ANTI-OBAMA BOOK TO BE LAUNCHED IN NAIROBI TODAY

October 7, 2008
The Standard
Nairobi, Kenya
By Alex Ndegwa

The author of a smear crusade against Barack Obama is in Kenya to advance a negative campaign against the US Democratic presidential candidate on his ancestral soil.

Dr Jerome Corsi, who authored "The Obama Nation; Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," launches the book this morning at the Laico Hotel, Nairobi.

The book questions the Illinois senator’s character, his links to Prime Minister Raila Odinga and attacks Obama’s fitness for the White House.

The development raises eyebrows coming a day after Obama accused his republican opponent John McCain of resorting to smear campaigns and trying to "tear down" his campaign by linking him to terrorists.

A statement inviting the Press to the launch today makes no secret of the intention to hurl dirt at Obama and undermine his campaign from his ancestral home.

"Dr Corsi will also expose details of deep secret ties between US Democratic presidential candidate Sen Barack Obama and a section of Kenya Government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Sen Obama win the American presidency," the statement reads in part.

Obama’s brother

It adds: "During his stay, Corsi also plans to meet Sen Obama’s brother, George Hussein Onyango Obama, who lives on a $12 a year in the sprawling Huruma slums and hand him a $1,000 (Sh70,000) cheque from WND founder and CEO Joseph Farah."

Recently, foreign media crews hunted down Onyango and the interviews were used in the US to portray Obama as one who had abandoned his kin.

Onyango, however, denounced suggestions that he was living in squalor and admonished the media for using the reports to attack Obama.

The inclusion of the ‘philanthropic de tour’ in Corsi’s programme is seen in bad taste and an extension of the campaign to undermine Obama’s bid to become the first black American president.

A section of "The Obama Nation" attacks Obama for ostensibly voting against a measure passed by the Illinois Senate to allow self-defense to take precedence over local ordinances against handgun possession.

This followed a much-publicised case in which a 52-year-old resident — worried that his children were in danger — shot a burglar but was later charged for shooting the criminal.

In an attempt to portray Obama as elitist and insensitive, the book revisits the disparaging remark on April 11 when Obama was recorded at a private fundraiser in San Francisco as claiming people in small towns in the Midwest "cling to guns and God."

Guns at home

Lapierre said, "Senator Obama opposes people having guns in their homes for self-defence while he and his family enjoy armed professional security around the clock."

The alleged remarks were made before the Pennsylvania primary and cost Obama the contest.

Yet another brands the Democratic candidate a ‘Plagiarising Orator’ accusing him of lifting text from a 2006 speech by an official.

"When we learn he has taken an important section of his speech from another elected official, it raises very fundamental questions about his campaign," the book quotes a top adviser of Hillary Clinton, Obama’s key opponent for the Democrat ticket-turned-supporter.

The "Obama Nation", which was released on August 1, has been dismissed as a stream of false allegations modeled on the "Swift Boat" smears that helped to defeat Democratic nominee, John Kerry, four years ago.

The Obama campaign issued a 41-page point-by-point rebuttal of the book under the heading "Unfit for Publication".

A spokesman said: "Once again, bigoted fringe author Jerome Corsi is trying to make money off an election, spinning garbage as journalism and relying on the right-wing echo chamber to pump up sales".

"His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal."

Corsi’s latest work is one of an estimated 20 books — largely hostile — that are being written about Obama.