Did Obama Write Dreams From My Father?

Who Wrote Dreams From My Father? By Jack Cashill is an article criticizing Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father”. The author is insinuating Obama contracted a ghost writer to help write this now renowned book. Acquiring help from a ghostwriter is not uncommon among political figures as the author points out. John McCain himself was aided by Mark Salter when writing his memoir. Jack Cashill also declares that Bill Ayers known as a domestic terrorist is most likely the person to thank for Obama’s “Dreams From My Father”.

This article is posted in American Thinker, a blog that claims to “write for the general public out of concern for the complex and morally significant questions of the national agenda” and “there are no limits to the topics appearing on American Thinker.” A quick glance through the front page would make clear to reader that this blog is just one more of those left-wing or right-wing blogs this one just happens to be very much so on the right-wing presenting only one side of the argument to always elevate their candidate one way or another. I could not find a single article critiquing John McCain other than to encourage him to be himself and to change up his political strategy in “Will the Real John McCain Please Stand Up” and other post like this with the same message of there is still a chance.

One must conclude this blog is directed to conservatives, rooting for their presidential candidate. I have a very big issue with this post as there is no proof whatsoever, no facts, no studies, no interviews, and no tangible information. This article is based on I think, what ifs and comparisons that seem coincidental. Ok, Jack Cashill brings up a couple of points; Bill Ayers and Barack Obama seem to have somewhat similar writing styles, but in my opinion that is not a tangible proof. Many authors study other author’s projects with intentions of obtaining ideas.

Yes, Barack Obama and Ayers use similar words in occasions but how much of this can be just a mere coincidence and how much can be accredited to a biased report? Jack also discusses the inconsistencies in both books “The Dreams From My Father” by Obama and “Fugitive Days” by Ayers stating that these inconsistencies are too similar to be coincidental. The “inconsistencies” the author refers to are dates; which to me prove very little. My first impression would be that Obama and Ayers embellished their stories to make them more appealing than they really are like many authors do.

The author of this article also uses a system called QSUM or “cursum analysis” to prove Obama is not the writer of “Dreams from My Father” this system counts the words per sentence. It was up to Jack to choose the thirty sentences that where analyzed by QSUM leaving room for a biased study. I find this not proof enough not only because it was up to him to choose the thirty sentences from both books but also because Jack does not refer to any analysis confirming that the number of words per sentences is always consistent of an author.

I am not for Obama neither I support John McCain I trust neither . I’m willing to take facts into consideration but this article simply is not effective in an undecided person like me. This type of article might be highly effective in a person who is already highly skeptic of Obama’s ties. If one looks hard enough for something one can find it, whatever “it” is.