is that it's unlikely that someone who has, apparently, written nothing but legal briefs and an occasional (one) review note, could turn out such a well written work of autobiography.

He very well may be a naturally gifted writer, honing his talents in advanced writing classes and going unpublished. However, in every writing class I've ever had, if you're even halfway decent, the instructor encourages you to try to get published somewhere. If he was that good, something there should be some sort of evidence, especially if he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review.


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## Helvetia (Apr 8, 2008)

The McCain-Palin Ticket is pulling out all the stops


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## M6Classic (Feb 15, 2008)

Pentheos said:


> Have you ever wondered how someone who had written so little wrote so well? Read this:
> 
> https://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/who_wrote_dreams_from_my_fathe_1.html
> 
> ...


The article seems like nothing more than wild and wishful specualtion. It is possible that Obama had heavy editing, some of our greatest writers...Thomas Wolf leaps to mind...had their work virtually re-created by their editors.

I have just gotten off the phone with two of Obama's professors from law school where he was editor of the law review. Both of those professors proclaim that Obama was a gifted and prolific writer in graduate school. I prefer to accept the judgement of people with first-hand knowledge.

This right-wing flailing to attach Obama and Ayers is indeed an amusing distraction in these dire times. Lord knows we all need some amusement right about now!

Buzz


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

> Under water grottos, caverns
> 
> Filled with apes
> 
> ...




Buzz, did you ask these unnamed professors if Obama wrote more poetry in "graduate" school? Because this little tidbit really leaves you wanting more!


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## a4audi08 (Apr 27, 2007)

the anti obama industry is just sprouting up, and will put many kids through expensive colleges over the next 8 years or so. they have found their bogeyman ayers, now everything obama has ever said/done will be miraculously connected to him. i would understand the author's surprise at dreams of my father's sophistication if obama were 18 when he wrote it- but for crissakes he was 33!.


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

_"Have you ever wondered how someone who had written so little wrote so well?"_

Never. It's a very common occurrence. Often a writer writes one good book and that is quite enough. For example Harper Lee wrote _To Kill A Mockingbird_ and nothing much else.

 _"I think the point is that it's unlikely that someone who has, apparently, written nothing but legal briefs and an occasional (one) review note, could turn out such a well written work of autobiography."_

This assertion is unfortunately quite unfounded in facts. Many a lawyer or business executive, awash in briefs and memoranda, turns out great books. John Grisham, novelist, and Wallace Stevens, poet, come immediately to mind.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Folks: While I am not an Obama supporter, this is a ridiculous allegation considering the candidates proven intellect and professional background. Offering it for our consideration/discussion, insults the intelligence of each of us! There must be something better to occupy our time and attention.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

*They're getting desperate, aren't they?*

In case you haven't taken the time to go and read the full article, I will share with you what the author says is the single most persuasive piece of evidence:

_If there is any one paragraph in Dreams that has convinced me of Ayers' involvement it is this one, in which Obama describes the Black Nationalist message:

"A steady attack on the white race... served as the ballast that could prevent the ideas of personal and communal responsibility from tipping into an ocean of despair."

As a writer, especially in the pre-Google era of Dreams, I would never have used a metaphor as specific as "ballast" unless I knew exactly what I was talking about. Seaman Ayers most surely did._

Yes, my friends, I kid you not. In amongst the questionable methodology, insignificant parallels (e.g., the uses of "ship", "storm", and "horizon" as metaphor), and rank speculation, the most telling piece of evidence for this guy is that a thirty-four year old graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School knew the meaning of the word "ballast".

Are you sure American Thinker isn't a new section of The Onion?


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

jackmccullough said:


> In case you haven't taken the time to go and read the full article, I will share with you what the author says is the single most persuasive piece of evidence:


It's no anonymous waitress from Alaska, I'll admit...


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## Quay (Mar 29, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> Folks: While I am not an Obama supporter, this is a ridiculous allegation considering the candidates proven intellect and professional background. Offering it for our consideration/discussion, insults the intelligence of each of us! There must be something better to occupy our time and attention.


A very nice view, and reminder, of the big picture. Thank you!


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## hurling frootmig (Sep 18, 2008)

Quay said:


> _"Have you ever wondered how someone who had written so little wrote so well?"_
> 
> Never. It's a very common occurrence. Often a writer writes one good book and that is quite enough. For example Harper Lee wrote _To Kill A Mockingbird_ and nothing much else.
> 
> ...


You beat me to the Harper Lee example.

As someone who has actually read both of the books mentioned in the article I can tell you that the writing styles are not similar. One of the keys to writing is setting a pace. The pace of the writing differs between the work of Bill Ayers and Obama. I would think this would be quite obvious to any person who reads a fair amount of books. It should be especially noticeable to those who write.

I found little in the article to be believable.


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## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

Quay said:


> _"Have you ever wondered how someone who had written so little wrote so well?"_
> 
> Never. It's a very common occurrence. Often a writer writes one good book and that is quite enough. For example Harper Lee wrote _To Kill A Mockingbird_ and nothing much else.


There was also Peggy Marsh, a decent newspaper reporter but no amazing literary genius, who spent ten years on a "great Southern novel" as a hobby. It ended up as the best selling book of all time after the Bible.

Unfortunately, there are some who think that Harper Lee got a lot of help from Truman Capote. At least Mrs. Marsh, writing under her maiden name of Margaret Mitchell, put aside enough of her working papers in a bank vault to protect her credibility should it ever be challenged.


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## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

Relayer said:


> Any real proof of his theory would surely be a McCain campaign dream come true.


I'd be much more bothered if he wrote a work of fiction with a lot of help and claimed it as his own. Since it's an autobiography, he would be the best person to tell the story but not necessarily the person who can tell the story best.

I'm sure that his books are on the list that Sarah Palin requested be banned from the Wasilla library, since many of the other books on that alleged list hadn't been written yet either...


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## M6Classic (Feb 15, 2008)

Miket61 said:


> Unfortunately, there are some who think that Harper Lee got a lot of help from Truman Capote. At least Mrs. Marsh, writing under her maiden name of Margaret Mitchell, put aside enough of her working papers in a bank vault to protect her credibility should it ever be challenged.


Actually, the more interesting issue is to wonder just how much help Harper Lee gave Truman Capote in the research for and writing of _In Cold Blood_.

Buzz


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## Relayer (Nov 9, 2005)

Miket61 said:


> I'd be much more bothered if he wrote a work of fiction with a lot of help and claimed it as his own. Since it's an autobiography, he would be the best person to tell the story but not necessarily the person who can tell the story best.
> 
> I'm sure that his books are on the list that Sarah Palin requested be banned from the Wasilla library, since many of the other books on that alleged list hadn't been written yet either...


The vast majority of people couldn't care less if Obama wrote the book. The point of the article is not actually whether Obama wrote it, but of possible close Ayers connections to Obama.

The possibility of Ayers' authorship is pretty far fetched. But, so are Obama's claims to not really know (boy, how many times have we heard this?) who/what Ayers is.


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

I have no stake in this election. I hate McBama as much as I hate Obain. But it is still very interesting to watch the committed Obama supporters, here and elsewhere, fly into a frenzy when they hear stories like this one.

What makes this story interesting as a case in applied psychology is that the author of the _American Thinker_ piece fully admits that the conclusion that Ayers wrote (or heavily edited) The Messiah's (auto)biography is speculative, but presents enough circumstantial evidence to invite such speculation. That set of circumstances -- a large enough dose of reality to raise a question but not enough to answer it conclusively -- invites people to project their political biases and reach emotional conclusions.

In my case, here's how I see it -- the use of the word "ballast" doesn't move me much. I am much more interested in the fact that _Dreams of My Father_ scored the same rating on the Flesch Reading Ease Score as Ayers' own autobiography, _Fugitive Days_. That's a huge red flag.

Then I see that _Fugitive Days_ averaged 23.13 words a sentence, _Dreams of my Father_ averaged 23.36 words a sentence, but The Messiah's _other_ book, _Audacity of Hope_ averaged more than 29 words a sentence. _Dreams of my Father_ is written at a 12th grade reading level, but _Audacity of Hope_ is at a 9th grade reading level.

I didn't know the rocky history of The Messiah's publication of _Dreams of My Father_ -- he got a fat advance, then produced nothing worth publishing, so he went to a second publisher, got a second (albeit less fat) advance, then produced a literary memoir that set Leftist hearts aflutter. Clearly _something_ happened between the first miserable failure of a book and the subsequent success. And based on what I know about the publishing business, I think I have an idea what that something was.

Based on these facts alone, I believe _Dreams of My Father_ was ghostwritten. I will believe that until proven otherwise.

Whether that ghostwriter is Ayers is an amusing thought, but needs more exploration.

I wonder if the media will pursue that question as vigorously as they explored Bristol Palin's pregnancy and reproductive history. Or Trig Palin's parentage.

If anyone's interested in finding out who Ayers is and why this matters, here's an interesting video on Bill Ayers. Stick with it to the end. It reminds us that Obama launched his political career in Ayers' living room.


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## young guy (Jan 6, 2005)

Phinn said:


> ...I wonder if the media will pursue that question as vigorously as they explored Bristol Palin's pregnancy and reproductive history. Or Trig Palin's parentage.


or Sarah and Todds association with a radical separatist party that wants to destroy the union, well unless she can be vp i guess


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## M6Classic (Feb 15, 2008)

Phinn...

Where do you draw the line, if a line you do draw, between editing and ghost-writing?

Buzz


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

young guy said:


> or Sarah and Todds association with a radical separatist party that wants to destroy the union, well unless she can be vp i guess


Ever hear of the New Party? It was started by an outfit called the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Democratic *Socialists* of America.

They've heard of Obama.

In 1996, Obama was a member of the New Party.  The New Party newsletter from October 1996 gleefully reported Mr. Obama's win in his state office primary.

That's not me calling Obama a socialist. That's Obama's chosen political affiliation.


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

M6Classic said:


> Where do you draw the line, if a line you do draw, between editing and ghost-writing?


As I see it, these are descriptive terms. The distinction between them is one of connotation and degree.

I would consider editing to consist of two levels -- editorial revision, and copy editing. Copy editing is technical, designed to correct errors of spelling, grammar, syntax, and slightly more complicated issues of clarity and style. It is usually limited to changes on the level of the sentence, and only addressing things that might be considered officially wrong, like the use of "they're" for "their."

Editorial revision is more a matter of opinion. It typically consists of someone making suggestions that some part should be cut, or some other part expanded. Emphasize this, de-emphasize that. I loved this chapter, I hated that one, with reasons given. These changes are global, typically very generalized. It sets goals of what the overall effect should be, without telling the author how to go about achieving those effects. Most genuine, legitimate authors resent being micromanaged, so a talented editor will tend to keep all such editorial direction very broad.

Ghostwriting is the creation of actual text. Ghostwriting changes are the sort of thing one might find, for example, to be reflected in such quantifiable attributes as sentence length, vocabulary choices, and syntax complexity level.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

Just out of curiosity I took a handful of documents I have on my hard drive to see the average sentence lengths and whether they would display any characteristic features. Here's what I came up with.

Number of documents: 12
Average sentence length:

14 words--3
15 words--1
16 words--3
17 words--2
18 words--0 (!)
19 words--1
20 words--1
22 words--1

Does this tell us anything about authorship? Not that I can see. Unless Mr. Cashill can find something he claims to have written that has the same average sentence length as one of these documents; then I'll just have to assume that I ghost-wrote it for him.


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## Spence (Feb 28, 2006)

jackmccullough said:


> Does this tell us anything about authorship? Not that I can see. Unless Mr. Cashill can find something he claims to have written that has the same average sentence length as one of these documents; then I'll just have to assume that I ghost-wrote it for him.


Or Ayers ghost wrote them for YOU! While I have no real evidence to this fact, it certainly hasn't been shot down either.

-spence


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

I was working at my first job, McDonalds.
Being I was 16, I felt a prisoner, minumum wage $1.65 and the conditions brutal.
The manager made me do repetitive jobs like seperating frozen hamburger buns all night until I could barely raise my arms over my shoulders.
One of the assistant managers came over to yell at me to work faster.
But while yelling about frozen buns, He dripped a strawberry milkshake cross on the floor between us.
We stood together for a brief moment, two christians silently sharing the gospel.
Then he smeared it with his foot and walked away to yell at the Puerto Rican girl making frenchfries.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

Spence said:


> Or Ayers ghost wrote them for YOU! While I have no real evidence to this fact, it certainly hasn't been shot down either.
> 
> -spence


Ooh. You're good.


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

My, my. You poke an Obammunist and a whole mess of fallacies come flying out. 

Kinda like when The One Himself is poked. (But he's a politician, so my expectations are lower.) 

Emulation is a characteristic of cults. Creepy.


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

I'm disappointed that no one has addressed Jack's question posed earlier:



jackmccullough said:


> So everybody who's attacking [_the author -ed._], let me just ask you:
> 
> 1. Do you have evidence to disbelieve this story?
> If so, what evidence do you have?
> ...


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

I have no evidence to disbelieve this story. None. Sorry.


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## M6Classic (Feb 15, 2008)

PedanticTurkey said:


> I'm disappointed that no one has addressed Jack's question posed earlier:





jackmccullough said:


> So everybody who's attacking me for posting this, let me just ask you:
> 
> 1. Do you have evidence to disbelieve this story?
> If so, what evidence do you have?
> ...


And the Turkey still has never answered the questions posed several weeks ago.

1. Can the Turkey prove that he was not abducted by aliens?

2. Can the Turkey prove that the aliens did not replace his brain with processed luncheon meat?

Buzz


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

Actually, yes, I can--I have never been abducted by aliens. My brain has not been replaced.

Pretty cool, huh?


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

People with processed luncheon meat for brains can't type.

And they have very poor taste in shoes. 

Therefore, posting comments on the Internet, and on AAAC, no less, disproves that point. 

QED

(No comment on the aliens thing.)


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

Circumstantial evidence be damned, I _was there_.


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## Nicesuit (Apr 5, 2007)

I think anyone saying Obama has a "proven intellect" either needs to fork over his grades, or his LSAT Scores. He's guarding these things like a farmer guards his daughters honey pot. And this is the guy trying to convince people he's more qualified than Palin to run the country. He may be more polished, or more used to being "slick", but more qualified is probably a stretch at this point. This idiot keeps carting out the fact he "organized black folk" as his sole claim to fame. Frankly, I'm not buying it. As far as someone else writing his book for him, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. He seemed to enjoy the sea metaphors quite a bit for some dude who "organized black folks" and watched the Watergate hearings at 10. Or was that saw a dead body at 10? He's a douche either way.


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

Phinn said:


> Emulation is a characteristic of cults. Creepy.


Then parents that say "Do I say and not do as I do." are correct.

Or, is this to much do do?


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## a4audi08 (Apr 27, 2007)

Nicesuit said:


> I think anyone saying Obama has a "proven intellect" either needs to fork over his grades, or his LSAT Scores. He's guarding these things like a farmer guards his daughters honey pot. And this is the guy trying to convince people he's more qualified than Palin to run the country. He may be more polished, or more used to being "slick", but more qualified is probably a stretch at this point. This idiot keeps carting out the fact he "organized black folk" as his sole claim to fame. Frankly, I'm not buying it. As far as someone else writing his book for him, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. He seemed to enjoy the sea metaphors quite a bit for some dude who "organized black folks" and watched the Watergate hearings at 10. Or was that saw a dead body at 10? He's a douche either way.


he graduated magna cum laude from harvard law. unless you think the u of chicago is in the business of allowing C students to become instructors at their law school, that means he most likely went through those 3 years with maybe one or two B's. what i think is that there are a lot of people who are angry (maybe jealous) of his meteoric rise. it's somewhat understandable - no one likes the guy who makes it look a bit too easy. as far as his community organizing, would it have made you feel any better if he went to a white shoe firm and dicked around for a couple of years until he made partner? or would you then hate him b/c he "just another goddamn lawyer?"


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

Nobody should argue that Obama's performance at Harvard law was not exceptional. Clearly, it was. But if he'd been white, would he have been accepted by HLS with his test scores and academic record? Would he even have been accepted at Columbia?

No one can say for sure, because he won't release his grades or test scores prior to law school. In fact, he's pretty much admitted that he was admitted as a result of affirmative action.


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED: THE DESIGN DANGERS OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE by Ralph Nader

My presidential choice this, and the previous elections wrote a book that actually made a substantive difference in this country.

Our corporate dominated duocracy of republicrats quickly responded by insuring no further effective pressure could be used outside of paid up front lobbyists.

Nader and others replied in the traditional role of third parties to push issues ignored. The private owners of OUR airwaves countered with disenfranchising 5% of the american voters from being heard, like women, blacks, native americans, servicemen and others before. 
Third party candidates are PROFILES IN COURAGE. I don't know why CBS ,MURDOCK and friends are afraid: They're words, just words.



GM shares are how much tonight?


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## 16412 (Apr 1, 2005)

Kav said:


> GM shares are how much tonight?


Glad you are back, Kav.

Despite that all the nonsence of who has what right and who should be paid what, etc. GM does employee a lot of people. Unfortunately the leadership at GM is not to bright- looking into the future and produceing concept cars.


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## a4audi08 (Apr 27, 2007)

PedanticTurkey said:


> Nobody should argue that Obama's performance at Harvard law was not exceptional. Clearly, it was. But if he'd been white, would he have been accepted by HLS with his test scores and academic record? Would he even have been accepted at Columbia?
> 
> No one can say for sure, because he won't release his grades or test scores prior to law school. In fact, he's pretty much admitted that he was admitted as a result of affirmative action.


so we are now asking every politician to open up their academic records for all to see? even if he were admitted as an affirmative action candidate, I would say that the policy worked out considering he ended up graduating near the top of his class. i would guess the reason he doesnt want to release his grades etc, information that is protected by federal law, is that he knows that his kooky detractors will NEVER be satisfied. people that are asking for this kind of information are only looking to try and justify their preconceived biases.

speaking of affirmative action, i wonder if senator mccain, on his record alone, deserved entry into the naval academy. it's harder to get into the service academies than columbia or harvard. i wonder what is the typical career path of a cadet that graduates 5th from the bottom of the class with such a terrible flight record.


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

Son and grandson of admirals. Maybe you wouldn't want to call that affirmative action, but it does seem that the way was paved for him.

Here's an article about his Navy career that may be enlightening. (Yes, I know it was in that communist hippie publication Rolling Stone, so try to concentrate on the reporting.)


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

a4audi08 said:


> so we are now asking every politician to open up their academic records for all to see?


Well, curiously enough, Bush's records were "leaked" by every school he went to. Strange that it hasn't happened to Obama though 



> even if he were admitted as an affirmative action candidate, I would say that the policy worked out considering he ended up graduating near the top of his class.


Is that an argument for AA or for not having admissions standards at all?



> i would guess the reason he doesnt want to release his grades etc, information that is protected by federal law, is that he knows that his kooky detractors will NEVER be satisfied. people that are asking for this kind of information are only looking to try and justify their preconceived biases.
> 
> speaking of affirmative action, i wonder if senator mccain, on his record alone, deserved entry into the naval academy. it's harder to get into the service academies than columbia or harvard. i wonder what is the typical career path of a cadet that graduates 5th from the bottom of the class with such a terrible flight record.


The great thing about McCain is that he's freely admitted that he was a punk prior to being broken in a Vietnamese prison. Obama was a mediocre student who wrote poems about apes stomping on figs, but mention this and people jump on you, for some reason...


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## hurling frootmig (Sep 18, 2008)

This thread has taken some interesting turns.

Now the argument seems to be "of course he's smart but we'd like to see his grades and dissect his test scores just to be sure". It appears to me that he was probably a decent student at Occidental (ranked in the top 40 in 2009 for liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report). Obviously decent enough to get into Columbia. Since he didn't graduate with honors from Columbia we know that he had a GPA of less than 3.3. He then worked for four years and then was admitted to Harvard Law. 

I know two guys who did something similar. They are both very bright but enjoyed their undergrad years more than they shoud have :icon_smile_big:. They then went out into the workforce and got very serious about what they wanted to do with their life. After a few years they went back to school and graduated with high honors. What they both told me was that life experience made them realize how to achieve academic excellence. 

Does anyone remember the grades of Bush and Gore? Both somehow managed to get into their Grad programs with grades that would embarrass most of us if our children came home with them. Of course they didn't get in to their colleges due to the evil program of Affirmative Action. No they got in because of the old boys network. Rather ironic.


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

What's especially ironic is that people aren't asking the same questions about Obama as they did about Bush and Gore. Probably because Bush and Gore had more to hang their hats on than having been elected president of a law journal...


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

A famous quote goes " War is to important to be left to the generals."
Perhaps the people have some vague notion government is to important to be left to politicians.
This election looks to be the end to both the Bush 'era' or error and the Clinton era/error. 

Both Democrat and Republican parties need to reconnect with what they were, what they should be.Fail, and one or both may become American Motors.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

Off Topic, but permission requested to say, "YAAAAYYYYY, WELCOME BACK, KAV!!! YAYYYAYYYYYYY!!!!!


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## a4audi08 (Apr 27, 2007)

PedanticTurkey said:


> Well, curiously enough, Bush's records were "leaked" by every school he went to. Strange that it hasn't happened to Obama though
> 
> Is that an argument for AA or for not having admissions standards at all?
> 
> The great thing about McCain is that he's freely admitted that he was a punk prior to being broken in a Vietnamese prison. Obama was a mediocre student who wrote poems about apes stomping on figs, but mention this and people jump on you, for some reason...


personally, if AA is to continue, i always believed it should be based on class/economic considerations. but my point is that if the goal of AA is to increase representation of minority candidates w/o diminishing the quality of the student body, then it was a success in obama's case.

noun. verb. POW - it's definitely catching on. what does the fact that mccain was admitted into naval academy and continually promoted even though his academic, disciplinary and flying records were near the bottom of his class, have to do with his POW experience? if the only thing you have to say about obama's academic record is that he wrote bad poetry, i would say he probably did pretty well for himself. btw, i dont think anyone is jumping on you.


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## hurling frootmig (Sep 18, 2008)

PedanticTurkey said:


> What's especially ironic is that people aren't asking the same questions about Obama as they did about Bush and Gore. Probably because Bush and Gore had more to hang their hats on than having been elected president of a law journal...


What were the things that George W. Bush hung his hat on back in 2000?


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

Harry Truman couldn't even make a haberdashery prosper. Can you imagine the forum voting for him solely on that record?


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## a4audi08 (Apr 27, 2007)

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5063279.ece

apparently some gop figure tried to commission a test by an oxford scientist to use specialized software to try and find out who wrote obama's book, but the guy chickened out when the developer of the software said he would make the results of the test public.


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

What a bizarre headline-- "Republicans try to use Oxford don to smear Barack Obama."


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## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

hurling frootmig said:


> What were the things that George W. Bush hung his hat on back in 2000?


He had been governor of a state for more than a full term.

I find it amusing that when Gore's Yale transcripts were finally released, it turned out that his GPA was even lower than the alleged idiot he was running against.


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## PedanticTurkey (Jan 26, 2008)

It is something how quickly Bush's academic records were leaked, and yet Obama's remain locked up tight.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^Although, as I recall, there were several (uncomplimentary) leaks from Michell's college papers! Perhaps she wrote Barack's book(!)?


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## jackmccullough (May 10, 2006)

*Again with this?*

Here's the money quote from the article:

Millican took a preliminary look and found the charges "very implausible". A deal was agreed for more detailed research but when Millican said the results had to be made public, even if no link to Ayers was proved, interest waned.


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## Blueboy1938 (Aug 17, 2008)

*Unproven*

Anyone can make allegations. It's quite a different matter to prove them. Putting out a theory and saying that no evidence to the contrary has surfaced is propaganda. Sometimes it proves convincing, sometimes not. That is mainly based on whether it has been constructed with a sufficiently plausible internal consistency or not.

Most people are uncritical of what they hear, read, or see. They will not bother to determine veracity for themselves. That means, whether many people actually accept the assertions as true or not, many will have those assertions enter their background "radiation," if you will, regarding the person who is the subject of the assertion. That may in turn influence their acceptance of other things they hear, read, or see, about that individual.

Goebbles used a form of this very effectively, repeating baseless assertions repeatedly until they became "fact" in the consciousness of his target audience. The technique is called the "Big Lie." Nowadays it is characterized by dropping a factoid onto the net. It is then bandied about by blogs. The various levels of "news media" with their various levels of credibility successively pick it up as a "news item" about what other "news organizations are reporting."

Given the central premise of the "Ayers ghost," it will probably be determined that Ayers wrote this post as well before long:icon_smile_wink:


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## Phinn (Apr 18, 2006)

> A deal was agreed for more detailed research but when Millican said the results had to be made public, even if no link to Ayers was proved, interest waned.


The journalist promoting this story has published a quantified analysis of Ayers' book _Fugitive Days_ as compared with _Dream From My Father_ using authorship-detection software called .

The parts of _Dreams_ that sound like Ayers are more statistically similar to _Fugitive Days_ than they are to the other parts of _Dreams_. Which is what you'd see with a book that was unpublishable when first created, then resurrected by a ghostwriter.

The software also indicated that _Dreams_ (1995) and _Audacity of Hope_ (2006) were written by different people. Apparently, Mr. Obama's amateurish use of the passive voice more than doubled over the intervening ten years. Normally, with practice, a writer uses the passive voice less often, not more. You would think that would be particularly true _after_ an _auteur_ has gained the experience of producing what _Time_ magazine called the finest literary memoir ever written by any politician in all of recorded human history. But not Mr. Obama. Apparently, he backslid from literary greatness in 1995 into a 2006 effort that was more akin to something you'd see in a sophomore Composition class.


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