by Jack Cashill
FUGITIVE DAYS
PAGE
38 “I inform Martha”: “Democratic National Convention,” petercoyote.com, August 25, 1996.
39 Dinitia Smith begins: Dinitia Smith, “No Regrets for a Love of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001.
39 “Is this, then, the truth”: This quote comes from the Smith article. It is not in Fugitive Days.
40 In February: Ben Smith, “Ax on Ayers,” Politico, February 26, 2008.
41 “storm of criticism”: “Stephanopoulos defends his questions to Obama,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2008.
41 “such tired tripe”: Tom Shales, “In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC,” Washington Post, April 17, 2008.
41 “obscure sixties radical”: Michael Grunwald, “The Democrats Play Trivial Pursuit,” Time, April 17, 2008.
41 “The real story”: Scott Whitlock, “Stephanopoulos Quizzes Obama on Relationship to Member of Terrorist Group; Olbermann Enraged,” Newsbusters.org, April 16, 2008.
41 “top ten”: Michael Calderone, “Top ten media blunders of 2008,” Politico, December 22, 2008.
42 “Dig it”: Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, Helter Skelter (New York: Norton, 2001), p. 297.
42 “Diana was fair”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 97.
42 “The woman on the other end”: Ibid., p. 3.
43 “The old gods failed”: Ibid., p. 115.
43 John Brown: Ibid., p. 264.
43 “imagines their actions”: Ibid., p. 287.
44 “It was this knowledge”: Sam Green and Bill Siegel, Weather Underground, 2002.
44 “intentions were evil”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 105.
44 “capitalism promotes racism”: Robert Farrow, “Who is William Ayers and Why You Should Care,” October 16, 2008, baltimorereporter.com/?p=5811.
44 “still the biggest threat”: Ayers et al., eds., Sing a Battle Song, p. 37.
45 “obsessed with the march”: Obama, Dreams, p. 43.
45 When her then husband: Ibid., p. 47.
45 “a lonely witness”: Ibid., p. 50.
45 “ugly conquest”: Ibid., p. 23.
46 “I chose my friends”: Ibid., p. 100.
46 “Joseph Stalin was a great man”: W. E. B. Du Bois, “On Stalin,” National Guardian, March 16, 1953.
46 “It’s useful to remind”: Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (New York: Random House, 2008), p. 359.
47 “struggle—between worlds”: Obama, Dreams, p. x.
47 “I have seen, the desperation”: Ibid., p. x.
47 “Soweto or Detroit”: Ibid., p. 314.
THE WORD-SLINGER
PAGE
48 “I picture the street”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 191.
48 “Night now fell”: Obama, Dreams, p. 187.
49 “I had the thing”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 53.
49 “We were ill-equipped”: Ayers et al. eds., Sing a Battle Song, p. 25.
50 Remnick dismisses: Remnick, p. 547.
50 As Kurtz reported: Stanley Kurtz, “Founding Brothers,” National Review Online, September 24, 2008.
50 “further evidence”: Kurtz, “Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown,” National Review Online, August 18, 2008.
51 “Ayers had nothing to do”: Kurtz, “Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools,” Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2008.
51 “Ayers helped bring”: Remnick, p. 280.
51 “I met [Obama]”: Walter Shapiro, “Bill Ayers talks back,” Salon.com, November 17, 2008.
51 “He wanted to be mayor”: David Mendell, Obama: From Promise to Power (New York: Harper, 2007), p. 92.
POETIC TRUTHS
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53 Boxing great Muhammad Ali: For an in-depth look at the Ali myth see Jack Cashill, Sucker Punch: The Hard Left Hook That Dazed Ali and Killed King’s Dream (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006).
53 According to Early: Gerald Lyn Early, The Muhammad Ali Reader (New York: Rob Weisbach Books, 1998), p. 30.
54 “Suddenly I knew”: Muhammad Ali, The Greatest: My Own Story (New York: Ballantine, 1975), p. 38.
54 “Honkies sure bought”: Mark Kram, Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), p. 78.
54 “a collection of Life magazines”: Obama, Dreams, p. 29.
55 Remnick concedes: Remnick, pp. 235–39.
56 “I wanna cut his nuts off”: “Jackson says Obama comments not about envy,” CNN.com, July 10, 2008.
56 Obama’s deterministic approach: Shelby Steele, The Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win (New York: Free Press, 2008), p. 71.
56 “to think and act”: Ibid., p. 54.
57 “full of inarticulate resentments”: These and the following excerpts are all found in Dreams from My Father. To locate similar brief excerpts going forward, the reader is encouraged to consult the digitized version on Google Books.
57 “I also thought I was black”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 92.
57 “distinguished theologian”: Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Race Course: Against White Supremacy (Chicago: Third World, 2009), p. 281.
57 Ayers tells of how: Unless specified otherwise, these and the following brief excerpts are all found in Fugitive Days. To locate similar brief excerpts going forward, the reader is encouraged to consult the digitized version on Google Books.
58 “I felt the warrior”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 158.
58 “deep-seated cultural malady”: Tim Wise, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2009), p. 8.
58 The student writes: Ibid., p. 13.
59 “Maybe I’m the last”: Ron Chepesiuk, Sixties Radicals, Then and Now: Candid Conversations with Those Who Shaped the Era (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1995), p. 102.
CRYSTAL CHAOS
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60 Barack Obama gave a speech: “Barack Obama’s Iraq Speech,” wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama’s_Iraq_Speech.
60 As Katz tells it: Mendell, pp. 172–74.
62 “What’s worse”: Stuart Silverstein, “The Nazi Death Camp that Barack Obama’s Great-Uncle Helped Liberate,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2008.
62 “The story in our family”: “Obama admits reference to Auschwitz was wrong,” Reuters, May 27, 2008.
62 “My father served”: Gateway Pundit, “Huh? … Obama Says His Father Served in World War II???,” First Things, August 17, 2010.
62 Six years later: Lynn Sweet, “Transcript of Obama, McCain at Saddleback Civil Forum with Pastor Rich Warren,” Chicago Sun-Times, August 18, 2008.
63 “most courageous” speech: Mendell, p. 175.
63 “wrote the speech long hand”: Ibid., p. 174.
64 “An official at Local 50”: Larry Rohter and Liz Robbins, “Joe in the Spotlight,” Caucus Blog, New York Times, October 16, 2008.
65 “That’s the speech”: Mendell, p. 276.
66 “The streets became sparkling”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 179.
CONSPIRACY COMMERCE
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67 According to the document: John Harris and Peter Baker, “White House Memo Asserts a Scandal Theory,” Washington Post, January 10, 1997.
67 In late 2009: Meet the Press, NBC, September 27, 2009.
68 A few weeks earlier: Meet the Press, NBC, September 6, 2009.
68 As I learned: David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson, A Place Called Waco (New York: PublicAffairs, 1999). At the end of this well-reviewed book, survivor Thibodeau lists the names and ethnicity of all the victims. He makes no issue of it. He may have presumed that everyone knew.
68 Authorities dumped the bodies: Denice Stephenson, ed., Dear People: Remembering Jonestown: Selections from the People’s Temple Collection at the California Historical Society (Berkeley, Calif.: Heyday, 2005), p. 160.
70 “diabolical potency”: Remnick, p. 253.
71 When he switched topics: Remnick, p. 220.
71 Intimate friend Valerie Jarrett: Remnick, p. 227.
71 “impostor phenomenon”: Benedict Carey, “Feel Like a Fraud? At Times, Maybe You Should,” New York Times, February 5, 2008.
72 In speaking of Obama: “Biden’s description of Obama draws scrutiny,” CNN.com, January 31, 2007.
72 “no Negro dialect”: John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (New York: Harper, 2010), p. 37.
72 “Blacks like Obama”: Steele, p. 14.
72 “Obama had missed deadlines”: Remnick, p. 228.
72 According to Christopher Andersen: Christopher Andersen, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage (New York: William Morrow, 2009), p. 162.
73 “He and Michelle accepted”: Remnick, p. 268.
73 “I would work off an outline”: Daphne Dunham, “20 Second Interview: A Few Words with Barack Obama,” Amazon.com.
73 “muddled” essays: Remnick, p. 117.
73 Remnick quotes Henry Ferris: Remnick, p. 228.
74 “hopelessly blocked”: Andersen, p. 162.
74 And a major payday: Garance Francke-Ruta, “Obama Earned Nearly $2.5 Million in Book Royalties in 2008,” Washington Post, March 19, 2009.
BALLAST
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77 “The confrontation in the Fishbowl”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 56.
77 “I heard all our voices”: Obama, Dreams, p. 394.
77 “A steady attack”: Ibid., p. 198.
78 “I’d thought that when”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 47.
78 “a vision of falling overboard”: Ibid., p. 197.
78 “I realized that no one”: Ibid.
78 “Memory sails out”: Ibid., p. 76.
78 one of four times murky: Unless specified otherwise, this and the following short excerpts are found in either Dreams from My Father or Fugitive Days. To locate these brief nautical excerpts going forward, the reader is encouraged to consult the digitized version on Google Books.
80 “a shining sea of blues”: Bill Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court (Boston: Beacon, 1997), p. 82.
SECRET SHARER
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82 “While we packed”: Obama, Dreams, p. 31.
83 “a treacherous appeal”: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902), Plain Label Books available through Google Books, p. 87.
83 “The man filled”: Ibid., p. 153.
84 “It was an affirmation”: Ibid.
84 “He inhabited”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 150.
84 “He continued”: Ibid.
84 “We swarmed”: Ibid., p. 179.
84 “trees are shattered”: Ibid., p. 160.
84 “the mixed blood”: Obama, Dreams, p. xv.
84 “Her face powdered”: Ibid., p. 56.
84 “his eyes were closed”: Ibid., p. xi.
85 “The point was”: Conrad, p. 28.
85 “He appealed to me”: Joseph Conrad, “The Secret Sharer (1910),” Plain Label Books available through Google Books, p. 22.
85 “An accidental discovery”: Ibid., p. 63.
86 “random acts of terror”: Don Terry, “The Calm After the Storm,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 16, 2001.
86 “penetrate the blank stares”: Obama, Dreams, p. x.
86 “penetrate” what the American terrorists: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 294.
86 “terrorism … practiced in the countryside”: Terry.
THE POSTMODERN PRESIDENT
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87 In this essay: Barack Obama, “Why Organize?” Illinois Issues, University of Illinois at Springfield, 1988, http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/archives/2008/09/whyorg.html.
88 “that rare politician who can actually write”: Michiko Kakutani, “Obama’s Foursquare Politics, With a Dab of Dijon,” New York Times, October 17, 2006.
88 “mixture of verifiable fact”: Remnick, p. 231.
89 It was a huge relief: Maureen Dowd, “Oprah’s Bunk Club,” New York Times, January 8, 2006.
89 “I was talking to a friend of mine”: Belinda Luscombe, “Is Maureen Dowd Guilty of Plagiarism?,” Time, May 18, 2009.
90 What makes Dreams: Remnick, p. 231.
90 “is this then the truth”: Dinitia Smith, “No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen,” New York Times, September 11, 2001.
90 In early October 2008: Bill Ayers, “Narrative Push/Narrative Pull,” Bill Ayers blog, January 19, 2008.
90 “And so what was”: Obama, Dreams, p. xi.
90 “Our trials and triumphs”: Ibid., p. 294.
91 “I understood that”: Ibid., p. xvi.
91 “I had felt”: Ibid., p. 105.
91 “Truth is usually”: Ibid., p. 434.
91 “As far as race in America”: Bill Ayers, Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom (Boston: Beacon, 2004), p. 146.
91 “But I suspect”: Ibid., p. 434.
92 “But all in all”: Ibid., p. xiv.
92 “I was engaged”: Ibid., p. 76.
92 “At best”: Ibid., p. 85.
92 “Forgetting can be confused”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 233.
92 “I know how strongly”: Obama, Dreams, p. 21.
92 “When history”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 297.
93 “It corresponds”: Obama, Dreams, p. 21.
93 “I’ve come to see”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 294.
93 “rotten and unjustifiable”: Ibid., p. 207.
93 “perhaps three-quarters”: Ibid., p. 300.
93 “I saw a dead body once”: Ibid., p. 279.
94 “during the summer”: Obama, Dreams, pp. 144–45.
95 “four American boys”: Ayers, Fugitive Days, p. 56.
95 “I remembered the whistle”: Obama, Dreams, p. 145.
WEIRD SCIENCE
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98 “No one who cannot rejoice”: Ron Rosenbaum, “Literary Sleuth Absolves Bard of a Bad Poem,” New York Observer, June 23, 2002.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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101 In April of that year: Peter Wallsten, “Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama,” Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2008.
102 “A major news organization”: Ben Smith, “McCain camp demands L.A. Times release video,” Politico, October 28, 2008.
102 “First, chronologically”: Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East (Boston: Beacon, 2005), p. 212.
103 “the Elsa Maxwell of Hyde Park”: Remnick, p. 280.
103 “I believe that after failing”: Jack Cashill, “Evidence Mounts: Ayers Co-Wrote Obama’s Dreams,” American Thinker, October 17, 2008.
103 “These oral histories”: Andersen, p. 164.
104 “a searing and timely account”: Barack Obama, untitled review of A Kind and Just Parent, Chicago Tribune, December 21, 1997.
104 Among them are: Ayers, A Kind and Just Parent, p. 82.
REFORMERS
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105 The answer: William Ayers and Michael Klonsky, “Navigating a restless sea: The continuing struggle to achieve a decent education for African American youngsters in Chicago,” Journal of Negro Education (Winter 1994).
106 “remained in a state of perpetual crisis”: Obama, Dreams, p. 256.
106 “bloated bureaucracy”: Ibid., p. 256.
106 “Self-interest”: Ibid.