Obama Book Written by Ayers?

Jack Cashill, writing for The American Thinker, posted an article October 17 alleging that former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers may have served as a ghostwriter for Barack Obama's book, Dreams From My Father.

Cashill says the evidence for this charge can be grouped into five basic categories, as follows: 1) the discovery of new matching nautical metaphors from both Ayers and Obama that almost assuredly came from the same source: Ayers, a former merchant seaman; 2) The discovery of a Bill Ayers' essay on memoir writing, whose postmodern themes and phrases are echoed throughout Dreams; 3) A newly discovered book chapter from 1990 that shows clearly and painfully the limits of Obama's prose style the year he received a contract to write Dreams; 4) The revelation by radical Islamicist Rashid Khalidi that Ayers made his "dining room table" available for neighborhood writers who needed help; and 5) A refined timeline that shows Ayers had the means, the motive and the time to help Obama when he needed it most.

After reading Cashill's article, I think his refined timeline argument is a bit of a stretch. That's not to say it's not plausible, but for me personally, there's not enough meat on the bones, so to speak. As for Obama's limited ability when it comes to writing prose, Cashill says, "There is an element of speculation in this, but new evidence continues to narrow the gap between the speculative and the conclusive." He goes on to cite the possibility that Ayers helped Obama with his manuscript in the same fashion in which he alleges Ayers helped Rashid Khalidi write his. As Cashill writes, "I believe that after failing to finish his book on time, and after forfeiting his advance from Simon & Schuster, Obama brought a sprawling, messy, sophomoric manuscript to the famed dining room table of Bill Ayers and said, 'Help.'"

Cashill goes on to provide examples of Obama's previous writing efforts and comparisons of the themes propagated by Ayers and echoed by Obama. He argues that Obama repeated these themes with the help of Ayers: "The evidence strongly suggests that Ayers transformed the stumbling literalist of 'Why Organize' into the sophisticated postmodernist of Dreams, and he did not so not [sic] by tutoring Obama, but by rewriting his text." Cashill provides a side-by-side comparison of Ayers' quotes and Obama quotes, too lengthy to reprint here. They are available in the article, linked above.

Cashill then delves into the "sea metaphors," citing a passage from an Ayers' book and a "stunningly comparable anecdote" from Obama's book. Cashill says, "Even were there no other clues, Obama's frequent and sophisticated use of nautical metaphors like this one makes a powerful case for Ayers' involvement in the writing of Dreams."

In closing, Cashill writes, "My suspicion is that Ayers saw the potential in Obama, and chose to mold it. The calculation in Dreams is palpable. Nothing about the book would deny a black Democrat the White House. If it were revealed that the ghostwriter is Ayers, it would suggest that Ayers has played a major role all along in the shaping of Barack Obama." He says, "At the end of the day, the observer is left with only two conclusions: either Barack Obama experienced a quantum surge in his writing skills almost overnight; or someone made a major contribution to the rewriting of his book."

Cashill makes a good argument, but not necessarily a convincing one. I came away from my reading of the piece feeling that while Ayers may not have been a "ghostwriter," he probably played a role in the writing of Obama's book.