Obama's Inaugural Address NOT Written

It's rare that I rebut a fellow blogger here on Political Machine, but I need to point out a couple of things that my friend, convention buddy, and talented writer, Mark Impomeni, missed in an earlier post repeating a fallacious NY Times story about a mythical Obama Inaugural address.

While Mark correctly quotes the NYT, that story has been rebutted by several sources. John Podesta, formally an adviser to the Hillary Clinton campaign, used an example of an inaugural address in his recent book, The Power of Progress. While this book was published on August 18, the inaugural address portion was wholly written, edited and submitted to the publisher in late March - long before Barack Obama was the nominee.


From ThinkProgress (blog of the Center for American Progress, for whom Podesta works):

– The book, which was in the works for over a year and was written with the help of CAP's in-house progressive historian John Halpin, traces the history and successes of progressive politics in the 20th Century, draws lessons from that history, and then applies those lessons to the big challenges facing the country - the global economy, global warming, and global security. At the end, there is a sample inaugural address written not "for Mr. Obama," but rather, clearly offered as a literary device to summarize the main arguments in the book.

– The inaugural address was written and submitted to the publisher in March 2008, during a time when Podesta was supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Podesta re-did the introduction to the book - but not the inaugural address - in June when it became clear that Obama would emerge as the nominee.

From Fox News:

TAMPA , Florida–-At a rally here today, Sarah Palin picked up one of her running mate's attacks from yesterday that seems to have been already been debunked. She claimed that Barack Obama has already written his inauguration address citing a New York Times report.

[...]

The address Palin is referring to was written by John Podesta–who is currently directing the transition team for the Democratic nominee-and published in a book this summer when he was advising Obama's rival, Hillary Clinton. The speech was a sample inaugural address for whoever eventually became the nominee.

From Politico:

Oops: The book was written when Podesta was advising Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in her race against one Barack Obama. Podesta said in a statement Saturday night: "While I appreciate Senator McCain's plug for my book, the 'Power of Progress,' his charge is a complete fabrication. He bases this claim on a New York Times story which distorted and confused a chapter I wrote last spring, for a book that was published this summer, with work I am doing this fall on behalf of Senator Obama.

As much hay as McCain, Palin and company try to make of this fictional inaugural address, I still like Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton's rebuke, "While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Sen. Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain who just plans on rereading George Bush's."