It had never occurred to me ....

. ... that Barack Obama could have written those two volumes of autobiography that analyzed a life of very little achievement. Politicians these days rarely write anything themselves - not book, not articles, not speeches. With very few exceptions they hand the task over to somebody else and then claim credit. The astonishing thing is that having not written or even read whatever it is they are claiming credit for, they actually believe their own authorship.

With Barack Obama it has been clear for some time now that he is not a great or any other kind of intellectual, has not written a single signed article as President of Harvard Law Review and is incapable of answering questions, never mind making a speech without that famous teleprompter. (No POTUS without TOTUS.)

Therefore, the only question, as far as I could see, was who actually wrote those books, particularly the curiously named Dreams From My Father. For some time now the theory that it was actually written by the infamous terrorist and theoretician of terror, now academic, Bill Ayers. This theory was first advanced with a good deal of textual evidence by Jack Cashill last October on American Thinker.

Much of the MSM, naturally enough, ignored it but those of Obama's supporters who thought any criticism of The One required instant hanging, drawing and quartering screamed abuse on the grounds that 1.) this could not be true; 2.) Obama and Ayers hardly knew each other and 3.) Ayers is not really that bad a guy so why is the right endlessly going on about him.

Other people took note of the arguments and waited for more. Well, we now have more. As Ronald Radosh writes on Pajamas Media, Cashill returned to the story in June:

Then at the end of June 2009, Cashill returned to his original article. This time, 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.

Two contributors whom Cashill does not name, he writes, made a contribution that “should dispel the doubts of all but the willfully blind that Ayers played a substantial role, likely the primary role, in the writing of Dreams.”

Again, the two contributors and Cashill played literary detective, offering more examples of strange similarities in the metaphors used in both Ayers’ Fugitive Days and in Obama’s Dreams. One of them found 759 striking similarities. Cashill found one of his contributor’s analysis to be “systematic, comprehensive, and utterly, totally, damning.” You can read his article and judge for yourself.

Becoming more certain but still some way to go.

Mr Cashill had another blog on the subject yesterday. In it he referred to the recently published study of the First Couple by Christopher Andersen, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage. (Why their marriage is more American than anybody else's, say Sarah and Todd Palin's, might have to remain a mystery to those of us who are not given to reading celebrity biographies.)

What is interesting from our point of view is the reference to Ayers and that book.

Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles
on the authorship of Dreams. With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers."

To flesh out his family history, Obama had taped interviews with various family members. Andersen writes, "These oral histories, along with a partial manuscript and a truckload of notes, were given to Ayers." Andersen quotes a Hyde Park neighbor, "Everyone knew they were friends and that they worked on various projects together. It was no secret. Why would it be? People liked them both."

Andersen continues, "In the end, Ayers's contribution to Barack's Dreams From My Father would be significant--so much so that the book's language, oddly specific references, literary devices, and themes would bear a jarring similarity to Ayers's own writing."

Mr Radosh adds:

Let me make the point as sharply as possible. A book about the relationship of the first couple, their history together, and their road to the presidency makes the point in passing that is precisely the same as that made by Jack Cashill. Most reviewers, and readers, will probably read this in passing and go on. As far as I know, no reviewers to date seemed to have noticed this. All they seem to have noticed is the one quote from Michelle Obama to her husband when he was considering whether to put Hillary Clinton on the ticket: “Do you really want Bill and Hillary just down the hall from you in the White House?” And since the reviews of the book have not been particularly good, it might disappear from the public’s notice fairly soon.

Well, possibly, but as Mr Radosh points out, this sort of speculation, later proved or not, has never done Bob Woodward's reputation any harm. I suppose it depends on the subject of your gossip.