Is Bill Ayers Now Playing Conservatives? Ayers states he wrote "Dreams of My Father"

[avaistheone1]

In October 2008, Jack Cashill penned a much discussed blog, in which he suggested the possibility that Bill Ayers actually was the ghost writer for Barack Obama’s powerful memoir, Dreams From My Father. Later, he wrote yet another blog, reporting about many who sent him more material that they thought would corroborate his original suspicions about authorship of Obama’s first memoir…

But now comes the article appearing yesterday from Anne Leary at Backyard Conservative. Bumping into him at Reagan National Airport, Ayers told her: “I wrote Dreams From My Father.” He then added that “Michelle told me to.” Leaving the site where they spoke, he said: “If you can prove it, we can split the royalties.” When Leary told him “Stop pulling my leg,” he responded: “I really wrote it. The wording was similar.” Leary persisted that perhaps he only edited it heavily, and again Ayers said he wrote it. She ended by asking Ayers why should she believe him, since he is a liar. He had no answer to that. Almost immediately, the Independent D.C. Examiner picked up the story, and James Simpson complained that Ayers admitted his authorship, yet “one of the biggest political stories of the year is being completely overlooked by the Obama-struck mass media.” After reading Leary’s blog, he wrote that her report is possibly “direct confirmation…from Ayers himself.”

So, was Ayers, as Scott Johnson thinks, simply “putting Leary on”? If so, he did it again, to a far more reputable mainstream source. He told the very highly regarded mainstream publication, National Journal, the same thing! Here is Will Englund’s Oct.3rd dispatch:…

http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2009/10/07/is-bill-ayers-now-playing-conservatives-why-he-should-not-be-taken-seriously/


This story is abuzz in today's conservative blogosphere.

[TygrBright]

1. As I say, you can get them to believe ANYTHING...

...see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6723595&mesg_id=6723595


They are gullible, desperate, and stupid.

amazedly,
Bright

[ginnyinWI]

2. Obama published it in 1995.

Were the two men even aquainted at that time? This is either a put-on or somebody's lying about this interview for fun or profit.

[lamp_shade]

3. Keywords: “If you can prove it, we can split the royalties.”

[ginnyinWI]

5. yes--on second reading--he was totally playing them.

As long as you're going to be featured on a wingnut blog, might as well give them a story and let them run with it.

[lamp_shade]

4. I wonder if Hannity (or Beck) are stoopid enough to pick this up and run with it.

[CJCRANE]

6. "Gullible" obviously isn't in the Conservative Dictionary.

They also need to look up the meaning of "clutching at straws".

[Dr.Phool]

7. Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

The far-right fever swamps have been fantasizing for weeks that Bill Ayers wrote President Obama's memoirs. According to Ayers, they're living the “twilight zone.”

Let's put this one to bed right now.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-07/bill-ayers-punks-conservative-blogger/


Far-right sites have been spreading a post around today by blogger Anne Leary, who wrote that she ran into Obama acquaintance and 2008 election albatross Bill Ayers at an airport. Leary writes how Ayers, unprompted, unleashed a long-winded confession confirming one of the more absurd conspiracy theories floating around the fringes: that Ayers secretly authored Obama's bestselling memoir, Dreams From My Father.”

I emailed Ayers to see if he could shed any light on the story. His response:

“You've all lost your minds,” he wrote. “Best of luck in the twilight zone.”

That sounds simple enough. Already some of the bigger conservative bloggers, including National Review Online's Jonah Goldberg and Hot Air's Allahpundit have indicated that they don't take Leary's story too seriously, especially given that Ayers has a long history of deadpan responses along the lines of the one she described, as the Washington Independent's David Weigel reports. With any luck, that should be the end of things. But then again, the “death panels” and the birthers’ fantasies about Obama’s nationality are still in orbit, way out there in the blue.

Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at [e-mail].

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. "deadpan responses" .. is a perfect description. I remember Ayers being a bit of a wise ass ..

.. when asked stupid questions.

[NYC_SKP]

8. I wrote it. I wrote "Dreams of My Father". Michelled told me to. If anyone wants to write a book..

...I'll share the royalties.

:P

[CTyankee]

9. RWingers are dying to believe this! To the point of making complete fools of themselves AGAIN!

You'd think they would have learned something from the birth certificate nonsense...ah, but they will never give up...fight to the last bunker...

[Orsino]

11. They only have to get it out there for a few news cycles.

By the time it's debunked, no one will care, and a few more people will think a little less of the president. This would only be foolish behavior if it didn't work. x(

[CTyankee]

16. I think it only works with their own base. I certainly don't have any non-fundie RW acquaintances

who believe this stuff. Most people don't even know who Ayres is...

[Orsino]

22. For a given value of "works."

Given support from all the MSM, right-wing memes can't help but gain a little traction. If they can't actually convert us to mouth-breathing fascists, they're content to introduce doubt. that's what they really want--to neuter governmental authority over corporate power by making us distrust government.

[lillypaddle]

10. I don't have a problem making fools of the wingnuts

although they do that pretty well themselves; however, with all the shit that's going on, do we really need someone stirring the pot? After awhile, it seems to have a cumulative effect.

[harun]

12. Ayers is making fools out of them. More should follow his lead.

[CreekDog]

13. I first heard this on DU from Hillary supporters during the primaries

from very few Hillary supporters actually ---even fewer of whom actually believed it.

[Mass]

14. delete

[LovinLife]

15. Sucks he wrote the book and is getting Zero Royalties. That's a lot of money he missed out on

Looks like Orly is about to get a new client


:sarcasm:

[karynnj]

17. Given when the book was written, it makes no sense

It was originally published in 1995 - a year before he ran for the Illinois Senate. It boggles the mind to think of someone working as a ghostwriter to a completely unknown man, who was not well off at that point. The book was not a huge success in its original release.

Now, if you said the second was written by his staff with his guidance, I would say that was typical and quite possible.

[Beaverhausen]

19. yes- read this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6723595

[juno jones]

20. Ayers, like many 60's radicals, is a ultimately prankster in the mold of Abbie Hoffman.

"Prove it." He knows they have no proof and is delighting in sending them on a goose chase for shits and giggles.

And what are they doing taking a 'terrorist's' word for anything.

He is probably laughing it up while those idiots do what idiots do.

[Cha]

21. orly already has her minions whining for PO's "college papers"..

now she'll be asking for his "Dreams Of My Father"'s notes.

Does Bill Ayers know his "dry humor" would set off the stupid set?