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“9 Tall Tales From Barack Obama’s Memoir”

Honestly, is anybody terribly surprised by this?

I suspect the crew at Lawyers, Guns, and Money — who were so desperate to villify Jack Cashill for his literary forensic work — will spend the next couple weeks informing us, in their best dismissive academic speak and sneering hand waves, how fabulism marshaled in the service of a particular narrative theme, even in the service of a putative autobiography (well, one of them, at least), is unsurprising, and certainly not the kind of gross distortion of the “truth” that some on the right will try to make of it.

Facts, you see, are secondary to the servicing of the narrative — with the narrative as a whole hoping to capture the essence of the personal story being told.

Hell, everybody knows that. Wingnut racists.

37 Replies to ““9 Tall Tales From Barack Obama’s Memoir””

  1. McGehee says:

    Maraniss can’t possibly have any chops, since he’s obviously on the wrong side of history when he writes these slanderous truths about Our Leader.

  2. Warmongerel says:

    Pshaw! Truth is only a construct of the White ruling class. I mean, duh! If I paid $100,000 to go to college, they wouldn’t, like, lie to me, right?

    Racist!

  3. Warmongerel says:

    Well, technically, my parents paid for it. And everything else. But still…the alternative would be to move out of their basement and get a job that doesn’t involve my college major in “Black Lesbian Studies”. How totally unfair is that, Dude? I might get grease burns on my arms from the french fry dipper thing! And, like, they have a timer on the french fry dipper thing. WTF am I supposed to do if I’m texting my buds about the Occupy McDonalds rally and the french fry timer goes off? That is, like, so oppressive!

    Racist, fascist pigs making me work at a menial job when I am, like, totally qualified to run the Capitalist, imperialist McDonalds Corporation. How hard can that be? I mean, like, I can, like, make change for a $20. Duh!

    Whatever. My cat wants to play. Later, dudes.

  4. bh says:

    OT: I don’t know how some of you use your phones to comment. This sucks.

    On topic, Obama is a lying liar.

  5. palaeomerus says:

    If Obama isn’t reelected we’ll start hearing stories about how he was actually a Republican plant all along.

  6. sdferr says:

    R.A. Dickey has just thrown back to back one hitters. He’s chucking butterflies.

  7. leigh says:

    Pala, when Obama isn’t reelected, we’ll start hearing about how he was just too, too smart and good and wonderful for the likes of us. We just weren’t ready for him.

  8. geoffb says:

    Yet.

  9. OCBill says:

    Obama’s been a plant all along

    I thought we weren’t going to speculate about Obama’s intelligence on this thread.

  10. Crawford says:

    Yeah, yeah — and Washington never chopped down a cherry tree. So what are a few lies in a biography, or an autobiography for that matter?

    Next you’ll tell me he spent 20 years listening to someone speak every week, used one of the guy’s speeches as the basis for one of his books, named the guy to a high-ranking position in his presidential campaign and never heard a word the guy said.

  11. newrouter says:

    yup washington never chopped down a cherry tree

    saved by the “choom gang”

  12. newrouter says:

    The Pretenders – Back On The Choom Gang

    We shall go on to the end, we shall mock them fight in France, we shall mock them fight on the seas and oceans, we shall mock them fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall mock them fight on the beaches, we shall mock them fight on the landing grounds, we shall mock them fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall mock them fight in the hills; we shall never surrender

  13. newrouter says:

    Let Mr. Carter go to their homes, look their children in the eye and argue with them that in is “only” a recession that put dad or mom out of work.

    Let him go to the unemployment lines and lecture those workers who have been betrayed on what is the proper definition for their widespread economic misery.

    Human tragedy, human misery, the crushing of the human spirit. They do not need defining–they need action.

    And it is action, in the form of jobs, lower taxes, and an expanded economy that — as President — I intend to provide.

    Call this human tragedy whatever you want. Whatever it is, it is Jimmy Carter’s. He caused it. He tolerates it. And he is going to answer to the American people for it.

    Last week, more than three years after be became President, he finally came up with what he calls a new economic program. It is his 5th new economic program in 3 ½ years. He talks as if someone else has been in charge these past few years. With two months to go until the election he rides to the rescue now with a crazy-quilt of obvious election-year promises which he’ll ask Congress for–next year. After three years of neglect, the misery of unemployment, inflation, high taxes, dwindling earning power and inability to save–after all this, American workers have now been discovered by this administration.

    Well it won’t work. It is cynical. It is political. And it is too late. The damage is done and every American family knows who did it.

  14. newrouter says:

    Consequently, local folks generally come to like oil and gas. Especially the Chambers of Commerce. Even local pols, local Democratic pols, like oil and gas activity because the increased valuations mean more property tax dollars filling the public coffers and enriching local school boards.

    As the maps show, even Democratic voters vote their pocketbooks.

  15. happyfeet says:

    it’s up to 31,777 now

    w00t!

  16. BigBangHunter says:

    – There is much growing evidence that oil is abiotic, and constantly being renewed.

  17. guinspen says:

    It’s up to no good, as ever.

    f00t.

  18. Zachriel says:

    1. Hussein Onyango, Barack’s grandfather, wasn’t really imprisoned and tortured by the British.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1091499/Barack-Obamas-grandfather-tortured-British-Kenyas-Mau-Mau-rebellion.html

  19. Slartibartfast says:

    I missed when LGM terminated its headlong slide into being a very slightly smarter clone of Sadly, No.

  20. Slartibartfast says:

    Probably happened while I wasn’t paying attention, which is nearly all of the time.

  21. Car in says:

    Yesterday I found myself somewhere reading the comments to a review of Maraniss’s book. They were hilarious.

    So, someone who is not Obama writes a book about Obama and automatically the third party is 100% right, but the person who experienced the actual occurrences is totally wrong? Okay. And Obama’s book actually says in the preface that he composited characters, but yet it’s some scandal that he did? Did the elite media read the fucking intro to Obama’s book? Or are you that ignorant and stupid?

    and this:

    Historical credibility? It’s his own experiences, genius.

    And, of course, fact-checking Obama’s book is racist. Did you fuckers ever fact check Frank McCourt’s book?

    Truly – that was the gist of one comment.

  22. Car in says:

    I found it kinda interesting, though, that his memoirs paint the story as the dad left them – I suppose that fits with the more common narrative? The truth – that his dad was abusive?

    Make the whole “searching for who my father was” journey … well, it makes it look stupid. To be honest.

  23. newrouter says:

    Three Leading W. Va. Dems Not Attending Party Convention; Will the News Get Wide Coverage?

    Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/06/18/three-leading-w-va-dems-not-attending-party-convention-will-it-get-wide-#ixzz1yFQKszYK

  24. Speaking of not paying attention, look what I found.

    Old and off topic, but I’ve been busy lately and am playing catch up. Imagine what that guy (whom I imagine looks like the later-years dad from the Brady Bunch) would think of this place.

  25. Frank McCourt’s book?

    Fact check? No, but I played the game.

    McCourt’s a bullshit artist.

  26. Car in says:

    McCourt’s character aside, that someone cannot see the difference/importance of fact-checking a McCourt book, versus our President’s Memoir…

    it’s just ridiculous.

  27. geoffb says:

    Only 9? Or do they mean so far.

  28. geoffb says:

    From LMC’s 8:02 link.

    Thanks to all this, on the days I don’t bike to work and instead fire up my 11-year-old Saturn and shift it into first gear, I no longer feel so righteous or populist. I feel like part of the problem … it seems like more proof that when it comes to transportation, we’re still prone to making shortsighted decisions.

    I’ll bet biking to work, in Colorado, November to March is a joy and a wise decision. Shopping should be a fun time too year round.

  29. Blake says:

    In the case of Obama, sounds like the “narrative arc” has given way to the “narrative pretzel.”

Comments are closed.