Democracy Has Prevailed.

October 12, 2008

Jack Kelly Sunday

You're not going to believe what's in Jack Kelly's column this week. It's the latest wingnut Obama-Ayers story and it's a doozy.

Let's get the preliminaries out of the way. It's another week, and still nothing from Jack about Sarah Palin's tumbling poll numbers, her abuse of power as Governor, her damaging interviews with Katie Couric - nothing. Truly surprising as Jack's been one of her biggest supporters for a while.

No, my friends, Jack Kelly's got yet another William Ayers story - one with "information" from yet another questionable news source. Last week the source was Newsmax, this week it's World Net Daily.

I'll ask it again - can someone tell me why a columnist from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is using such wingnut "news" sources for material? Anyone? Surely someone sitting at the P-G right now reading this can give me a hint. Even a teensy one. Please?

In a column filled with oily innuendo, Jack tries to make the case that the Ayers/Obama link is stronger than it's been presented so far. One example:
Mr. Ayers was in graduate school at Columbia University when Barack Obama was an undergraduate there in the early 1980s. Did they meet then?
According to his CV, William Ayers earned an MA from the Bank Street College of Education in 1984. It was presumably after that (fall of 1984?) that he began his studies at Columbia. He received two degrees in education from the Teachers College at Columbia University in 1987.

Senator Obama graduated from Columbia in 1983 with a degree in political science.

You do the math. Columbia currently has about 20,000 students. Even if it was half that 20+ years ago, what are the chances Barack Obama actually met William Ayers at Columbia? Especially since they were neither attending the same school or even the University at the same time?

I attended the University of Connecticut in the early 80s. So did Meg Ryan. What are the chances, do you think, that we met there? By Jack's logic, pretty good. IN REALITY, next to no chance at all.

Here's Jack:
Investigative reporter Jack Cashill has noted some intriguing coincidences between Sen. Obama's 1995 autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," and Mr. Ayers' 2001 book, "Fugitive Days," for which Sen. Obama wrote a dust-jacket blurb. Both books have the same lyrical style and are filled with nautical imagery, which would come naturally to Mr. Ayers, who spent a year as a merchant seaman, but which appear nowhere else in Mr. Obama's writing.

Excerpts from "Fugitive Days" and from "Dreams From My Father" both scored 54 on reading ease and a 12th-grade reading level on the Flesch Reading Ease Score, Mr. Cashill found. Scores can range from 0 to 121. Excerpts from "Fugitive Days" averaged 23.13 words a sentence. "Dreams" averaged 23.36 words a sentence. Excerpts from Sen. Obama's second book, "The Audacity of Hope," average 29 words per sentence, and a ninth-grade reading level, Mr. Cashill said. [emphasis added]

Please note the word "coincidences" in the first paragraph - it's very important and it's the key to Jack's dishonesty in this column. If you go take a look at what "Investigative reporter Jack Cashill" has to say about the Obama and Ayers books (this is the material Jack gets from World Net Daily), you'll find that he's NOT talking about "coincidences" at all.

What Cashill writes is the new wingnut story: William Ayers ghost wrote Barack Obama's book, "Dreams of My Father."

That's right. They want us to think that Ayers ghost wrote Obama's book.

Now go back to Jack. While he uses Cashill's "information" he describes it as "coincidence." But Cashill isn't talking "coincidences" is he? So Jack's actually MISQUOTING Cashill, isn't he?

Doesn't anyone at the P-G check this stuff?

There's some problems with this story, however. We'll jump to Cashill for some details:
Prior to 1990, when Barack Obama contracted to write "Dreams From My Father," he had written very close to nothing.
And:
Then, in 1995, this untested 33 year-old produced what Time magazine has called – with a straight face – "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."
Actually it was Joe Klein - in 2006, but that's a minor point. The thing is, Cashill spends a lot of time finding "similarities" between Obama's "Dreams of My Father" and Ayers's "Fugitive Days."

Someone should tell Cashill that "Fugitive Days" was published in 2001. Let's think for a bit. If the story is true, that Ayers ghost wrote Dreams of My Father, then it's also true that he plagiarized himself 6 years later, isn't it? This is what they want you to think.

This is how absurd the wingnuts have become. I long for the days when we were regaled of stories about the silent black helicopters and the foreign troops training on American soil who'll soon be forcing the US to join the "New World Order" of a newly formed totalitarian UN. By comparison to the "Ayers wrote Obama's book" story, it almost sounds rational, doesn't it?

By the way, I ran a Flesch test on Jack's column. It scored a 54.18.

10 comments:

etwilson said...

Wow. This might just be the stupidest thing that Kelly has ever written. How could any rational person believe this? How could a reputable newspaper print such drivel?

Anonymous said...

I was in grad school at Pitt when Larry Fitzgerald was playing wide receiver there. Therefore, according to 'Kelly Logic', it's entirely possible that I'm actually a pro football player. Wow. I didn't even know that until I read this. Now the only question I have is, where the Hell's my big paycheck, then?

John K. said...

John K: Reform Party endorsed McCain. I thought you left wingers said this was over? LMAO LOL LOL Remember Jive Turkey and the Dallas Cowboy starting lineup endorse Hussein Obama. LOL LOL

John K. said...

John K: Remember left wing kooks. Hussein Obama has a relationship with Ayers and Dorn. After all he endorsed an Ayers book and helped pass out money thru Ayers. But even worse, you left wingers think a guy who bombed the US and killed US citizens should be teaching in our school system. How wacko is that? LMAO LMAO Can't have a bible in school but we can have a terrorist bomber writing the agenda. No wonder situations like Columbine occur.

My Name is Carlos said...

JK;

So let me see if I have your argument straight. IF William Ayers wasn't on the faculty in Chicago and IF school prayer were allowed in the public schools (and I am guessing that's where you were heading with that argument) then Columbine wouldn't have happened?

After Jack Kelly's column, that's the second most absurd thing I've read today.

You're not JACK KELLY, are you???

Clyde Wynant said...

Here's something that goes unsaid, because no one wants to say it, but I remember the 60's pretty well, so I'll go ahead and take a run at it.

The Weathermen were a natural outgrowth of their time, a time when we were feeding our young men into the maw of a pointless, horrible war at an alarming rate. A war which took the lives of nearly 60-thousand American soldiers.

So it wasn't surprising that some people got together and thought, "Hey, this is wrong. Let's fight back." Many of them felt the same frustrations we all feel today. But unlike the complacent populace who voted for GWB 'cause they thought he'd be fun to drink with, these people put their lives and careers and futures on the line for a philosophical belief. Were they right or wrong?

That depends on your point of view. Much of the violence which bubbled to the surface during the 60's undoubtedly led to changes in our society. The war in Viet Nam was finally ended. The civil rights movement brought sweeping changes. As did the women's right movement and the nascent gay rights movement. Bottom line? While I don't condone what the Weather Underground did, they can't be as easily pigeon-holed as most would like.

And Ayers? Well, if he were a Republican, I'm sure he would have simply been "born again" (the GOP "get out of jail free card_ and everyone would think he was a great guy.

Clyde

Infinonymous said...

Mr. Ayers strikes me as similar to Oliver North. Both men believed fervently in a cause, so stridently that they lost sight of reason and consequently engaged in immoral and criminal conduct that betrayed their country.

Jack Kelly is a boob. The Post-Gazette either doesn't care about the quality of its right-wing column or is intentionally avoiding a worthwhile conservative voice.

EdHeath said...

Once again John K., you are lying. Do you have any proof that William Ayers killed anyone?

There were bibles in the schools in December 1957 (and before that).

Anonymous said...

Wow, John K.!

The Reform Party endorsed John McCain!!!

Too bad the Reform Party is about as relevant as the Green Party or the Constitution Party or any number of third parties that have no significant influence over this election.

I'm actually surprised to hear they still exist, since they largely emerged only because of H. Ross Perot.

Interestingly, Perot can't stand John McCain. He has nothing but contempt for the man, largely because of how McCain treated his first wife, which is also the reason why Ronald and Nancy Reagan couldn't stand John McCain.

On a side note, I think it's becoming clear that the Republican base is comprised of little more than fatatical lunatics like John K.

Intellectual conservatism has been transplanted with mindlessness.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe they still let this guy write.

He never ever responds to E-mail's when you try to ask questions or make comments.