McCain does have a voice of his own. You can hear it during townhalls or news conferences. It is the voice of a bully. You can hear him make rape jokes. Or get that deer in the headlights look when asked about Viagra and prescription pills. It is clear that he occsionally writes his own speeches in the Senate. The ones that have spittle all over them.
How can a man who can't write worth a damn put out a couple of best selling books? Simple. McCain got someone else to do the writing. Guy called Mark Salter. His own staffer. Keeps a low profile. Look below the jump for a picture of him not hiding his face.
He is an author in the same sense that Milli Vanilli is a singer. There is nothing new here. Most American politicians have others write their books for them. Bill Bennett even got another guy to write a book about Virtue. I guess that makes him a Virtual Author.
It turns out that even McCain's Straight Talk is not his own Talk. It is fake. Next we are going to hear that Cindy's Recipes are not really hers either.
The point is, unlike most American politicians, Obama actually did write his own books. And he is a better writer than any of the hacks the other guys hired. Better even than most of the professional writers who work as journalists. Part of the reason why they admire him so much, as even right wing hacks admit.
Is this another reason why McCain so envious of Obama? Does the guy who barely got his college degree even care that Obama can write? A key may be found in the analysis of Romesh Ponnuru:
Why are the media so smitten with Obama? Journalists have an affinity for the Democratic nominee in part because he is a wordsmith and they make a living manipulating words and symbols, so they have a special appreciation for his gifts.
So part of the reason why McCain lost the infatuation of the media is that Obama is winning them over with his talents. Boy that has got to hurt.
According to Maureen Dowd, it does.
McCain could dismiss W. as a lightweight, but he knows Obama’s smart. Obama wrote his own books, while McCain’s were written by Salter. McCain knows he’s the affirmative action scion of admirals who might not have gotten through Annapolis without being a legacy. Obama didn’t even tell Harvard Law School that he was black on his application.
McCain upbraids Obama for being a poppet, while he’s becoming a puppet. His mouth is moving but the words coming out belong to his new hard-boiled strategist, Steve Schmidt, a Rove protégé, nicknamed “The Bullet” for his bald pate.
Schmidt has turned Mr. Straight Talk into Mr. Desperate Straits. It’s not a good trade.
Obama has speechwriters too. I guess even he cant come up with that great oratory while also running a Presidential campaign.
And its not just Republicans who have ghost writers. JFK's ghost writer, Ted Sorensen, even got him a Pulitzer Prize. It would not be an issue except that McCain is implying that Obama is a lightweight. And Sen. Clinton even tried to accuse Obama of stealing a few words from Deval Patrick. Since the McCain campaign is recycling failed attack strategies from the Clinton campaign I wouldn't surprised to see then accuse Obama of that too soon.