Mark Salter Emerges as Suspect in "O" Mystery

Washington has been buzzing over the identity of the anonymous author behind "O: A Presidential Novel," a fictionalized account of the 2012 presidential campaign starring an Obama figure named simply "O." The book features obvious stand-ins for Arianna Huffington, Sarah Palin and the website Politico, and it offers a complicated portrait of "O" as a somewhat-compromised idealist who sometimes struggles under the weight of the presidency.

Hotsheet got an early copy of "O" and devoured it in a weekend; as I discuss in the video below, the author seemed likely to me to be a political reporter, not an administration insider. That's because while the book is great on the workings of a campaign and the interaction between reporters and their sources, it did not strike me as having great insight into the president or his White House.

Now a suspect has emerged who is not, in fact, a political reporter - but who does fit the bill as someone who understands campaigns and reporters but does not have a strong connection to Mr. Obama. That suspect is Mark Salter, a longtime close aide to John McCain and his former speechwriter. Salter has written several books with McCain, including his biography, "Faith of My Fathers."

As Halperin notes, the New York Post pointed to Salter as the possible author earlier this month, writing in part, "His adjective-filled style is similar to the 'O' author's."

If Salter is the author, the revelation may cause tension between the McCain camp and McCain's former running mate Sarah Palin, who is not described in flattering terms in the book. (At one point her stand-in, "the Barracuda," is described as "baby on her hip, thick hair piled up high, chin out, defiant, taunting, flaunting that whole lusty librarian thing, sweet and savory, mother and predator, alluring and dangerous.")

Interestingly, while the O character in the book is irritable, hypocritical and arrogant - he is described at one point as believing that "his gift as a public speaker was greater and rarer than the one commonly attributed to him, his ability to inspire people" - his fictionalized Republican opponent in the book, Thomas Morrison, is a paragon of virtue, an "square-jawed, straight-backed" upstanding former military man with impeccable morals and a family to match. (Implausibly, he runs to the left of "O" on Afghanistan.) The dichotomy caused New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani, who panned the book, to speculate that "the author of this novel is a Republican sympathizer."

Salter would obviously fit the bill. But for the moment, at least, he's not talking.