Asymmetric Books and Literature

For those seeking a moderate contra-opinion on Barack Obama, The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate is a good choice. I haven't read The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome Corsi, but my understanding is that it feeds a certain hatefulness absent in my personality.

It's a brisk read and focuses exclusively on Obama's career as an elected official which began in 1996 when Obama was able to disqualify all of his opponents for the state senate on technical grounds:

Mr. Obama writes that even if the voters were not impressed by this speech, "enough of them appreciated my earnestness and youthful swagger that I made it to the Illinois legislature."

In real life, it did not matter what Mr. Obama said on the stump or whether South Side voters were impressed. What mattered was that, beginning on Jan. 2, 1996, his campaigners began challenging thousands of petition signatures the other candidates in the race had submitted in order to appear on the ballot. Thus would Mr. Obama win his state Senate seat, months before a single vote was cast.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama's petition challengers reported to him nightly on their progress as they disqualified his opponents' signatures on various technical grounds -- all legitimate from the perspective of law. One local newspaper, Chicago Weekend, reported that "[s]ome of the problems include printing registered voters name [sic] instead of writing, a female voter got married after she registered to vote and signed her maiden name, registered voters signed the petitions but don't live in the 13th district."

One of the candidates would speculate that his signature-gatherers, working at a per-signature pay rate, may have cheated him by signing many of the petitions themselves, making them easy to disqualify.

In the end, Mr. Obama disqualified all four opponents -- including the incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer, and three minor candidates. Ms. Palmer, a former ally of Mr. Obama, had gathered 1,580 signatures, more than twice the 757 required to appear on the ballot. A minor, perennial candidate had gathered 1,899 signatures, suggesting the Obama team invested much time working even against him.

It goes on to document his support for the Chicago machine status quo and against reformers, both liberal and conservative; his nefarious associations with William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright; and his inauspicious senate "career." This is the most valuable part of the book, astonishing the reader with Obama's complete lack of accomplishment balanced only by his extraordinary mendacity.

Even the events Obama highlights as "experience" "makes the case" against him such as his double cross of John McCain, when Obama promised to support John McCain's campaign finance reform only to switch towards his party's status quo at the last minute.

In fact, if there's a thesis to Freddoso's book it's that Obama not only isn't a reformer, but the exact opposite: a politician who never says "no" to liberal special interest groups like teachers' unions and is a solid vote for liberal conformity (Obama is famously the "most liberal senator" according to National Journal.).

The media's obsession with Obama is less interesting. We've heard the "thilla' in my legga'" quote from Chris Matthews a million times.

The book is very current. I'd say following developments up until June of this year.

The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate by David Freddoso

The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality by Jerome R. Corsi