Obama '08?

I was curious about some of the stuff I've seen here, and went for a peek at the poles of what's being said about Obama. This guy covers the good, bad and possibly ugly from what seems to be a middle of the road perspective.

Curious to know how it is recieved.

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The official biography of Barack Obama, candidate for the US Senate in Illinois, taken from his own website is named: "The Background and Commitment to Make a Difference". Anyone who watched his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston was certainly captured by this stunning and charismatic man and there would be little doubt the biography carried a proper title. .

The biography says: "Barack Obama has spent a lifetime fighting effectively to empower working families and the poor - as community organizer, civil rights attorney and a leader in the Illinois Senate. He has brought new ideas and approaches in pursuit of traditional Democratic ideals to make a real difference for people -- from better schools to affordable health care to criminal justice reform."

It is impossible for Republicans to dispute that, it is all true.

Obama represents Illinois' 13th Senate District on Chicago's South Side, a very black and African American neighborhood. He is recognized as a leader of his own people and is held up as a substantial role model.

The Chicago Tribune has called him "one of the General Assembly's most impressive members."

His list of legislative accomplishments are many and equally impressive. They include the areas of Education, Health Care, Jobs and Opportunity, Earned Income Tax Credits, Criminal Justice, Civil Rights and Liberties, and Ethics Reform.

Obama graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and a specialty in international relations.

He worked as a community organizer in some of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, helping church groups create job-training programs, reform area schools, and improve city services.

He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

After law school, Obama organized one of the largest voter registration drives in Chicago history to help Bill Clinton's election, and worked as a civil rights lawyer on cutting edge voting rights and employment discrimination cases in federal and state courts.

Currently a senior lecturer specializing in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, Obama has served on the boards of some of Chicago's leading foundations and chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million philanthropic effort to reform the public schools.

That is the man we watched on television.

But there was more to his story. He told it to us as he spoke at the convention.

"Tonight is a particular honor for me because ?- let's face it ?- my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father ?- my grandfather ?- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

"But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before.

"While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton's army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity.

"And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents.

"My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.

"They are both passed away now. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride."

It was an inspiring story. I was mesmerized by this 44 year old man whose roots, we were told, were in Kenya with his grandfather working as a domestic servant for the British and his own father a goat herder. And if you were mesmerized as I was, we weren't the only ones.

Two days later I listed to Teresa Heinz Kerry speak to the National Organization of Women as she said: "Someday, Barack Obama will be President of the United States."

Her words were received with a standing ovation.

I was part of that standing ovation.

A fellow columnist for Political Gateway, Andy Martin, has a different take on Barack Obama. He says Barack Obama has not only invented large parts of his political resume, he also says the story about his father being a "goat herder" is not true. He claims Obama has become the "man behind the mask," hiding his real family history and his father's religion.

As I read my colleague's column and went back to Obama's own words, words I thought I clearly heard him speak, I was forced to not only question Andy Martin, but Barack Obama too.

The picture Mr. Obama painted for us as he spoke to the convention and the world was an American immigration success story, one that could be emulated by anyone. It was one that showed the lowest of the low, even from Africa itself, could aspire for a greater life and succeed.

"My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father ?- my grandfather ?- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British."

Andy Martin calls this a "fictitious family history" and he calls it a lie.

He says he has conducted an investigation which has gathered information from three continents, and Obama's father was in fact never a lowly "goat herder". He claims his father was a child of privilege and affluence. His research, which I have now confirmed, indicates the Obama family was a prominent Muslim family in Kenya.

Barack Obama's father, it turns out, was never a lowly "immigrant". Instead, like other children of privilege, he was a person with access to the highest levels of government in Kenya and as a result of those connections, was able to come to America to study. Keep in mind it was 1958. African or even Arab students in America were a rarity, not the rule as they are today. How likely would it have been for a "goat herder" to be able to get to America to go to, of all places, Harvard?

Andy Martin paints a picture of the Obama family as being part of a corrupt and violent regime that terrorized Kenya for decades. There is no proof of the Obama family having a direct or participating role in that chapter in Kenyan history. It was a British possession and Britain has a long history of abuse and subjugation of local populations.

However, Obama's grandfather was not a domestic servant as we were told. He was in fact a prominent and wealthy farmer and part of the British colonial system. To that extent Hussein Onyango Obama might have been complicit. Still, Obama in his speech, made the claim "my grandfather ?- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British." Why?

Mr. Martin claims Obama is a Muslim and is concealing it. Is he? I don't think so. I don't know that it ever came up. And if he is, what of it because the Moslem faith is one of the fastest growing faiths in this nation. Has Mr. Martin forgotten, like so many Republicans have forgotten, that this nation was built on religious freedom?

Be that as it may, his father and his grandfather were Moslem. And if being a Moslem in this nation is a sin, are we to believe he is because his father and grandfather were? How many Christians have Jewish grandparents and great grandparents? Does that make them Jewish? According to Mr. Martin it does. I would have to take exception to that.

He accuses Obama of being afraid to tell the truth. The truth is Obama didn't much know his biological father who was Moslem. And while that is no sin today, Obama never told us that as he painted the picture he did in his convention speech. In fact, the convention speech was very misleading. Andy Martin claims because of the misleading speech, Obama has lied to the American people, and he has sought to misrepresent his own heritage. Maybe.

Obama's life story, along with the stories about his father and his grandfather, are in fact different from the stories he portrayed to the nation in his speech.

Obama's father grew up around people herding goats and probably did herd goats at one time or another, however his family owned the ranch, a substantial one, on which the goats, among other animals, including a substantial number of cattle, were also "herded".

Obama's father, like his father before him, Obama's grandfather, were both children of privilege. Comparatively, for Kenya at the time, or even today for that matter, Obama's father was a wealthy, outstanding student, not a herdsman.

In his speech Obama says he was given an "African" name.

"My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success."

Andy Martin accuses Obama of being "a Muslim who has concealed his religion." He says "he has treated his Muslim heritage as a dark secret." It would appear so especially in light of his claim about having an "African name", however we could also be splitting hairs here. And does it matter?

Nevertheless, Obama's grandfather was a Moslem named "Hussein" which is also an Arabic-Moslem name, not African. Hussein was a devout Moslem and he likewise named his son "Baraka." Baraka is an Arabic word meaning "blessed" not African. Baraka is an Arabic name and comes directly from the Koran.

Baraka, or Barack, was raised as a devoted Moslem who chose a Moslem name for his son, Barack Obama. Why wouldn't he?

Now, is Obama running from his family heritage and religious heritage? Who can say?

And, does it really matter?

It shouldn't but the fact it doesn't jibe with what Andy Martin has uncovered leads the skeptical and the Republicans eager to discredit Obama into new directions asking questions, many of which Obama himself left open as a result of his speech.

Obama"s father, according to Andy Martin was not a harmless student "immigrant" who came to the United States only to study. He claims Obama's father was "intimately associated with one of the most corrupt and violent organizations in Africa: the Kenyatta regime".

He goes on to say "Obama's father ran back to Kenya soon after the British left."

He further claims: "It is likely Obama's father had Mau Mau sympathies or connections, or he would not have been welcomed into the murderous inner circle of rapists, murderers, and arsonists."

Again we go back to the speech.

Obama's speech certainly gave us the illusion of his two parents struggling so their son, the man standing before us that evening in Boston, could make it to the pinnacle of success he had reached. That in fact was not the case.

Obama's own words in a New Yorker interview (Issue 05-31 of 2004) tell a different story regarding his parentage.

As it turns out Obama was actually born in Hawaii. His father, also named Barack (changed from Baraka) Obama, was a foreign student there, doing preparatory work in order to be accepted to a major university.

His mother, Ann, was white, and only eighteen when she married his father. She and her parents, originally from Kansas, had moved to Honolulu.

When her husband left for Harvard, she and their toddler stayed behind. Obama said: " - there was no money in his scholarship for them to go East." However, there are other facts regarding this time in Obama's life.

The senior Obama did not return to Hawaii to see his wife and son. For all practical purposes they were abandoned and lived with his mother's parents. And, after graduation, the father returned alone to Kenya. He did not run back after the British left. He returned to take his place in his father's family and his white Christian wife and mixed race son had no place.

He divorced his wife according to Moslem law, raised another family giving Obama Kenyan brothers and sisters. When the British did leave he worked for the government.

Obama claims he worked as a government economist, however, there is a question as to other and more brutal positions he might have held. The fact does exist that his father traveled around the world on official business for Kenya and was in the United States many times. However, he visited his American son only once, when Barack was ten.

The speech never touched on his mother's second marriage, a marriage to an Indonesian oil manager. They moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He lived there for four years, and in his book "Dreams from My Father," he writes about his time in Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty?-"more harrowing, perhaps, for his mother than for the little boy who barely remembered any other life."

Where did the step father come from? There was no mention or reference to him in the speech. We were certainly led to believe it was his mother and his father sacrificing for their son so he could become a success.

Obama's father returned to Kenya at a time of great upheaval. Andy Martin claims Obama is attempting to hide his "secret shame at his family history of rape, murder and arson". No facts substantiate this in any way other than his father was a part of the old and the new governments. And even if his father was part of that, it has no bearing whatsoever on Obama. He has distinguished himself with his own glowing record.

That aside, Obama certainly opened himself up to this type of theorizing when he said: "My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation." The history of his father abandoning him and his mother and then going back to Kenya following graduation from Harvard does not epitomize anyone who believed in the "possibilities of this nation".

And taking this forward, Obama has most certainly opened himself up for not only scrutiny, but also charges of outright lying and misrepresentation as a result of his opening remarks about his heritage. They misled me and certainly have misled others.

Barack Obama has a fine and solid record of public service. He is the right man for the job.

Why did this have to happen?

Was it necessary to mislead us and open himself up to charges of misrepresentation?

What was wrong with the truth, the real truth?

In the least, it appears he did lie. About more than one thing. If he did, it was a needless lie. Makes one wonder how far he'd go if a lie HAD been needed.

Source for previous article

Indeed he does. In my haste to defend one of the few politicos I have any faith left in, I assumed that Sierra was making a clever insult. Doubly embarrassing is the fact that I've actually read Obama's book, and should really have known better.

I apologize for what I said about smarmy and reaching, Sierra Song.

But if you intend to continue reworking my pseudoname Lash (SnoodWrong), I take it you won't have any objection to others doing likewise to yours.

If you can come up with anything as cute, appropriate and innocuous as SnoodWrong, be my guest.

I could do that, easily. "Keep the baby, faith"

PROTEST!!!! <black power fist jammed in the air, you know, in a militant kind of way>

sierrasong wrote



blatham wrote;

lash wrote:

And if his middle name was Joseph or Fred we can be certain SierraSong would have taken the time to appraise us of that. I'm certain because every time she writes anyone's name here, she always adds that essential middle part. Always.

Pretty much... I thought that was what Snood meant, too.

That was my guess.

I still wonder what the "slime" is. Hussein is his name. What exactly do you say she's guilty of? Is he guilty of Moslemnity...she, of revealing his Moslem middle name... you, of trying to overstep the larger truth---that he lied about a few things in his background for a more glowy speech...

Flesh out your charge, if you will.

Sierra-- I'd be interested to know what you were thinking when you included his name. Curious about all this unspoken maneuvering.

I would most likely never vote for someone named Hussein, probably an illegal alien to begin with and even more likely an african. Would be like voting for a woman. Does he have papers? Is he a protestant? Is he white? Anyone with a name other than "John" is in deep cereal in my estimation.
Vote Early
vote often
vote Kucinich.

I guess what you call "unspoken maneuvering", Lash, is what Blatham called "sliming".

"Unspoken manoevring" = Bringing things up that will make someone sound bad, without actually fleshing any charge out about it. Just kinda sneaking something in that will ensure some kind of negative connotation, while making sure you havent actually said anything that you can be pinned down on. = "Sliming".

Works for me.

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Re your longer post, dont want to seem to be ignoring it. I've read it, dont really know what to make of it.

It looks like some lifestory-fudging has gone on, indeed. Which is unsympathetic, all the more so since like you said, he didnt even have to. (In that sense its different from the Hirsi Ali story that broke in Holland last month, see here and on from there.)

I'm sure we'll hear plenty more about it.

But for now I also remain sceptical. The author says he did his own research to get to his findings, but there's no actual references anywhere. There's nothing we have to go on except the take of "a fellow columnist for Political Gateway, Andy Martin", who even this guy basically dismisses as overtly partisan, and this guy's own take.

He brings a lot of info, so that pleads for his cred; so does the fact that the rest of his site shows he's not some hating conservative.

But the whole site and a random browse of the other texts there ("15 Things Learned About Bush&Co.: An Impeachment List", and the like) gives off an impression of amateurism and dilettantism. Of someone who's just rather far-out. The rest of his site (its basically just him, right? Leftie columnist and (talk radio?) host of "The Bud Beck Show"?) just doesnt look very serious or credible a source.

I'm sceptical because we've seen a lot of candidates burnt down by smears that, if you only listened to the one indvidual's purported story, seemed real enough, and there seemed to be little, if you werent knowledgeable about the topic yourself, to bring in against it. But then as the story was fact-checked and analysed, turned out to be a patchwork of insinuation, outright lies and at best, selective representation of what really happened. (Yes, this is the category I put the Swift Vets for Truth in).

Basically, others make it a rule to distrust anything the mainstream media say; I make it a rule to approach with skepticism anything that looks like it could have been penned by a loonie in the attic. Not saying this guy is one, this particular text seemed sorta reasonable enough, but the rest of his site sure looks the part. So I'm waiting for some more serious source to pick this up. Then I'll form an opinion about the actual questions this guy raised. ;-)

Talk about maneuvering. I for one either didn't know or had forgotten that was his middle name and had no clue why it was inserted. How many of the rest of you want to be honest and raise you hand?

here.

Really? Then you have a lot to learn, grasshopper

Well, for the record--I think it would have been slimy if SierraSong had alluded to something damaging that wasn't true. This is a bit related to Kerry's outing of Mary Cheney....but I thought his was slimy, though of course, she IS a lesbian.

I guess a name even with a negative connotaion, isn't as bad as an outing.

Dunno.

Peanut gallery?

(interested in the bipartisan discussion behind this nuanced politicking.)

That article gave me the creeps. I'm glad to see it, I think it's instructive. I hadn't thought of the "He's secretly Muslim" card, how perfectly slimy. I understand that this guy mentions it by way of discounting it -- I don't know enough about this yet to figure out if he was sincere.

I'm suspicious of the article because of various rhetorical devices. He keeps using the phrase "goat-herder," when that's not what Obama said -- he just said that he grew up herding goats. This is indeed ambiguous -- it could mean that his occupation was goat-herder, or it could mean that it was something he did occasionally. If I say, "I was born and raised in a small town in Minnesota. I grew up picking wild blueberries and swimming in spring-fed lakes," does that mean blueberry-picking and swimming was all I did, or that those were a couple of the activities I did that were particular to the small town in Minnesota -- especially as a set-up to contrasting where I ended up?

Because the guy later on says yep, Obama Sr. DID herd goats. It's not all he did, but he did it.

The structure (set it up as a lie, then oh by the way) makes me suspicous.

Same with "immigrant." Obama said his father was a "foreign student." It's the author of that article who puts these words in his mouth: "Barack Obama's father, it turns out, was never a lowly 'immigrant'." Why the quotes? He wasn't an immigrant? He wasn't a foreign student?

The "Moslem"/ "it's not really an African name" stuff is also eyebrow-raising. It is completely immaterial to the point of this passage:



The point is that it's a weird, obviously foreign name, but his parents had faith that it wouldn't cripple his chances in America. African or Muslim makes no difference there.

Which is not going into whether it can be both. I did a quick search for "Barack Africa -Obama" and there seemed to be a lot of Africans (and not many non-Africans) in the results. There are plenty of names that are both Christian and American, for example. If someone was born in Japan to a Japanese and American parent and was named "Mary," would she be more likely to make a speech to people saying it's an American name or a Christian name?

Anyway, lots of things like that that make me suspicious, but we'll see.

Certainly interesting as an indicator of what we're likely to see if he does become a candidate.

I seek not to know all the answers... only to understand the questions...
Keep teaching me Master Nimh...

Yes, Soz makes a good point. I had the same reaction - thats why I went looking what was on the rest of this guy's site, to see whether he was genuine when he writes that he, too, was among the ones cheering Obama at first, etc - because something in the way he sets up his argument made me suspicious of these claims.

I cant put my finger on what, exactly. But basically my suspicion came from how the way the guy sets up his article reminds me of how two cops might interrogate a suspect by playing this good cop-bad cop routine. This guy brings up a fellow-columnist's obviously rather wild (and wildly rhetorical) claims (bad cop) - and does so in some detail, only to follow up with saying that, you know, he personally doesnt believe all that, of course, himself (good cop) - instead providing an alternate demasque of Obama that in comparison with the ranter will sound relatively moderate, even if it aims to achieve the same thing. Only to then bring up the next point that the "bad cop" alleges again, in detail, and provide a 'cleaned-up' version of that. Etc.

This guy might well be the genuine deal, a frustrated leftie who thought he'd found the real good guy and again got disappointed when he dug in. But the above set-up is a pretty familiar and tired strategem even of much more serious media (<cough>Fox<cough), to a) be able to bring up and quote some wild ranter that otherwise would never have gotten airspace ("I dont personallly agree with this guy, but what he is saying, is..") and b) pass off a cleaned-up version of same as neutral or credible by passing yourself off as "really", one of their own (you know, the "I used to vote Democrat myself, but.." line). So thats another reason I'm sceptical.

But, waiting...

O'Bill - LOL!