I HAD TO LOOK UP THE WORD "BALEFUL"
July 17, 2012 10:24 AM   Subscribe

Obama's oddest critic: Jack Cashill is obsessed with Obama's poetry and positive that it proves his life is "one massive fraud." In his book Deconstructing Obama, he uses postmodern techniques of textual analysis to prove not only that Frank Marshall Davis is the true author of Obama's poetry, but also that Bill Ayers ghostwrote Obama's two memoirs, and also that Obama's real father is possibly Jimi Hendrix or Malcolm X. Cashill has blogged on the subject of Obama's poetry at The American Thinker. [previously, on Obama's poetry]
posted by Sticherbeast (35 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Not that I don't share an interest in the weird kookiness at the core of this but a guy getting his nutso conspiracy theory published seems like it's sort of hard to separate from point-and-laugh territory and I'm not sure it's such a great idea for a post. -- cortex



 
that Obama's real father is possibly Jimi Hendrix

That's a pretty solid reason to vote for him right there.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:28 AM on July 17, 2012 [37 favorites]


Barack Obama is the Rimbaud of American poetry. He was active only briefly, during his teenage years, after which he moved on to other pursuits

Like the slave trade? Is there a daily bad analogy tumblr?
posted by Beardman at 10:28 AM on July 17, 2012


he uses postmodern techniques of textual analysis to prove not only...

He's doing it wrong.
posted by gauche at 10:29 AM on July 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


Oh. Jesus. Fuck.
posted by Danf at 10:29 AM on July 17, 2012


How dare they invoke Les Mis?!!
posted by cashman at 10:32 AM on July 17, 2012


I don't know enough about the first two claims to be able to say how crazy they are. But the Hendrix or X thing sounds like plain old racism. "Oh, you are black? Any relation to Malcolm X?"
posted by DU at 10:32 AM on July 17, 2012 [4 favorites]


Wait is his case seriously built on the fact that Obama's poem uses enjambment because that's a pretty Poetry 101 technique there.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:32 AM on July 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Racist panic.
posted by wuwei at 10:33 AM on July 17, 2012


Aw nuts, I was hoping his father would turn out to be Richard Pryor or Garrett Morris or maybe even Gene Wilder.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 10:33 AM on July 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


Old news; not the best of the internet. For anybody wanting a nice takedown of this loon, take a look at Sadly, No.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:34 AM on July 17, 2012


I think Futurama had a much more entertaining (and plausible) conspiracy theory about Obama's origins.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:35 AM on July 17, 2012


How many black dudes do you think this guy thinks there are. Eight? Maybe ten. Maybe.
posted by samofidelis at 10:35 AM on July 17, 2012 [13 favorites]


Dunno their metric, but I don't think this guys could remotely be called Obamas "oddest" critic. Compared to much of the wildly unhinged wingnuttery out there, this guys doesn't even rank "slightly off".
posted by kjs3 at 10:35 AM on July 17, 2012


This was published by Simon & Schuster? I always thought they were a legitimate publishing company.
posted by Jurbano at 10:38 AM on July 17, 2012


The only thing about this that is truly intriguing is what Mr. Cashill's mental health diagnosis may be.

I am a big Barack Obama file but think all his poetry proves is that it is a good thing he never gave up his day job.
posted by bearwife at 10:39 AM on July 17, 2012


That's nothing. I once got into an argument with a man in a pub in a little village outside of Oxford, who proved in turn that Barack Obama is Kit Marlowe, Borges, and the Lindburgh Baby.
posted by gauche at 10:39 AM on July 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


The only worthwhile response to this mental nugentry is the water slide rebuttal.
posted by fleetmouse at 10:39 AM on July 17, 2012 [3 favorites]


Could be yours for only $.19
posted by goethean at 10:40 AM on July 17, 2012


Is there a Herp Derp button for books? Can there be one?
posted by Cash4Lead at 10:41 AM on July 17, 2012


I am a big Barack Obama file but think all his poetry proves is that it is a good thing he never gave up his day job.

To be fair it is a decent shot better than a lot of undergrad poetry which embody the notion that Poetry = Abstract Nouns.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:41 AM on July 17, 2012 [2 favorites]


But the Hendrix or X thing sounds like plain old racism. "Oh, you are black? Any relation to Malcolm X?"

How many black dudes do you think this guy thinks there are. Eight? Maybe ten. Maybe.

Didn't you know? There are only famous black people and then that one black family you see everywhere.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:42 AM on July 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


This man is like a shadow of a waxwing, slain by the false azure in the window pane.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:45 AM on July 17, 2012 [5 favorites]


How many black dudes do you think this guy thinks there are. Eight? Maybe ten. Maybe.

Otherwise known as the Lando Calrissian Conspiracy Theory.
posted by FJT at 10:47 AM on July 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


Surely this will bring about the end of the Obama administration!
posted by mazola at 10:48 AM on July 17, 2012


kjs3: "Dunno their metric, but I don't think this guys could remotely be called Obamas "oddest" critic. "

Yep. Due to family obligations I recently spent a weekend helping out with a rodeo at my birthplace in eastern Washington. If I could have collected and put all the interesting conspiracy theories I heard in book form I would be a hit on the conservative radio circuit.
posted by the_artificer at 10:50 AM on July 17, 2012


(Cashill's candidates for Obama's "real" father include Malcolm X and Jimi Hendrix.)
I have it on good authority that Barack Obama and Jimi Hendrix are related...through a 15th century Norfolk peasant.
posted by Jehan at 10:50 AM on July 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


I love how it looks like Obama is sniffing poppers on the cover of this guy's book.

However, and no offense intended to the article's author, but I'm not sure that Cashill qualifies as Obama's oddest critic; this, however, says much more about the competition for the title than anything else. (Oops, on preview, kjs3 and the_artificer have already mentioned this point.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:52 AM on July 17, 2012


needs batshitcrazy tag
posted by cjorgensen at 10:52 AM on July 17, 2012




So that's why Jimi played the "Star Spangled Banner". It was all part of the Negro takeover of the White House!
posted by telstar at 10:56 AM on July 17, 2012


This is not going to go well.
posted by cashman at 10:57 AM on July 17, 2012


I love that this guy's name includes both "cash" and "shill" and that "Jack Cash-" sounds like Sean Connery saying "jackass" and oh man, his parents knew what they were doing with that name.
posted by jason_steakums at 11:00 AM on July 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


He and the guy who thinks Stephen King killed John Lennon should get together and do some kind of massive crossover project with interlinked web sites and comics and a videogame. It would be like the Wold Newton family of modern political pop culture.
posted by Naberius at 11:02 AM on July 17, 2012 [1 favorite]


♪♪ 'Scuse me while I go get high ♪♪

very high, so I can follow this
posted by Benny Andajetz at 11:02 AM on July 17, 2012


Romney Campaign: Obama Can’t Create Jobs ‘Because He Spent His Early Years In Hawaii Smoking Something’

Yes, this from a man (John Sununu) who served under a President during whose term the unemployment rate rose to the highest it had been since 1984. I suppose he would know a thing or two about not creating jobs.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:03 AM on July 17, 2012


« Older Including: Clandestine Best-Sellers of the...   |   No John Travolta, though. Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments