Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America's First Postmodern President
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106 “defend the status quo”: Ibid., p. 257.
106 “an indifferent state legislature”: Ibid., p. 256.
106 “school reform”: Ibid.
107 In Dreams, all deeper: Ibid., p. 97.
107 “‘The first thing’”: Ibid., p. 258.
107 “In an authoritarian system”: Ayers, Teaching Toward Freedom, p. 8.
107 “The message to Black people”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 271.
107 “From day one”: Obama, Dreams, p. 258.
109 “teachers, principals”: Ibid., p. 256.
109 “not so true”: Ibid.
RUSH
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111 “Shy of a confession”: Jack Cashill, “Who Wrote Dreams From My Father,” American Thinker, October 9, 2008.
112 “Cashill’s assertions”: Remnick, p. 254.
113 “This may not have”: Ibid.
113 “libel about Obama’s memoir”: Ibid., p. 254.
113 If asked: James Shapiro, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), p. 70.
113 So unsettled: Ibid., p. 72.
113 An 1852 entry: Ibid., p. 69.
114 The literary fraud: For a more in-depth look at Haley’s fraud, see Jack Cashill, Hoodwinked: How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), pp. 113–18.
114 “Would this trip to Kenya”: Obama, Dreams, p. 302.
115 his father had also been involved: Ted Sorensen, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), pp. 144–51.
116 “did a first draft of most chapters”: Ibid., p. 146.
116 “This was a charge”: Remnick, p. 253.
CHANNELING BILLY
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120 In his 1993 book, To Teach: Bill Ayers, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (New York: Teachers College Press, 2001), p. 94.
121 As Obama tells it: Obama, Dreams, p. 143.
121 The passage in question: Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent, p. 86.
121 When the other students: Obama, Dreams, p. 62.
121 “Barry never rejected Joella”: Remnick, p. 73.
122 “Education is for self-activating”: Ayers, To Teach, p. 132.
122 “Understand something, boy”: Obama, Dreams, p. 97.
123 The years he spent: Davis, Livin’ the Blues, p. 78.
123 In fact, he dedicated: Ibid., p. 79.
123 In his memoir: Ibid., p. 328.
123 “two Marxists”: Obama, Dreams, p. 140.
124 “When the war ended”: Chepesiuk, p. 104.
124 He knew him personally: Ayers, To Teach, p. 106; Ayers and Dohrn, Race Course, p. 20.
124 “a consulting house”: Obama, Dreams, p. 135.
124 “serious exaggeration”: Denko, “Barack Obama Embellishes His Resume,” AnalyzeThis.net, July 9, 2005.
124 “a spy behind enemy lines”: Obama, Dreams, p. 135.
124 the phrase “behind enemy lines”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 164.
125 “Amerikan imperialism”: Ayers, Dohrn, and Jones, eds., Sing a Battle Song, p. 149.
125 “a patrol in the Mekong Delta”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 104.
125 When mourning: “Bob Feldman interviews Bernadine Dohrn,” Morningside-Heights.net, 1998.
SPACE LIMITATIONS
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126 In one comic example: Remnick, p. 546.
127 “wider currency”: Ibid., p. 254.
127 “Internet hobo”: “Did You Know This,” Wonkette: The DC Gossip, June 29, 2009.
129 “engaged in irresponsible”: James Taranto, “Bogged Down,” American Spectator, February 2009.
129 “I think trying to claim”: Jonah Goldberg, “Unconvinced,” The Corner, National Review Online, June 28, 2009.
131 In the weeks leading up: Bruce Heiden, “Obama in Plain Sight: Intro to ‘Dreams’ Implies He Didn’t Write It,” Postliberal, October 17, 2009.
SWIFTBOATING
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137 Of the twenty-three officers: John O’Neill, “Factual support for the advertisement ‘Any Questions?,’” letter posted on FoxNews.com, August 2, 2004.
140 “Internet zanies”: Ken Blackwell, “Dreams—or Nightmares—From Obama’s Father,” Big Hollywood, July 8, 2009.
VICHY
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146 “A partial manuscript”: Andersen, p. 164.
147 “the Supreme Court never”: Barack Obama, “The Courts and Civil 147,” Odyssey, WBEZ-FM, January 18, 2001.
149 “I’ve read Obama’s books”: Christopher Buckley, “Sorry, Dad, I’m Voting for Obama,” Daily Beast, October 10, 2008.
149 “I remember distinctly an image”: David Brooks, “Run, Barack, Run,” New York Times, October 19, 2006.
LONDON FOG
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151 On Sunday, under Sarah Baxter’s: Sarah Baxter, “Republicans try to use Oxford don to smear Barack Obama,” Times (London), November 2, 2008.
152 In that same day’s paper: Peter Millican, “How they tried to tarnish Barack Obama: Peter Millican reveals how he was drawn into a plot to link the Democrat to a former radical,” Times (London), November 2, 2008.
154 As I observed, Millican: Jack Cashill, “Oxford don trips badly on ‘Dreams’ analysis,” WorldNetDaily, November 4, 2008.
MILLI VANILLI
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160 “the Special Olympics or something”: “President Obama Jokes About Being a Bad Bowler: ‘It’s Like the Special Olympics,’” ABCNews.com, March 19, 2009.
160 or when TOTUS: “Obama Thanks Himself, Irish PM Repeats Speech in Teleprompter Meltdown,” FOXNews.com, March 18, 2009.
160 “No recent inaugural”: Jonathan Raban, “The golden trumpet,” Guardian, January 24, 2009.
160 “It was so rhetorically flat”: Charles Krauthammer, “Obama’s Inaugural Surprise,” RealClearPolitics.com, January 23, 2009.
160 It is simply mysterious: Michael Gerson, “The Speech? Dare I Say: Yuck. And Yet: Wow,” Washington Post, January 21, 2009.
161 “Not one of his greatest”: Dawson Bell, “Bill Ayers denies ‘70s plot to blow up Detroit police sites,” Free Press, January 25, 2009.
161 Just a week earlier: Barack Obama, “Breaking The War Mentality,” Sundial, March 1983, posted in full at ironicsurrealism.com.
168 In 1990, Obama contributed: “Tort Law—Prenatal Injuries—Supreme Court of Illinois refuses to recognize cause of action brought by fetus against its mother for unintentional infliction of prenatal injuries,” Harvard Law Review, 1990.
168 Sentences that begin: Barack Obama, “Humane Alternatives to State Budget Cuts,” Hyde Park Herald, February 20, 2002.
168 The one column: Barack Obama, “Family Duties Took Precedence,” Hyde Park Herald, January 12, 2000.
169 even more subversive: Krista Gesaman, “Who’s Missing at the ‘Roe v. Wade’ Anniversary Demonstrations? Young Women,” Newsweek, January 22, 2010.
GENIUS SCHOOL
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171 “won” a full scholarship: Mendell, p. 56.
171 “unspectacular”: Remnick, p. 116.
171 “I don’t think”: Ibid., p. 178.
172 “Harvard, Yale, Stanford”: Obama, Dreams, p. 275.
172 “Obama would soon”: Mendell, p. 85.
172 “Told by counselors”: Andersen, p. 88.
172 “Michelle frequently deplores”: Liza Mundy, Michelle (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2008), p. 64.
172 “dense and turgid”: Mundy, p. 82.
172 The less charitable: Christopher Hitchens, “Are We Getting Two for One?,” Slate, May 5, 2008.
172 “The study inquires”: Michelle Robinson, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” 1985, available at politico.com/pdf/080222_MOPrincetonThesis_1-251.pdf.
173 “It doesn’t take a Bart Simpson”: “Bart the Genius,” The Simpsons, January 14, 1990.
173 “I must say”: Remnick, p. 215.
173 “American universities impos
e”: Steele, p. 14.
174 He boasts: Remnick, p. 199.
174 This competition: Fox Butterfield, “First Black Elected to Head Harvard’s Law Review,” New York Times, February 6, 1990.
174 “By the time”: Remnick, p. 187.
175 “A search of the HeinOnline database”: Matthew Franck, “Obama the Titan or the Cipher,” National Review Online, February 12, 2008.
175 Of course, that would not stop: Remnick, p. 267.
175 “If Obama was a white man”: “Clinton-backer Ferraro: Obama Where He Is Because He’s Black,” ABCNews.com, March 11, 2008.
175 “I am livid at this thing”: Katharine Seelye and Julie Bosman, “Ferraro’s Obama Remarks Become Talk of Campaign,” New York Times, March 12, 2008.
176 “demagogic fool”: Remnick, p. 406.
176 “I’m black”: 60 Minutes, CBS News, September 27, 2007.
177 “the liberal pieties”: Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 252.
177 “Obama’s faith”: Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), p. 64.
COPYCATS
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178 After the 2008 election: Lawrence Tribe, “Morning-After Pride,” Forbes.com, November 5, 2008.
178 “I’m so excited about this candidacy”: Mark Zaborney, “Obama Impressed Harvard Law Professor,” Toledo Blade, March 2, 2008.
179 “a phenomenon of some significance”: Joseph Bottum, “The Big Mahatma,” Weekly Standard, October 4, 2004.
179 Velvel promptly responded: Lawrence Velvel, “Re: Larry Tribe, Larry Summers, And Elena Kagan: Because Of The Larry Tribe Affair, It Is Time For Larry Summers To Go,” Velvel on National Affairs, April 22, 2005.
179 The tipster reported: Bottum, “The Big Mahatma.”
180 That same April: Velvel, “Re: Larry Tribe.”
181 They may have been taking: Bo Crader, “A Historian and Her Sources,” Weekly Standard, January 28, 2002.
181 “mistakes can happen”: Doris Kearns Goodwin: “How I Caused That Story,” Time, January 27, 2002.
182 When the student editors: “The Consequence of Plagiarism,” Harvard Crimson, March 11, 2002.
182 He scolded them: Tribe’s complete response can be found at http://johnin northcarolina.blogspot.com/2006_02_19_archive.html.
182 “a wonderful book”: “Obama Proposes ‘Team of Rivals’ Cabinet,” ABC News.com, May 22, 2008.
GREEN PEPPERS
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184 “Cosby never got the girl”: Obama, Dreams, p. 52.
185 Obama’s Chicago mentor: Remnick, p. 139.
185 Another Chicago friend, John Owens: Ibid., p. 181.
185 an “old girlfriend”: Ibid.
185 “He had a serious girlfriend”: Mendell, p. 94.
185 “I couldn’t outcompete him”: Andersen, p. 60.
185 “There are several black ladies”: Obama, Dreams, p. 211.
185 “She was white”: Ibid., p. 210.
186 “on this particular evening”: Ibid., p. 269.
187 “She had been to the manor born”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 97.
187 “brought Bill Ayers”: “Memories of Diana,” Time, March 30, 1970.
187 Ayers expressed similar anxieties: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 95.
188 “We spoke in a language”: Ibid., p. 230.
188 “a perfect marriage”: Ibid., p. 97.
188 “for his callous treatment”: Jane Alpert, “Mother Right: A New Feminist Theory,” Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement: An On-line Archival Collection, http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wim/mother/.
189 In his 1997 book: Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent, p. 2.
189 “No one,” he writes: Andersen, p. 60.
189 Long before Obama: Obama, Dreams, p. 103.
189 “Her voice”: Ibid., p. 104.
190 “Do you mind”: Ibid.
190 “uncles and aunts”: Obama, Audacity, p. 389.
190 A black campaign worker: Remnick, p. 502.
190 “I don’t think Obama”: Ibid., p. 505.
190 “I am married to a black American”: Barack Obama, “A More Perfect Union,” March 18, 2008, full text available at: http://www.huffington post.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-th_n_92077.html.
191 “In her eminent practicality”: Obama, Dreams, p. 439.
191 “I met Michelle”: Obama, Audacity, p. 386.
WINE-DARK SEA
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192 “assumes the role”: Jack Cashill, “The Improvised Odyssey of Barack Obama,” American Thinker, December 28, 2008.
193 “a quest in which”: Michiko Kakutani, “From Books, New President Found Voice,” New York Times, January 18, 2009.
193 “Memory sails out”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 76.
194 “mariner’s chart,” Ibid.
194 “the geography of his life”: Ibid., p. 50.
194 “an intellectual journey”: Obama, Dreams, p. xiv.
194 “to see a new map”: Ibid., p. 85.
194 “That first encounter”: Ibid., p. 277.
194 “map of my life”: Ayers and Dohrn, Race Course, p. 8.
194 “at some uncharted border”: Obama, Dreams, p. 86.
195 “charting his way”: Ibid., p. xvi.
195 “What I needed”: Ibid., p. 115.
195 “Junkie. Pothead”: Ibid., p. 93.
195 “They did fight”: Ibid., p. 117.
196 “I remember often eating”: Phil Boerner, “Barack Obama ‘83, My Columbia College Roommate,” Columbia College Today, January/February 2009.
196 “Like a tourist”: Obama, Dreams, p. 122.
197 “uncertain of my ability”: Ibid., p. 120.
197 As the scene unfolds: Ibid., pp. 3–5.
198 Apparently, Ayers so liked: Ayers, Fugitive Days, pp. 2–3.
198 “You god-driven man”: Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Ian Johnston, http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Texts/Odyssey/Odyssey10.html.
198 “guide that might show me”: Obama, Dreams, p. 121.
199 The CNN lead: Kate Bolduan, “Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser,” CNN.com, March 22, 2008.
200 “not an especially convincing sequence”: Remnick, p. 245.
200 “a roadside tavern”: Obama, Dreams, p. 302.
201 “The Old Man’s here”: Ibid., p. 323.
202 The words he speaks: Ibid., p. 442.
202 “He lied excessively”: Patrick O’Brian, The Far Side of the World (New York: Norton, 1992), p. 141.
HOG BUTCHER
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205 “Not an uncommon slip-up”: Steven Levingston, “Obama’s Ghostwriter?,” Washingtonpost.com, July 2, 2009.
205 “What do you know about Chicago”: Obama, Dreams, p. 142. Unless specified otherwise, all short excerpts are found in either Dreams from My Father or Fugitive Days. To locate these, the reader is encouraged to consult the digitized versions on Google Books. The one exception is Ayers’s “Sharpesville,” found on page 18 of Race Course.
205 “broad-shouldered brute”: Davis, Blues, p. 128.
AUDACITY
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208 “Barry was a Muslim”: Remnick, p. 61.
209 his mother’s 1968 passport renewal: Jerome Corsi, “New documents point to Indonesian citizenship,” WorldNetDaily, August 4, 2010.
209 “made faces”: Obama, Dreams, p. 154.
209 “Barack, huh”: Ibid., p. 149.
209 “The government wanted”: Ibid., p. 265.
209 “Although my father”: Obama, Audacity, p. 242.
210 “my Muslim Faith”: Christina Bellantoni, “Obama’s verbal slip fuels his critics,” Washington Times, September 7, 2008.