Book News: Politifact.com Claims Numerous Errors in Corsi’s Obama Portrait

Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 8/26/2008 7:48:00 AM

• Congressional Quarterly service finds multiple falsehoods throughout text
• Many of the book’s points claimed to be dated Internet rumors

Is Jerome R. Corsi’s Obama Nation an abomination? The Dallas Morning News Aug 22 ran a story attributed to Politifact.com, a service of Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times, disputing many facts presented by the author in his bestselling Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (S&S). Politifact.com said the book is a combination of known facts quoted from the presidential candidate’s memoir Dreams from My Father, with either Corsi’s opinion or falsehoods added on. Among the inaccuracies are Corsi’s statement that “Obama rejected his mother and grandparents, though Obama had good relations with his mother and grandfather until their deaths and visits his grandmother regularly. Even in Obama’s memoir, [he] makes it clear that he rejected the notion of separating himself from his white relatives.” 
Other claims are that Obama “has a ‘no nukes’ policy and pledges to reduce the size of the military,” which Politifact.com asserts “is a mischaracterization of Obama’s approach to nuclear weapons,” and that he actually also “has proposed increasing the size of the military.” The site further says that “a number of Corsi’s allegations have circulated for many months on the Internet, promoted by people who forward anonymous chain e-mails.” According to WorldCat, 322 libraries hold copies of the book.