Books This Is Not the End of Everything
posted by on August 13 at 15:27 PM
Nearly three thousand blogs have written about Obama Nation hitting the number one slot on the New York Times bestseller list at this point, probably even more if you search for Obama Nation and “best seller” as two separate words. Even the Times is getting in on the business, with a story on the book today. A lot of the liberal blogs are going on about how the Swift Boating of Obama begins now, and oh, God, we’re fucked, and so on and so forth.
Listen: It’s not that bad.
Yes, there is a negative book about Obama out. I haven’t read it yet (I will), but I know that it has two major claims: that Obama’s tied in with radical Islam and that he used (or still uses) drugs. These are both claims that he’s dealt with and will continue to deal with until Election Day, but this book isn’t going to change anything.
Drugs are a non-issue: a few conservatives will get on their high horse about drug abuse, but consider the fact that our current President allegedly once danced naked on a bar whilst coked to the gills, and one or two of the current conservative radio hosts have had run-ins with narcotics themselves. These charges are just not going to take off. America can get huffy about drugs, but we’re not really good at stone-throwing about it nowadays.
The Islam thing is always going to be an issue, and it has since the beginning. I expect to see a lot of photo ops of Obama in white churches between now and November for just that reason, but I think that, in this election cycle, Islam is code for two words: “Black” and “Democrat.” There are people who will never vote for a black man for president, and there are people who will never vote for a Democrat because they think that Democrats want to hand over the nation to Al Qaeda.Thankfully, neither of those types of people come anywhere near the majority of the American public.
Lastly, trying to position this book as a second coming of Unfit to Command is categorically absurd. This is obviously a case of an author trying to capture his special brand of pervy conservative lightning in a bottle twice, and as someone who sees books come and go, I can tell you that it ain’t gonna work.
Just because they’ve sold 450,000 copies of the book is meaningless also. First, remember that that number includes people who intentionally buy huge bulk numbers of a book to inflate its sales figures and then quietly return those copies to the publisher or distrubutor months later. This is common practice, especially with non-fiction titles, because publishing is fucked in the head as an industry. Second, because there’s no way to determine how many of those superbuyers are actually doing their superbuying, let’s just for a moment incorrectly assume that each of those 450,000 copies have sold to actual readers. Now consider how many millions upon millions of people will watch the conventions later this month on TV. These Obama Nation numbers are drops in the bucket. Even Stephenie Meyer’s vampire romance book Breaking Dawn sold 1.3 million copies in three hours of one night two weeks ago, and has probably almost sold through its initial print run—which was three million copies—by now. The only way this book is going to be a big damn deal is if we let it become a big damn deal.
In conclusion: Everybody calm down, please. Thanks.
a good clue that an author of a book is a jerk is when then put Phd after their name on a non-academic tome...
wanker.
Thanks, Paul. @1: I read a brief bit of the excerpt on NYT, but had to stop after the author pointed out that the title of his book works in more ways than one. You see, it's a pun! Pun intended! LOL!
i won't calm down till jerome corsi is pilloried. literally. i want to see him humiliated in a literal public square, with enraged lefties able to chuck rotted fruit & vegetables at his fat head.
old school.
You're one of the few who are at least SLIGHTLY mitigating free advertising of it by continuing to post about it, although asking people to calm down.
thanks, at least, somehow
Everything in this book is dead wrong. I am a doctor.
@3,
I'd settle for tarred and feathered.
BTW - if the past is any indication, a bunch of NeoCon front groups put up the dough to buy a bunch of copies of this garbage to put it on the bestseller charts - the sales figures are probably pure astroturf.
But yeah, the good people at Regenery Publishing ought to be among the very first people lined up against a wall and shot when the revolution comes (figuratively speaking, of course).
We won't support ball-less NO-Bama and will re-defeat him in November!!! Go Hillary in Denver!!!
There's a book out about Obama? Huh, I hadn't heard of it.
The really good news is that everyone here on planet earth has already witnessed the configurations of political acumen and destruction in the 50 years.
The question is what will become the supreme sport of the United States of the Federation in the next 4 years plus or minus a few thousand dead people a day at the official hands of our military strategists... or please forgive my rough estimates if our good country is not responsible for our actions anymore.
Any more.... it is not a question anymore.
How many people who buy books and support Obama are going to buy that book then change their minds?
So clintonsarmyofone supports the Swift Boat liars, then?
Color me shocked.
cult of personality? like the one surrounding Reagan? and Limbaugh? and numerous other arch-conservatives? I really hope this guy doesn't seriously try to posit that one side of the political spectrum is more prone to cultishness than the other. Come on, now, a little self-respect.
Which chickenhawk radio hosts wrote blurbs for the book's back cover?
I disagree.
One, Republican airbags like Rush Limbaugh, are not going to bring up Obama's drug past. Nor will the McCain campaign, fearing that will make Cindy's past relevant. But the American voting public is still very much a “Just Say No” crowd and they will hold this against the Democratic nominee—especially if they can demonstrate that he's still a user (which was not an issue with candidate Bush).
Two, the Islam thing still resonates with the polity. Despite the fact that Rev. Wright was a Christian minister, the rumors of Obama's faith persists, partly, because there are prejudiced voters who are just looking for a reason—any reason really—to justify not voting for him and, partly, because the e-mail and on-line and word-of-mouth campaigns are tarring him successfully with the “terrorist-lover” brush. This book written by a bona fide PhD will only justify and breed prejudice.
Finally, the number of books sold is irrelevant. The number of times it is cited isn't—and it will be cited a lot in the news and on-line. It will do damage.
Given the current polling numbers, it doesn't have to do much.
Realize that Corsi also wrote Black Gold Stranglehold, which advances the theory that oil is not a fossil fuel, but the greasy underground sweat of Lemurians. Wishful thinking informs his works more than facts.
Paul,
"whilst"?
How could you, Paul? How could you?
A link to the "once danced naked on a bar whilst coked to the gills" allegation would have been more effective than boldface. Not that I don't believe it, but I wonder just how much actual PROOF there is about W's coke-days.
@ Cookie Monster: I thought that the 'whilst' was okay in reference to cokeheadedly dancing naked on a bar. I apologize if I offended. You're my favorite Sesame Street character, and I hate to disappoint you.
@17: Hence the "alleged" right before the bold. If you Google Bush Dance Naked Bar Cocaine, you'll find more than enough allegations to keep you occupied for a very long time.
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Sales of this book were pumped up by an old political sales pumping trick known as "buy bunches and warehouse them."
That way the book looks like it has sold off the shelves when all that has happened is some institutions that are right wing pre-ordered thousands of copies and shoved them in buildings. You will eventually see these in the bargain bins for firewood ($1 a book) just like Coulter's "tomes". They do this ALL the time.
And did anyone see the advert for this bird cage liner in the USAToday. The inside jacket blurb has something about how Obama will ruin the military and our economy... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED by G.W. Bush he he he
Best seller? They are passing them out like free cheese at Human Events. This book isn't being "consumed" by the public.
This practice also dictates the top of the bestsellers list, so any delusions prospective writers have of writing a bestseller can go straight to the recycle bin with your first drafts... unless you manage to snag one hell of an in with a publisher.
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