Obama fights back against critical book

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama, sights set on party unity going into the Democratic national convention this month, is striking back hard against a best-selling book that portrays the presidential candidate as dangerous and radical, branding its author a "discredited liar" intent on advancing a Republican agenda.

Jerome Corsi's book, "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," brings together in one volume the innuendo and false rumors that Obama -- the first black to top a major U.S. political party's presidential ticket -- has struggled to debunk both during his often bitter primary race against fellow Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and in the current contest against Republican John McCain.

Corsi's book, for example, maintains Obama was raised a Muslim, attended a radical, black church and secretly has a "black rage" hidden beneath the surface. Obama has repeatedly noted he is a Christian and attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

With the candidate on holiday in his birthplace of Hawaii, the Obama campaign picked apart the book's claims in a 40-page rebuttal titled "Unfit For Publication," to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com. The campaign also noted it was riddled with inaccuracies.

"Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday.

"His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal."

In the 2004 campaign, Corsi co-authored a book against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military service called "Unfit For Command." Kerry lost to Republican imcumbent George W. Bush.

Still, the anti-Obama book is off to a swift start and is No. 1 on The New York Times' hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.

Obama has been more aggressive in targeting such rumors and swipes. And, as he continues trying to win over some die-hard Clinton supporters who still refuse to back him, the first-term Illinois senator is increasingly determined that nothing detract or distract from the message of unity he is promoting going into the Aug. 25-28 Democrat National Convention in Denver later this month.

Both he and McCain, whose party convention is from Sept. 1-4, are hammering each other with accusations and recriminations as their presidential battle heats up, and they begin campaigning in earnest for the Nov. 4 election after the sleepy summer months.

They are soon expected to announce their vice presidential running mates.

On Friday, McCain reported raising $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination.

It is especially important for McCain to rake in funds before the Republican convention in September because he has agreed to accept public financing for the general election. That means he can spend only taxpayer money after formally accepting the nomination at the convention.

Obama has declined public funding, leaving him open to donations throughout the campaign.

On Thursday, a nonpartisan group reported that U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Obama, who is against the Iraq war, than to his McCain, who supports the war.

Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said Thursday. It is a reversal of previous White House campaigns in which military donations tended to favor Republicans.

The results are striking because they favored Obama, who has never served in the military while McCain, a decorated war veteran who spent nearly five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

The Arizona senator, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and had a 22-year career as a naval aviator, has been a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq and opposes a set timetable for withdrawing the troops, arguing that the drawdown in forces should take place as security conditions allow.

Obama, however, has opposed the war in Iraq and says he would withdraw combat troops within 16 months.

McCain's campaign played down the significance of the donations.

"We feel confident that many U.S. troops stationed overseas will support John McCain in the election this fall, but we suspect most are too busy doing the important work of defending this country than to make political contributions," McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said.

The report tracked donations of $200 or more. It found that 859 members of the military donated a total of $335,536 to Obama. McCain received $280,513 from 558 military donors.

Among soldiers serving overseas at the time of their donations, 134 gave a total of $60,642 to Obama while 26 gave a total of $10,665 to McCain. That was less than the amount received by Republican Ron Paul, who collected $45,512 from 99 soldiers serving abroad, the report said.

McCain was scheduled to have no public events Friday, when he will meet with top aides, and only one on Saturday: a televised forum on faith, in California, where Obama is to appear separately.