Did unrepentant former terrorist Bill Ayers write Obama's book?

Some people have poo-pooed this theory, dismissing it as something as ludicrous as conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate.

As a writer who knows how extremely difficult it is to write well, however, I found Jack Cashill's analysis of the authorship of Dreams of My Father compelling. Writers write, he argues, yet Obama's pre-Dreams record of published works is scanty to say the least. And that which does exist is workmanlike, policy-wonkish, and dull, not the accomplished, singing prose of Dreams. One does not go from being a wooden amateur to a top-notch literary stylist in a single bound. Or even two or three. It takes years of practice to become really good.

Now Cashill has new evidence from a surprising source. He writes:

The major media will not likely tackle the emerging evidence of Obama's stunning literary fraud, but the days of Obama's boasting about his writing skills are just as likely over.

The immediate cause of concern at the White House is Christopher Andersen's largely benign new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage.

Andersen contends that the ambitious Obama, unaware of JFK's own literary fraud, hoped to launch his own political career with a book as did John Kennedy with the discreetly ghost-written Profiles In Courage.

Despite a large advance, Obama found himself "hopelessly blocked." After four futile years of trying to finish, Obama "sought advice from his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers." This he did "at Michelle's urging," she being the more pragmatic half of the couple.

What attracted the Obamas were "Ayers's proven abilities as a writer." Barack particularly liked the fluid novelistic style of To Teach, a 1993 book by Ayers. This he hoped to emulate for his own family history. In fact, he had already taped interviews with many of his relatives, both African and American. The key sentence in Andersen's account is the one that follows:

"These oral histories, along with his partial manuscript and a trunkload of notes were given to Ayers." Adds Andersen, "Thanks to help from veteran writer Ayers, Barack would be able to submit a manuscript to his editors at Times Book." The manuscript in question would become Obama's 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father, what Joe Klein of Time Magazine called "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."

From textual sleuthing, I had come to a comparable conclusion more than a year ago, namely that Obama had "turned the framework of his life over to terrorist emeritus Bill Ayers who roughed it in with his own darker sentiments and experiences." Embedded here is a visual summary of this research, produced by Chris Kusnell. (Part I) (Part II)

Oh, and another thing. The "hopelessly blocked" experience. I can relate! Writing involves so many choices! How do you open your story? How do you structure the book as a whole and each chapter and paragraph? But having a president of the United States "hopelessly blocked" when it comes to making decisions that could mean life or death for millions of people, that's a scary thought.