Think You Know Obama?

On October 16th, 2008, one of my Facebook Friends posted a note on her profile titled “Think you know Obama?”  While reading the note, I was surprised to find out what she apparently believes to be true about the current Democratic candidate for President.  Through the comments left regarding that note, I realized that she may not have been the original author, instead receiving it perhaps through e-mail.  What is for sure, though, is that she posted it on her Facebook profile and I can only assume that she believes the content of the note to be true.  It is because of the many factual inaccuracies contained within that note, and also that the note may have been sourced from a chain e-mail with countless numbers of people reading it (and possibly believing it to be true), that I have decided to take it upon myself to dispel the rumors now and set the record straight by responding directly to the author(s).

Lines appearing in bold are those of the original note, those in plain-text are mine, and because I am performing the ‘copy/paste’ direct from Facebook, any spelling or grammatical errors in the bold lines were there long before I ever saw them.

Claim #1: His father was a black african muslim from kenya .

Barack Obama Sr. was raised as a Muslim, but by the time he met Stanley Ann Dunham (Barack Obama II’s mother), he had been an atheist for quite some time.

All people from Kenya are, by definition, African. Muslims also make up roughly 10% of the Kenyan population, compared with about 0.6% of the people in the United States, so it isn’t really all that unusual that his father would have been raised as a Muslim, given where he was born. We also know that he has been married at least three times and has at least seven children, though the only child he had with Ms. Dunham was Barack II.

Claim #2: We have seen pictures of his african family.

Although I have not seen pictures of all members of his ‘African’ family, it is possible that they are out there. Regardless, what relevance does this have to the Presidential election?

Claim #3: His mother was a white american atheist from kansas .

Perhaps true, though her daughter, Barack Obama II’s half-sister Maya, describes their mother as an agnostic. While it is true that she was born in Kansas, she had moved with her parents from Kansas to California, to Texas, to Washington state and then to Hawaii before she had even turned 18.

Claim #4: Where are the pictures of his american family?

His mother, Ann Dunham, died in 1995 of ovarian and uterine cancer, which is why there haven’t been any recent photos of her circulated, not to mention the fact that her death may be a sensitive topic. There is a picture of her on the top of that linked page.

He has no siblings from his mother’s marriage to his biological father, and probably because of that, no pictures of these non-existent people have ever been taken.

His sister, Maya, from his mother’s second marriage (to Lolo Soetoro) was born in Indonesia though she moved to Hawaii with her mother at age 9 (following her parents’ divorce) where she continues to live and work as a high school history teacher and college professor. There is also a picture of her on that page with her husband, a Canadian of Chinese descent, and their daughter (who is a mix of Caucasian, Chinese and Pacific Islander ethnicities).

Here is a picture of Barack Obama II and his maternal grandparents on the day of his high school graduation. It is also worth noting that his grandfather died in 1992 and that his grandmother is alive, still living in Hawaii.

You may also be interested in the surviving members of his “American as Apple Pie” nuclear family.

Again, though, I don’t see how this is relevant.

Claim #5: His father deserted his mother when he was only two years old and went back to Africa by way of harvard university .  How? Was his father wealthy?

In 1959 Kenya was still a colony controlled by the British, and there was no university anywhere in the entire country. To help educate his fellow countrymen, a Kenyan man named Tom Mboya raised cash (partially from American athletes and movie stars) to send 81 of the most intelligent young Kenyans to America where they would receive a free college education. One of those 81 students was a 23-year-old Barack Obama Sr., who had grown up herding goats.

He enrolled in classes at the University of Hawaii as an Economics major where he met Ann Dunham and, in short, they got married in 1961 (she was 18, he was 25) and had a kid six months later. In 1963, Obama Sr. had graduated with his degree in Economics from U of H and was accepted as a doctoral candidate into the Economics program at Harvard, which he chose to pursue, while Ann chose to remain in Hawaii with their son.  The operative word in that last sentence is ‘chose.’  No desertion, no abandonment, just two adults exercising their right to choose their paths in life.

Claim #6: His mother married an indonesian muslim and then moved to jakarta where he was enrolled in a muslim school .

Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro in 1967 while both were studying at the University of Hawaii. It is true that he was from Indonesia.

Mr. Soetoro was raised as a Muslim, though his devotion to that faith is, at best, suspect. He was essentially a ‘non-practicing’ Muslim, as witnessed by the fact that he frequently drank alcohol, something that Islamic law (known as Sharia) forbids, even dying of liver failure in 1987 at the age of 51. It should be mentioned that Indonesia has the world’s largest concentration of Muslims, as roughly 86.1% of its people follow that faith.

True, they moved to Indonesia’s capital city in 1967 soon after they were married, taking then-6-year-old Barack Obama II with them.

Barack Obama II lived in Indonesia for four years, from the age of 6 until the age of 10. During those first three years, he attended a Catholic school, and in the last year, he attended a state-run (read: secular) school, one of the most competitive and elite in the country. His mother moved him from the Catholic school to the secular school because she was worried about the quality of the education he was receiving, which leads us to your next point…

Claim #7: When he reached high school age his mother sent him to hawaii to be with his white grandparents and he was put into an expensive private school.  He later went to Harvard University .  How? Were his grandparents rich?

Barack did indeed move back to Hawaii in 1971 at the age of 10 to attend a college-prep K-12 school, and he lived with his grandparents (who were not rich by my standards) during that time. As for the cost, it depends upon your definition of ‘expensive.’ Tuition for the 2007-08 school year was over $15k, but compared to some schools in the northeastern US that charge in excess of $30k, it’s a bargain. Regardless, it’s important to note how Obama II’s primary and secondary education was financed: partially by scholarship and partially by his grandparents.

As for college, he spent two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles then finished his BA in Political Science at Columbia University in New York City. Afterward, he attended Harvard Law School, where he became the first black president in the school’s history of the “Harvard Law Review.”  Though his two years at Occidental were free because of an athletic scholarship, his years at Columbia and those spent at Harvard were financed by student loans, well over $40k worth, and financial aid.

Claim #8: He lives in a $1.4 mill ion house obtained through a deal with a wealthy fundraiser.  How?

You’re wrong on both counts. Barack Obama and family actually live in a house they purchased for $1.65 million in June of 2005, though it is unclear whether cash was paid or if it was mortgaged.  I assume this ‘wealthy fundraiser’ you’re referring to is Tony Rezko, a housing developer. If that’s the case, then you’re wrong again, as Obama purchased his home from a doctor, not a housing developer. The only Rezko connection here is that Tony’s wife, Rita, bought the empty lot next door to the Obama’s new home, one-sixth of which the Obamas then purchased in December of 2005 at a price of $104,500.

As for the ‘how,’ have you ever heard of The Audacity of Hope? How about Dreams From My Father? They’re both best-selling books authored by Barack Obama. The audiobook versions of both of them, spoken by Obama himself, each won a Grammy with Dreams winning in 2006 and Audacity winning in 2008. How much do you think all of this success was worth? How about $1.2 million just for paperback sales of Dreams? Follow that up with a $1.9 million advance in 2006 from the hardcover-publisher of Audacity for a three-book deal, not to mention whatever royalties he earned from sales of those books.  Interestingly, Obama’s books have outsold those authored by McCain so far in 2008.  So as of 2006, he had likely earned in excess of $3 million just from book sales, and when he bought his house, he had already pocketed $1.2 million of that.

Claim #9: He ‘worked’ as a civil rights activist in Chicago .

I realize that this post is getting a bit long, so in the interest of concision, read this and then take comedian Ron White’s advice: the next time you have a thought…let it go.  Implying that what activists do isn’t work, or that Civil Rights isn’t a worthwhile cause, or whatever agenda you’re pushing with this claim, is simply astounding.

Claim #10: He has never held a productive job or received a pay check that was not government-funded and/or taxpayer supported.

First, go back and read my response to Claim #9, and read the linked page.  In there, you will find that the organization he worked for as a Community Organizer was run by the Catholic Church (which is most certainly not government-funded).  Prior to that, he worked as a research analyst for a consulting company.  During his time at Harvard Law he worked for a prestigious law firm in Chicago.  Upon graduating magna cum laude, he chose a low-paying position as a public-interest lawyer in Chicago where he “…worked on cases involving voting rights, employment discrimination and low-income housing.”  Obama also used to lecture at the University of Chicago Law School.  Whether or not any of those jobs were ‘productive’ is decidedly subjective, though I think it is fair to assume that he was not compensated with taxpayer funds.

Claim #11: The presidency is not a civil rights position, nor is it subject to affirmative action set asides; on-the-job training won’t cut i t.

First, I have yet to hear anyone say that Obama should win the Presidency based solely upon his race, which is what I think you’re alluding to with this statement.

Second, “on-the-job training” is really the only training there is for the job of President.  The required qualifications to become President, as laid out in Article Two of the Constitution, are: 1) be a natural-born citizen of the United States, 2) be at least thirty-five years old and 3) have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.  That’s it, though there are some things that can occur in a person’s life that will disqualify them, none of which apply to either Barack Obama or John McCain.  Apparently, our Founding Fathers and those who have come after them with the power to make changes to this policy have thought that “on-the-job training” would most certainly cut it, otherwise more would be required of our President prior to taking office.

Claim #12: He entered politics at the state level and then the national level where he has minimal experience.

This depends upon your definition of ‘minimal experience,’ but it is, for the most part, true.

Claims #13 – #15: He is proud of his ‘african heritage’ (a father who got a white girl pregnant and deserted her).  Where is the pride in his ‘white heritage’? (a mother who flaunted convention and did not believe in god).  Some might think there was not much to be proud of either way.

I already offered evidence that essentially disproves the ‘desert[ion]‘ statement back in Claim #5.  As for his mother, she was a child who came of age in the 1960s. I suggest you read more about that time in American history, because you clearly do not understand that almost nothing was ‘conventional’ during those years. I’ve already offered evidence that her daughter disputed the atheist claims back in Claim #3, but even if she hadn’t, so what? Is it not the right of every American to make their own choices about faith, including the choice to not have any?  As for your thoughts on pride, some might also think that your entire note, one filled with intolerance for those of differing races and religious beliefs, is un-American.

Claim #16: He belongs, and has belonged for over 20 years, to an ‘afro-centric’ church in Chicago that hates whites, hates jews, and blames america for all the world’s perceived faults (including the creation of the aids virus in order to inflict it on Africans).

Due to the inherent impossibility of disproving a negative, I was unable to find a single source that refutes these claims.  Instead, I’ll follow the accepted American tradition and let the burden of proof lie on those making the accusations.

It is interesting, though, to consider the logic, if this claim were true, of someone like the Obama that is described.  This would be a person who follows the teachings of a church that hates whites, even though he’s half-white; that hates Jews even though he spent his days working with Jews as a Community Organizer; that he wants to lead a country which he has been taught to despise.

Claim #17: He could not confront his pastor but he wants us to believe he can confront North korea and Iran ? Right…

Um…what?  Confront his Pastor about what?  Why would he be confronting either North Korea or Iran?

Claim #18: During his very brief time in the united states senate he has managed to amass the number one ultra liberal voting record out of the one hundred members.

True.  He’s a Democrat, they tend to vote in favor of liberal issues.  You want to know some other words and phrases that are synonymous with ‘liberal?’  Try ‘progressive,’ ‘open-minded,’ ‘advanced,’ ‘unconventional,’ ‘nontraditional,’ ‘unbiased,’ or ‘tolerant.’  Liberals were the ones who started, fought and won the American Revolution.  Liberals ended slavery.  Liberals allowed women the right to vote.  ‘Liberal’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Democrat,’ and I urge you to remember that.

Claim #19: He has voted consistently for bigger government and higher taxes.

I like to think that all politicians want to appease their constituents, which inevitably costs money.  The primary source of income for government entities comes in the form of taxes.  If more is spent, more has to be collected.  John McCain wants to spend $300 billion buying so-called ‘bad’ mortgages, you think that won’t cost anything?  Bear in mind, that only helps out people who were stupid enough to enter into mortgages they couldn’t afford, and lenders who were stupid enough to fund the doomed venture.  You know what it’s called when government privatizes formerly-public industries and markets, like the housing market?  Socialism.  Obama isn’t the only one guilty of leaning that way.

Claim #20: He has voted for big entitlements and legislation that would severely curtail america ’s ability to fight terrorism and to protect our borders and our national interests around the world.

Just like Claim #16, I can’t prove that something didn’t happen, it’s up to the accuser to prove that something did happen.  Until such time that this claim gains any merit, I’m calling your bullshit.

Claim #21 – #24: But, he is a good orator. Isn’t that a comfort? Yeah, i think i see how well he could unite the country. I think the truth is that he hopes no one will put the pieces together.

As the polls show, most people seem to have already put those pieces together.

Claim #25: Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to our new chief pilot. He has never flown an airplane, in fact he has never even sat in the cockpit, but he says he has ridden on planes before. We are sure he will guide us safely through the storms we may encounter on this flight.

I see your point…Barack Obama will be a shitty President because he lacks ATP Certification.

Claim #26: People what are you thinking? Have you never heard the story about the wolf hiding in sheep’s clothing so he can destroy them from with-in ? The hand writing is on the wall, do you not have eyes to see it ?

What am I thinking?  I’m thinking that Sarah Palin is a complete moron who shouldn’t be allowed out of Alaska, let alone anywhere near the Oval Office.  I have heard the story about the wolf who hides in the skin of a sheep.  You know what’s most interesting about that story?  It never fucking happened.  It’s a fable.  Perhaps you should use logic, reasoning and verifiable evidence the next time you decide to make an argument instead of endless rhetoric and blatant racism, which is all that my eyes see in this note.