Anti-Obama books seem to be selling well

NEW YORK -- Going negative against Democrat Barack Obama isn’t just a campaign strategy for Republican John McCain. It’s also a good formula for selling books.

Three anti-Obama releases were in the top 20 of Amazon.com’s bestseller list on Tuesday, despite little critical attention or mainstream media coverage.

“There’s a pent-up demand from people on the right side of the aisle who feel that the mainstream media is effusively covering Barack Obama and not critically covering him,” says Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery Publishing Inc., which just released David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama.”

Until recently, the most widely read narrative of Sen. Obama’s life was written by Obama, in the million-selling “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” The new releases, like Sen. McCain’s campaign ads, attempt a counter-narrative.

The subtitles are the giveaway: Jerome Corsi’s “The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality,” Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate” and Dick Morris’ “Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us . . . and What to Do About It.”

The anti-Obama books share not just a point of view but also a path to success that has worked for liberals and conservatives: online word of mouth and appearances with sympathetic interviewers, such as Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who has had Corsi, Freddoso and Morris on his show.