Interesting discussion.
BECK: Coming up, John McCain and Barack Obama have yet to appear together in the same forum, until now. One of the top evangelical Christian leaders of our time, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life," has gone and done the impossible. Pastor Rick Warren gives us all the details in tonight`s "Real Story," coming up.
But first, this may be presumptuous of me, but I think you and I are an awful lot alike. I don`t care about the parties. I don`t care about the politicians. I care about the results. Not left and right; right and wrong. I just want to get the job done. I care about my country, and I know you do, too.
To me, the truth matters, but it`s getting harder and harder to know what is the truth. For instance, there are Web sites out there that say Barack Obama, he`s a Muslim, you know. No, he`s not. More important, that is -- that`s just a dumb argument against him. You want to make arguments? There are arguments to be had. That ain`t one. It`s ridiculous, because it`s wrong and it doesn`t tell you anything.
Just like you, I`m not on anybody`s side. I`m on my children`s side. I`m on America`s side. All I want is the truth without somebody`s agenda. I don`t care who gives it to me, a Republican or a Democrat.
Now, when it comes to the truth about Obama there are a ton of books out there. My next guest, best known for his previous "New York Times" best-selling book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry."
Now he takes aim at this election`s Democratic hopeful. Is this the truth or what some people say is just another election year smear? You find out for yourself. The book is called "Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality." Its author is Jerome Corsi.
Jerome, I believe that, if you can`t say -- if you can`t find one thing good to say about somebody, then you haven`t done enough homework. Tell me one good thing about Barack Obama.
JEROME CORSI, AUTHOR, "OBAMA NATION": Well, he`s won the Democratic primary for presidency.
BECK: That doesn`t count. Tell me one...
CORSI: Very few people achieve that.
BECK: Tell me one good thing. Tell me one thing that you found and you went, "You know what? That`s a good thing."
CORSI: One good thing that he did?
BECK: Yes.
CORSI: How much time do I have? I think, basically, Barack Obama had not enough time in the Senate to really have achieved a lot. He`s only been there for three, four years.
BECK: OK.
CORSI: Four years ago he was in the state legislature of Illinois. I mean, I quite frankly don`t find a lot of substance in his legislative record that I could praise.
BECK: All right. His -- his friends, though, you do go after his friends, something that he says is unfair. My mother used to say, "Show me your friends and I`ll show you your future."
Tell me the role that Saul Alinsky, who`s not a friend of his, Saul Alinsky plays in his life. Who is he, in case people don`t know?
CORSI: Well, when Obama went to Chicago to be a community organizer he was a Saul Alinsky community organizer. He went into a Saul Alinsky organization.
Alinsky was a radical, going back even to the `30s, a radical socialist organizer. His main book, "Rules for Radicals," Alinsky said was written -- you know, Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" for the haves to keep what they have. Alinsky said he wrote "Rules for Radicals" for the have- nots to take it away. And there was a radical social agenda, a redistribution of income almost on a socialist or communist model, where you`d rub raw the discontent in a community by listening to their grievances and then articulate their grievances back in their own words to have a power grab, where the wealth would be redistributed as a result.
BECK: And can he -- can he say that, well, I don`t know anything about him. I`m not related to these. You say in your book he taught this.
CORSI: Yes. He taught this. There are photographs of Obama which I refer to in the book. Now, this book has close to 700 footnotes. It was thoroughly researched. And Obama taught the Alinsky methodology in classrooms. Photographs are of Obama drawing Alinsky diagrams of community organizing on the blackboard.
BECK: OK. The thing that I do find about Barack Obama is that I think America is starting to catch on to this: this guy really is a Marxist. He believes in the redistribution of wealth. He believes in the global government and everything else.
In his autobiography, he talks about an experience with a guy named Frank in Hawaii. You say you know who this Frank is. Who is this Frank that he talks about in Barack Obama`s autobiography?
CORSI: Well, the Frank has been fully identified. In fact, even the A.P. ran a story about it just in the last couple of days. It`s Frank Davis Marshall, who was an avowed, self-avowed communist in the `30s and `40s. He was a member of the Communist Party of the USA, a very prominent poet and journalist in Chicago.
Frank Davis Marshall retired in Hawaii. And Obama tells us in his autobiography that, when he was in high school, the alienated years when Obama was first starting marijuana and cocaine, his grandfather introduced him to Frank Marshall Davis. Obama says he used to drink into the night and smoke cigarettes with Frank Marshall Davis. Frank Marshall Davis read his communist poems and presented his ideology to Obama, which was very leftist ideology.
CORSI: You know, they say that he is the most leftist guy in the -- in the Senate. And he`s trying to move center and, for instance, I saw this weekend that he has said he`s coming out against reparations. But what he`s against is it doesn`t go far enough.
He`s -- he`s -- if you read his words from the past, he talks about universal health care is a systematic reparation, because it will help blacks over whites. He really does see, for instance, universal health care, not as something necessarily for success but for basic fairness.
CORSI: Many of Obama`s arguments are fairness arguments. And that, again, those are redistribution of wealth arguments.
Obama wants to double, virtually, the captain gains tax. Another one of his redistribution of income ideas, currently, is his energy proposal. He`s going to impose windfall taxes on oil companies and give $1,000 checks to poor people. Well, which companies is Obama going to raid next time for his next second $1,000 checks to the poor people?
BECK: You believe -- you believe he`s going to lose?
CORSI: Yes. He`s going to lose.
BECK: Why do you say that?
CORSI: Because America is a center to the right country. The Democratic Party, which is leftist today at its core, advances these unvetted, unknown but very radical candidates.
As soon as the American public gets into the last two months of the campaign, September and October, and issues become predominant, then a candidate like Obama trying to shift to the center, well, these are changes that don`t represent the positions he`s expressed for years.
BECK: Right.
CORSI: And it`s not authentic.
BECK: OK. Jerome, thanks a lot.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0808/04/gb.01.html
