I bought Bill Ayers' 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days, for reasons unrelated to this project. As I discovered, he writes surprisingly well and very much like "Obama." In fact, my first thought was that the two may have shared the same ghostwriter. Unlike Dreams, however, where the high style is intermittent, Fugitive Days is infused with the authorial voice in every sentence. What is more, when Ayers speaks, even off the cuff, he uses a cadence and vocabulary consistent with his memoir. One does not hear any of Dreams in Obama's casual speech.
Obama's memoir was published in June 1995. Earlier that year, Ayers helped Obama, then a junior lawyer at a minor law firm, get appointed chairman of the multi-million dollar Chicago Annenberg Challenge grant. In the fall of that same year, 1995, Ayers and his wife, Weatherwoman Bernardine Dohrn, helped blaze Obama's path to political power with a fundraiser in their Chicago home.
In short, Ayers had the means, the motive, the time, the place and the literary ability to jumpstart Obama's career. And, as Ayers had to know, a lovely memoir under Obama's belt made for a much better resume than an unfulfilled contract over his head.
Great detective work, IMHO.
Hi Pauli,
ReplyDeleteCashill may be on to something. I'm sure there was a ghostwriter, whether it was Ayers or not.
In relation to Ayers, I have to wonder how much Ayers and his sickening ilk would be pulling the strings in an Obama administration. This article makes a great case as to why this Ayers and Alinsky stuff matters.
Check this video out. It's an utter disgrace that Ayers and Dohrn walking around free and are thought of as people fit for polite society. Again, is Obama going to be their puppet, their stalking horse?
ReplyDelete