The Times (New York that is) front-paged this piece about Jerome Corsi, who has followed up 2004's hit-book on John Kerry with his new hit-book on Barack Obama.
Everybody gets worked into a tizzy when the Times puts something like this on its front page, and it's intensified by the news that Corsi's book will be No. 1 on this coming Sunday's NYT best-seller list. But that really proves nothing. Many lunatic right-wing books climb high on that list, largely because of bulk sales to right-wing membership groups of various stripe. It doesn't mean they have impact. Jonah Goldberg's insane Liberal Fascism hit No. 3, as I recall, but the notion hasn't exactly taken root. Media Matters for America has been all over the book's various lies and distortions.
The ultimate impact of a book like Corsi's depends, really, on whether some rich wingnuts will step forward to fund a shadowy group to run attack ads on TV this fall based on some of its claims. The early signs have been that enthusiasm for such work has been limited on the right. For example, T. Boone Pickens put a lot of money into the swift-boat veterans, but this year of course he's tilting at windmills. Of course, more activity may arise as November 4 approaches and Wingnuttia begins to fear that American is actually on the verge of electing a nonwhite Muslim Antichrist etc. president, but it's already getting a little late in the game.
