The anatomy of a mimetic smear

10 October 2008, 0108 EDT

I’ve been curious about the accusation–which can be found in almost any comment thread on a media website–that Obama wrote a “foreword” for the William Ayer’s book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of the Criminal Court. The rumor is obviously false, as the book doesn’t even have a foreword (but does have two five-star reviews. I wonder how long that’s going to last).

So where did the rumor come from?

The best I can tell is that Obama reportedly read the book; Ayers does mention “writer Barack Obama” as one of his neighbors in its pages, which at least one enterprising anti-Obama site claims, unpersuasively, provides evidence of their deep and abiding friendship.

A number of commentators have noted something significant about this last-ditch attempt by the McCain campaign to snatch victory from the jaws of a crushing defeat. In essence, we’re watching the content of anti-Obama viral emails making the leap to the mainstream, courtesy of not just the McCain campaign, but also a Fox News Channel which has decided to drop all pretense of being anything other than a Republican propaganda outlet.

This is a deeply dispiriting moment in American politics, particularly as it unfolds in the midst of an increasingly unsettled economic and security environment. From the financial meltdown to the deteriorating war in Afghanistan, from North Korea’s saber-rattling to worsening US-Russian relations, we live in very serious times. They deserve a serious campaign.

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Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.