THERE’S A cottage industry in books about Barack Obama; by one count, more than 20 are just out or are in the works. But few debut in the No. 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, as Jerome R. Corsi‘s “The Obama Nation” will do among nonfiction hardcover titles this week. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, given his earlier hit job on the last Democratic nominee, Mr. Corsi’s latest is rife with inaccuracies and innuendo. If the fundamental smear of “Unfit for Command” was that John F. Kerrywas no war hero, the insinuation of Mr. Corsi’s latest is that Mr. Obama is a closet Muslim and militant, black activist drug-user.
…
Mr. Corsi is similarly misleading about Mr. Obama’s religious background, questioning his claim to be Christian. “Obama had to know that running for political office, even state office, would be much more difficult to do if voters suspected he was a Muslim,” Corsi writes. “Yet once Obama became a member of Trinity, he had proof he was a Christian, as he professed to be.”
Given what is now known about Trinity and its preacher Jeremiah ‘God Damn America’ Wright, a former member of the Nation of Islam who took a trip to visit Khadaffi with his friend Louis Farrakhan, Corsi’s questioning seems to be within bounds.
The book-buying public thinks so, at least.
UPDATE
The Obama camp has put out its own rebuttal to Corsi which is unintentionally hilarious in parts like this:
LIE: “Obama always acknowledged his stepfather was Muslim, though he did his best to downplay Islam as an important force in his stepfather’s life.” [p 58]
REALITY: LOLO WAS A NOMINAL MUSLIM
Lolo Soetoro Was A “Nominal Muslim” Who Enjoyed Bacon.
“The grandparents who helped raise Mr. Obama were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists. His mother was an anthropologist who collected religious texts the way others picked up tribal masks, teaching her children the inspirational power of the common narratives and heroes. His mother’s tutelage took place mostly in Indonesia, in the household of Mr. Obama’s stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, a nominal Muslim who hung prayer beads over his bed but enjoyed bacon, which Islam forbids.” [New York Times, 4/3/07]
