THE same publisher who helped to sink John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign plans a follow-up effort to dish dirt on this year's Democratic hopeful, Barack Obama. The Case Against Barack Obama by conservative journalist David Freddoso will offer an alternative to the media's 'whitewashed' view of the Illinois senator, Regnery Publishing president Marjory Ross told Politico.com overnight.Ms Ross said the book was due out on August 4 - the same month in 2004 that he published Unfit for Command, a scathing attack on Mr Kerry's Vietnam War record that contributed to his defeat.
The release date is three weeks before Senator Obama is to be crowned the Democratic White House nominee at the party's Denver convention, when his general election campaign against Republican John McCain will move into top gear. 'I think it's critically important that the country gets a clear and honest view of who is running and what they stand for - warts and all,' Ms Ross said.
While the publisher promised a 'comprehensive, factual look at Obama', the new book's subtitle is: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favourite Candidate.
A publicist at Regnery Publishing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Politico said the book would examine Senator Obama's ties to his controversial former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and to a Chicago professor named William Ayers who was once part of a 1960s group of leftist bombers. It will also portray Senator Obama as an unvarnished liberal with a Senate voting record that contradicts his talk of ending bipartisan rancor, the website reported.