By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Jerome Corsi's attempt to discredit Barack Obama has been found to be thinly researched and rife with errors. But it's at the top of the New York Times non-fiction best-seller list, so it must have some literary merit, right?

Uh, not necessarily.

The conservative network has a well-oiled machine designed to vault works such as The Obama Nation to the top of the list.

It works like this: Book is published by a conservative imprint of a major publishing house. Conservative book clubs place advance orders in bulk. Conservative talk hosts and bloggers promote the work as a must-read.

The book probably won't last long at the pinnacle of publishing. But the early buzz was the goal all along.

I like the way Slate writer Timothy Noah concludes a piece on Corsi and Mary Matalin, who runs the imprint that published The Obama Nation.

Simon & Schuster and the other big publishing houses have started conservative imprints, at arms' length and with noses held, because they recognize them to be a gold mine. The Obama Nation, the Times reports, will debut on its best-seller list this Sunday at No. 1.

But part of the deal, clearly, is that conservative imprints aren't required to adhere to the same standards of truth as the grown-up divisions. If an Erwin Glikes or even an Adam Bellow is available to edit your conservative fall list, fine. But in a pinch, a Mary Matalin will do.

It's what George W. Bush memorably dubbed the soft bigotry of low expectations. The conservative movement has won the publishing houses' attention but not their respect. Does it even care?