The Case Against Barack Obama
Encyclopedia
The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate, by author David Freddoso
, is a bestselling
book published in late 2008, providing a critical examination of the life and opinions of the then United States presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama
.
Freddoso is a political reporter for the website of the conservative magazine National Review
. The s book was published by Regnery Publishing
.
Freddoso said in an August 2008 interview that the book is an attempt to address what he sees as two wrong ways of considering Obama as a presidential candidate. The author wanted to counter those, including those in the news media, who look on Obama uncritically, and to do so in a way different from those who "are smearing him on the Internet for supposedly being a secret Muslim or supposedly not saluting the flag". The book harshly criticizes Obama over policy matters, according to Ben Smith, a writer at The Politico
. For the most part, the book is drawn from previously published sources, although Freddoso does do some original reporting.
The first press run of the book totaled nearly 300,000 copies, and it appeared on the August 24, 2008 New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction at No. 5. Publicity for the book is handled by the conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts
.
The book was released within weeks of two other books critical of Obama written by conservative writers: Jerome Corsi
’s The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, and Dick Morris
’ Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It.
The book also discusses Obama's alleged "radical associations" with such controversial people as Bill Ayers
, a former Weatherman organization
leader, and Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright
.
Part of the book focuses on Obama's having made accommodations with the Cook County Democratic Organization
headed by Chicago's mayor, Richard M. Daley
, despite Obama's start in politics as a candidate appealing to anti-machine
voters in the Hyde Park
neighborhood of the city.
The book also dwells at length on Obama’s opposition to an Illinois bill that sought to protect infants “born alive,” but whose critics said it could have fundamentally undermined the right to abortion. A similar bill passed the United States Congress only after an explicit commitment to Roe v. Wade was added, which Freddoso dismisses as trivial, but which abortion rights advocates saw as crucial.
's biography, distorts the story of the candidate's life and his record. "These books are cut from the same cloth, made up of the same old debunked smears that have been floating around the Internet for months," said spokesman Tommy Vietor.
On September 15, 2008, the Obama campaign mobilized its “Obama Action Wire” sending an email out to Obama supporters urging them to complain to WGN Radio in Chicago after host Milt Rosenberg
invited Freddoso on his show to discuss his book.
, called the book the "first serious negative biography of Senator Barack Obama". The book's official release date was August 4, 2008. According to Smith, the book "occupies a small island in the often-shrill sea of criticism of Obama [...] Freddoso opts largely for a fact-based critique, and writes that the viral and overt smears have allowed Obama to evade substantive criticism." Smith wrote that the book "rehashes familiar complaints, though in more detail — and often with more nuance, if not much sympathy — than you’re likely to see in the conservative media."
Jim Geraghty
, a writer for National Review and National Review Online, wrote in his review of the book that "Freddoso one aspect of the Obama message, the idea that Obama is a reformer, and obliterates it in the manner of a professional demolitions crew." Geraghty also compared the book to Jerome Corsi's The Obama Nation. "If Obama falls short of his presidential aspiration, his supporters will be quick to attribute it to 'false smears' in Corsi’s book," Geraghty predicted. "But any Obama defeat is more likely to be a result of the hard truths in Freddoso’s." Geraghty notes that David Freddoso thanks him in the book's acknowledgments section.
), notes that provision was part of a nonbinding budget resolution that had no actual impact on tax levels, and that Obama's tax proposals do not include any such increase." According to Factcheck.org: "...Obama's March 2008 vote for a non-binding budget resolution that would have set general revenue and spending targets for congressional tax-writing and appropriations committees. The resolution does not contain a specific provision to raise tax rates, but rather assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011. It also bears no relation to Obama's proposed economic plan" and also "In particular, the (budget) resolution would allow the 25 percent tax bracket to return to its pre-2001 level of 28 percent. That bracket kicks in at $32,550 for an individual or $65,100 for a married couple."
and a political reporter for Robert Novak
's Evans-Novak Political Report.
The first press run of the book totaled nearly 300,000 copies, and it appeared on the August 24, 2008 New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction at No. 5 (the list reflected sales for the week ending August 9, 2008; the Times stated that some book stores reported receiving bulk orders). Publicity for the book is handled by the conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts
, headed by former Republican political official Greg Mueller. Creative Response Concepts also organized publicity for Unfit for Command
by John O'Neill
and Jerome Corsi
, and for the 527 group
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 United States presidential election
.
David Freddoso
David Freddoso is a journalist and author. He has worked at the Washington Examiner since 2009. Before that he worked at the National Review and for columnist Robert Novak. Freddoso wrote the The Case Against Barack Obama and an Obama campaign email described him as a “card-carrying member of the...
, is a bestselling
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
book published in late 2008, providing a critical examination of the life and opinions of the then United States presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Freddoso is a political reporter for the website of the conservative magazine National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
. The s book was published by Regnery Publishing
Regnery Publishing
Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
.
Freddoso said in an August 2008 interview that the book is an attempt to address what he sees as two wrong ways of considering Obama as a presidential candidate. The author wanted to counter those, including those in the news media, who look on Obama uncritically, and to do so in a way different from those who "are smearing him on the Internet for supposedly being a secret Muslim or supposedly not saluting the flag". The book harshly criticizes Obama over policy matters, according to Ben Smith, a writer at The Politico
The Politico
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
. For the most part, the book is drawn from previously published sources, although Freddoso does do some original reporting.
The first press run of the book totaled nearly 300,000 copies, and it appeared on the August 24, 2008 New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction at No. 5. Publicity for the book is handled by the conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts
Creative Response Concepts
Creative Response Concepts Public Relations is an American public relations firm best known for helping to devise the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential race....
.
The book was released within weeks of two other books critical of Obama written by conservative writers: Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American author, political commentator and conspiracy theorist best known for his two New York Times bestselling books: The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command...
’s The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, and Dick Morris
Dick Morris
Dick Morris is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant....
’ Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It.
Content
Obama's political positions are reviewed in the book. "If you’re a liberal, reading the following might make you support Obama even more," Freddoso states at one point in the book. "But if you’re honest, I think you’ll agree he’s no centrist."The book also discusses Obama's alleged "radical associations" with such controversial people as Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers
William Charles "Bill" Ayers is an American elementary education theorist and a former leader in the movement that opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He is known for his 1960s activism as well as his current work in education reform, curriculum, and instruction...
, a former Weatherman organization
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
leader, and Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ , a megachurch in Chicago exceeding 6,000 members...
.
Part of the book focuses on Obama's having made accommodations with the Cook County Democratic Organization
Cook County Democratic Organization
The Cook County Democratic Organization is one of the most powerful political machines in American history. Historically called the "Chicago Democratic machine", or simply the "Chicago Machine", the organization has dominated Chicago politics since the 1930s...
headed by Chicago's mayor, Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
, despite Obama's start in politics as a candidate appealing to anti-machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
voters in the Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
neighborhood of the city.
The book also dwells at length on Obama’s opposition to an Illinois bill that sought to protect infants “born alive,” but whose critics said it could have fundamentally undermined the right to abortion. A similar bill passed the United States Congress only after an explicit commitment to Roe v. Wade was added, which Freddoso dismisses as trivial, but which abortion rights advocates saw as crucial.
Barack Obama presidential campaign
A spokesman for Barack Obama's presidential campaign said the book, along with Jerome CorsiJerome Corsi
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American author, political commentator and conspiracy theorist best known for his two New York Times bestselling books: The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command...
's biography, distorts the story of the candidate's life and his record. "These books are cut from the same cloth, made up of the same old debunked smears that have been floating around the Internet for months," said spokesman Tommy Vietor.
On September 15, 2008, the Obama campaign mobilized its “Obama Action Wire” sending an email out to Obama supporters urging them to complain to WGN Radio in Chicago after host Milt Rosenberg
Milt Rosenberg
Milton J. Rosenberg is a prominent social psychologist who was professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and is the host of a long-running radio program in Chicago, Illinois....
invited Freddoso on his show to discuss his book.
Reviews
Ben Smith, a writer at The PoliticoThe Politico
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
, called the book the "first serious negative biography of Senator Barack Obama". The book's official release date was August 4, 2008. According to Smith, the book "occupies a small island in the often-shrill sea of criticism of Obama [...] Freddoso opts largely for a fact-based critique, and writes that the viral and overt smears have allowed Obama to evade substantive criticism." Smith wrote that the book "rehashes familiar complaints, though in more detail — and often with more nuance, if not much sympathy — than you’re likely to see in the conservative media."
Jim Geraghty
Jim Geraghty
Jim Geraghty is a conservative blogger and regular contributor to National Review Online and National Review. In addition to writing columns for National Review, Geraghty also blogs for National Review Online and is a former reporter for States News Service.During the 2004 US Presidential election,...
, a writer for National Review and National Review Online, wrote in his review of the book that "Freddoso one aspect of the Obama message, the idea that Obama is a reformer, and obliterates it in the manner of a professional demolitions crew." Geraghty also compared the book to Jerome Corsi's The Obama Nation. "If Obama falls short of his presidential aspiration, his supporters will be quick to attribute it to 'false smears' in Corsi’s book," Geraghty predicted. "But any Obama defeat is more likely to be a result of the hard truths in Freddoso’s." Geraghty notes that David Freddoso thanks him in the book's acknowledgments section.
Alleged inaccuracies
According to an Associated Press report, Freddoso's book "sometimes includes inaccurate or incomplete information" to back the argument that Obama's record should be opposed by conservatives and moderates. The report states that "Freddoso accuses Obama of voting to raise taxes on anyone with taxable income of more than $32,500." The nonpartisan watchdog group Factcheck.org (itself funded primarily by the Annenberg FoundationAnnenberg Foundation
The Annenberg Foundation is a private foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world...
), notes that provision was part of a nonbinding budget resolution that had no actual impact on tax levels, and that Obama's tax proposals do not include any such increase." According to Factcheck.org: "...Obama's March 2008 vote for a non-binding budget resolution that would have set general revenue and spending targets for congressional tax-writing and appropriations committees. The resolution does not contain a specific provision to raise tax rates, but rather assumes that most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire as scheduled in 2011. It also bears no relation to Obama's proposed economic plan" and also "In particular, the (budget) resolution would allow the 25 percent tax bracket to return to its pre-2001 level of 28 percent. That bracket kicks in at $32,550 for an individual or $65,100 for a married couple."
Writing, publishing and publicizing the book
Freddoso took a leave from his job with National Review Online to write the book. The author previously was a writer for Human EventsHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
and a political reporter for Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
's Evans-Novak Political Report.
The first press run of the book totaled nearly 300,000 copies, and it appeared on the August 24, 2008 New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction at No. 5 (the list reflected sales for the week ending August 9, 2008; the Times stated that some book stores reported receiving bulk orders). Publicity for the book is handled by the conservative public relations firm Creative Response Concepts
Creative Response Concepts
Creative Response Concepts Public Relations is an American public relations firm best known for helping to devise the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential race....
, headed by former Republican political official Greg Mueller. Creative Response Concepts also organized publicity for Unfit for Command
Unfit for Command
Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry is a 2004 book about then U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi published by Regnery Publishing, a conservative publishing house. It was a New York Times Bestseller upon its release in August 2004...
by John O'Neill
John O'Neill (Vietnam veteran)
John Ellis O'Neill is a Vietnam War veteran, lawyer, and the spokesman for Swift Vets and POWs for Truth .-Background:...
and Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American author, political commentator and conspiracy theorist best known for his two New York Times bestselling books: The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command...
, and for the 527 group
527 group
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after "Section 527" of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code...
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
.
External links
- Official web page for the book at Regnery PublishingRegnery PublishingRegnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
Co. - CaseAgainstBarackObama.com, the book's website (within Human EventsHuman EventsHuman Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
website), as promoted within the book