"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Obama goes ballistic over Corsi best-seller:Issues blistering 40-page report challenging WND reporter's high-flying, No. 1 exposé

The title page to Barack Obama's response to Jerome Corsi's "The Obama Nation"
With the wreck of John Kerry's "swiftboated" 2004 campaign in his rearview mirror, Barack Obama and his surrogates are wasting no time mounting a counterattack against WND staff writer and columnist Jerome Corsi, the co-author of the Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth's "Unfit for Command" and the author of current No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "The Obama Nation."Obama advisers have been tracking Corsi's media appearances, quickly telephoning producers to react to the book's charges, and last night, the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign issued a 40-page response to the book.Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor accompanied the release with a shot at Corsi, calling him a "discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago.""His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda," the spokesman said. "We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal.""The Obama Nation" is ranked No. 1 among all books at Amazon.com and will debut at No. 1 on the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list next week. The book already has secured the Times' top spot for the following week, as the Democratic National Convention gets under way.The Democratic National Committee has its own rapid response team to take aim at Corsi's book, with an e-mail sent out yesterday saying, "One of the most vile smear peddlers of the 2004 election has found a new target...We cannot afford to let Corsi get away with the same dirty tricks that fooled so many people in 2004. We can't rely on the media to hold him accountable – in fact, the sheer brazenness of the lies is attracting even more coverage. The media have shown that they aren't going to stop him. It's up to you to spread the truth. …"At the time of this story, Corsi had not had a chance to see Obama's 40-page rebuttal, but he responded to the strong counter-surge against "The Obama Nation," a book with some 600 footnotes that portrays the Illinois senator as a radical leftist whose handlers are presenting him to the nation through a carefully crafted cult of personality.Corsi told WND the campaign has largely chosen to respond to his book with a series of personal attacks."Derision and ridicule are the lowest form of argument, suggesting the Obama camp already has lost the debate," he said. "The Obama camp and its supporters appear to be in disarray over the book, responding almost irrationally with an endless string of epithets and insults."Corsi charged Obama "has intentionally manufactured a cult of personality in order to discourage any attempt to examine or comment critically upon any aspect of his background.""Critics such as myself are immediately branded as 'racists' to discourage readers from reading and evaluating the book for themselves," he said.
'Vicious innuendo'
Obama aides are feeding producers of Corsi's media interviews with a number of his past controversial quotes and insisting campaign surrogates, equipped with talking points, be allowed on the shows to counter the book, according to the blog Talking Points Memo.The online watchdog Media Matters, which says its purpose is to counter the "lies" of the right, sent senior fellow Paul Waldman up against Corsi on CNN's "Larry King" show Wednesday night.Waldman charged that four years after "Unfit for Command," Corsi "has come out with another book that is also riddled with distortions and falsehoods. So the question is, why on earth would anyone listen to what he has to say about Barack Obama?"In a heated exchange, Waldman accused Corsi of "spreading this incredibly vicious innuendo."Corsi shot back: "This is typical Media Matters. They bring you on the show and they bait you up, don't give you a chance even to respond."Corsi told WND that Media Matters "has intentionally misrepresented my arguments so they can 'prove' as 'false' claims I never made, while proclaiming 'mistakes' over trivial points in the book they chose to nit-pick in support of their obvious leftist political agenda."Prior to publication of Corsi's book, Obama created a website FightTheSmears.com to respond to a host of charges largely circulating on the Internet.A FightTheSmears "Action Wire" uses the campaign's extensive e-mail list to respond to charges.An e-mail issued yesterday said, "Right now, vile smear-peddler Jerome Corsi is back with a new book of lies – this time about Barack Obama. ... We'll need the combined efforts of every member of the Action Wire to push back against this year's vicious Republican attack book."Kerry's deputy campaign manager Steve Elmendorf told the Politico he believes that in hindsight, the Massachusetts Democrat's 2004 campaign "made a mistake in not responding more forcefully."Elmendorf offered advice to Obama's handlers."It's on the front page of the New York Times," he said, referring to a Tuesday story on Corsi's book. "It's number one on the New York Times best-seller list. Right now, I would be very aggressive with reporters and factually going through the book and responding and making it clear that this is a bunch of bullsh-t."On Wednesday, Kerry himself launched a website called Truth Fights Back challenging the book. It was accompanied by an e-mail to former supporters headlined, "Book on Obama Hopes to Repeat Anti-Kerry Feat."
'An agenda here'
As even a popular late-night comedy show has acknowledged, Obama has many defenders in the mainstream media, and some apparently have joined the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's battle against Corsi's book.The media watchdog Newsbusters, which responds to left-leaning media bias, pointed to CNN's treatment of the book Wednesday. In the segment, anchor Suzanne Malveaux worried aloud to former Clinton aide Paul Begala that Obama might not be responding fast enough to attacks against him, thereby "falling into the same trap as John Kerry."Introducing the segment, the "Situation Room" host "didn't hesitate to make unequivocal claims as to the Corsi book's inaccuracy," Newsbusters said.Malveaux said:There's a new book out about Barack Obama, and it is not flattering. The facts are mixed with accusations about Obama that are misleading or just flat-out wrong. Yet despite all of this, there is concern that author's claims might catch on with some voters. Our CNN's Jessica Yellin joining me now, and Jessica, the author even admits that there is an agenda here behind this book."Newsbusters contributor Mark Finkelstein pointed to the irony of expressing concern that authors might have an agenda, noting the invitations and respectful treatment offered anti-Bush administration authors such as Seymour Hersh and Ron Suskind.CNN played only a brief clip from a Fox News appearance by Corsi.The network's Yellin said Corsi's book "alleges Obama is on the extreme left of American politics and has extensive connections to Islam and with radical racial politics. This despite the fact that for months Obama's been explaining he's not Muslim."But Newsbusters's Finkelstein pointed out Corsi doesn't claim Obama is a Muslim and, with regard to the radical racial politics charge, notes the National Journal's rating of his voting record as most liberal in the Senate and the Democrat's close ties to black liberation theology adherents Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Rev. Michael Pfleger.Meanwhile, customer rankings of the book at Amazon.com reflect the sharp contrast of opinions: They either love it or they hate it. Of 555 reviews, 183 give the book a five, the top ranking, while 329 score it a one. The combined total for the three rankings in between is just 43.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=72410
As in the days of Noah...