Watch Jerome Corsi on Larry King talking about 'Obama Nation'

One of America’s best-known character assassins, Jerome Corsi, was savouring the choice of the Republican running mate yesterday. The author of The Obama Nation, the No 1 bestseller, believes that Sarah Palin is a “brilliant pick” who will capture Hillary Clinton’s voters.

Corsi’s account of Obama’s links – some exaggerated, others real – to Islam, communists, terrorists, radical preachers and shady financiers has infuriated the Democratic nominee. Corsi had already had a part in the “Swiftboating” of John Kerry as a co-author of the book, Unfit for Command, a no-holds-barred attack on the 2004 presidential candidate’s record in Vietnam.

This time the Obama campaign has fought back with a 40-page rebuttal of the book, aiming to prove that Corsi is an extremist bigot. Corsi has claimed that the Pope is “senile”, Clinton is a “lesbo” and Muslims are “ragheads”, and has been accused of being a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, a charge that he denies.

Corsi said the Obama campaign was more aggressive than Kerry’s. “It is not true that Kerry did not push back, but the Obama campaign has tried more name-calling and ad hominem attacks,” he said. “Are they going to set up a department of truth if they win the election?”

When another conservative author was due to appear on radio in Chicago to talk about Obama’s tenuous past links to William Ayers, the former Weather Underground terrorist, the campaign arranged for supporters to swamp the station with calls.

Corsi claims the Obama campaign is promoting a “cult of personality” and compared the stadium rally in Denver on Thursday to a “modern version of Triumph of the Will” – Leni Riefenstahl’s film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by Hitler.

He does not like McCain either, believing him to be too soft on immigration. Palin, however, is another matter. She supported the independent conservative Patrick Buchanan, who was to the right of George W Bush, in the 2000 White House race.

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