The following is an excerpt from Bill Press’ new book, “The Obama Hate Machine,” published by Thomas Dunne Books.
The American landscape, unfortunately, is peppered with presidential libraries, most of which are not worth the time or money for a visit. Each president gets one.
But with Barack Obama, it’s going to be different. He will become the first former president to require two presidential libraries: one to house the personal papers and historical record of America’s first African-American president; the second to house the mountain of Obama hate books that have been published during his time in office.
Who says President Obama hasn’t helped grow the economy? Just ask conservative imprints Regnery Publishing or Encounter Books .
The Daily Beast‘s John Avlon was the first to track down the anti-Obama literature in detail. By his count, there were five books attacking Obama published even before he reached the White House. By year three of his presidency, a staggering sixty-seven books, at a minimum, had been published that demonized Barack Obama — far more than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush had to contend with — and the number keeps growing.
Even though throwing mud at Bill Clinton was a favorite pastime of the far right, keeping Regnery and other publishers busy, only eleven anti-Clinton books had been published by his two-year anniversary.
George Bush got off even easier. According to Avlon, only five anti-Dubya books had hit the shelves by the same time in his presidency. Only in 2004, after his contentious reelection campaign, did the number of anti- Bush books reach forty-six.
Granted, some of these anti-Obama books can be dismissed as nutty screeds written by crazies nobody ever heard of and self- ublished through services like CreateSpace. But most were in fact released by mainstream publishing houses. And the list of authors includes a former attorney general of the United States, a former ambassador to the United Nations, a former Speaker of the House, a former Ohio secretary of state, prominent conservative commentators, and at least four top national radio and TV talk- show hosts: Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, and Laura Ingraham.
Together, they command a broad audience. And together, in print as on the airwaves, they have decided that the only way to bring down President Obama is not to challenge his policies but to undermine his personal credibility. In their warped world, Obama is not just wrong on the economy; he is a Marxist-socialist Manchurian candidate channeling the radical, antiimperial politics of his father and grandfather.
With such a flood of hate literature— its lies duly repeated and promoted on radio, cable television, and online— it’s no surprise that so many Americans are willing to believe demonstrably false things about Barack Obama. As this book goes to print, 25 percent of all Americans, and 41 percent of all Republicans, believe Obama was not born in the United States. One of every five Americans still believes he is a Muslim, and a whopping 55 percent are convinced he’s a socialist. “I read it in a book, I saw it on television, so it must be true.”
But, as with all the other arms of the Hate Obama Machine, the hate Obama literature differs both in quantity and intensity. It’s not a handful; it’s an avalanche. It’s not thoughtful political dissent; it’s a wave of ugly personal attacks— as evidenced by even a quick glance through each of the anti- Obama titles.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to read them all. I’ve skimmed them for you. (Click here to see the list of 67 anti-Obama books in full, including six that take a more traditionally populist — and less right-wing — tone.)
Here’s a quick look at some of my favorites:
10. Cullen, Mike. Whiny Little Bitch: The Excuse-Filled Presidency of Barack Obama.
Publisher: Quite Right Books, June 2010.
Between the Covers: The title says it all. Don’t expect much from this book, and you won’t be disappointed. Even one sympathetic reviewer had to acknowledge that it’s no “in- depth” account of the Obama administration. It’s a thin book, full of thin and stale criticisms of Obama’s messianic complex, his slighting of allies, his being too hard on Wall Street, his surrounding himself with cronies, his race baiting, etc., etc. Cullen proves there’s an audience for any anti-Obama drivel, no matter how shallow.
18. Geller, Pamela and Robert Spencer. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America.
Publisher: Threshold Editions, July 2010.
Between the Covers: If you truly believe that Barack Obama is “the most radical individual ever to occupy the White House,” this is the book for you. Geller and Spencer sound yet another call to arms to Americans concerned about Obama’s plot to destroy our free- market system and nationalize major segments of our economy. Billed as “the true patriot’s handbook,” Geller’s book urges conservatives to rise up and stop Obama in his tracks, while there is still any America left to defend.
51. O’Leary, Brad. The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama’s War on American Values.
Publisher: WND Books, September 2008.
Between the Covers: Lucky for Barack Obama I didn’t read this book before the 2008 election, or I would never have voted for him. How could anyone other than an outright Communist vote for him after Brad O’Leary told you what his real agenda was. No kidding. Few people realized that Barack Obama had these seven top goals: to raise the top tax rate to 60 percent; to grant citizenship to twelve million illegal immigrants; to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn the Second Amendment; to take 25 percent of farmland out of production; to transfer care of children under five from parents to government; to set up new government agency to decide which medical procedures seniors qualify for; and to make it easier for more Democrats to get elected by allowing felons to vote. Of course, that may have been a good way to scare people. But it didn’t work. And, needless to say, not one of O’Leary’s predictions has come true.
