Self-Invention

Michael Dobbs of the WaPo busts another part of the Obama myth:

Obama Overstates Kennedys' Role in Helping His Father

Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.

The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."

It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.

Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father's arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy involvement in the Kenya student program apparently "started 48 years ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past."

Mr. Dobbs also reminds us that Obama tried to bend space-time in his Selma address:

Obama's Selma speech offers a very confused chronology of both the Kenya student program and the civil rights movement. Relating the story of how his parents met, Obama said: "There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Junior was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama."

After bloggers pointed out that the Selma bridge protest occurred four years after Obama's birth, a spokesman explained that the senator was referring to the civil rights movement in general, rather than any one event.

The bit about the airlift was not on the Hillary-provided list of Obama's stretchers, so this looks like an independent debunking.

 

Comments

[hit and run]

"This is a distraction. It is yet another cynical attempt at the divisive politics of the bitter partisanship of Karl Rove tactics," an Obama aide was quoted as saying some time in the next 12-24 hours. The aide then followed up, "And change and unity. I need to mention change and unity. What was the question again? No matter, really. Change, that's the answer. And unity."

[DebinNC]

I bet this will end up a net plus for BO. John Lewis, civil rights icon, can talk about the Jim Crow days, why he was willing to risk his life to cross that bridge in Selma, and why he's supporting Obama now.

[windansea]

Obama lied and hope died

[clarice]

We need a national dialogue on Selma, but this is a distraction, Hit.

[kim]

1959? 1960? Close enough for government work.
==============================

[ben]

Who is going to start the Obama Daily Lie blog? A comprehensive menu of untruths, half-truths, quibbling, obfuscation, fibs, whoppers, deceits, falsehoods, duplicity, etc. Plenty of material available for the enterprising blogger.

[clarice]

Well, I blame the voters who are too stupid to grasp issues and have to be won over with "narratives" 90% of which are carp like Man from Hope; Reporting for Duty and Child of Goat Herder--all of which are tweaked and powdered for the conventions that follow and then played out in the general.

Who cares? An Oprahized , brain dead muddle, I suppose.

[ben]

"Obama lied and hope died"

Great bumper sticker!

[windansea]

Obamabots say

It's not the same as Hillary's Bosnia lie because:

Obama wasn't there, it was before he was born, he's probably going by what his parents told him

:)

[Barry Dauphin]

Wait, wasn't he named after that famous mountain climber, Sir Edmund Barack?

[Elroy Jetson]

I'm of Russian heritage and after Khrushchev banged his shoe on the table at the UN, my parents, who couldn't control their excitement, got together and I was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on...well...I....Soviet belligerency?

[BFY]

It's a soap opera

"two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."

Kennedy is money. If you worked with him in Peace Corps or whatever, your family gets US government money, like Chayes, etc. Dems claim Kennedy and everyone has to go along. It's a scam. Kennedy was a corrupt mobster. He was shot by a Peace Corps Volunteer secretly working for the CIA.

The problem with the Kennedys is all the luciferian shit. They claim PC to this day and all they do is ruin lives. The 'little journey' of govt service is all luciferian shit.

Yes, I have mortgage advice, but it's now run by the fed. 1% leverage.

[AN]

Please! The "Race Speech" was written well in advance last year around 4-30-07, the NYT story with Obama's disconnect with Rev. Wright if he got hot in the primaries. Hugh Hewitt is playing Obama's tapes "Dreams Of My Father" and he sounds like more than a slick calculator, being shrewd with plans in promoting self interest well in advance. His plan is to have everyone take the hits while he sits at the head of the boat rowing along with them. My bet is he will finally disown the Rev. this week to change the subject but then comes Rezko and what else? The Muslim roots are starting to pick-up. As Rumsfield said "it's going to be a long hard slog" just to win the D-nomination.

[Jane]

Obama lied and hope died

Quote of the day!

[Porchlight]

Please! The "Race Speech" was written well in advance last year around 4-30-07, the NYT story with Obama's disconnect with Rev. Wright if he got hot in the primaries.

That's an interesting idea. I was wondering how Obama managed to come up with a text so polished and - dare I say - nuanced, in such a short time. I credit him with the ability to craft such, but it does make sense that it was written in advance, knowing he'd probably get hit with Wright problems at some point.

[Porchlight]

that it was written in advance, knowing he'd probably

Uh, that should have been

"that he wrote it in advance, knowing he'd probably"

or

"that it was written in advance, with the knowledge that he'd probably"

Preferably #1 for the active tense. My sainted English teachers would have been all over such lousy construction.

[DebinNC]

My bet is he will finally disown the Rev. this week to change the subject

I'd be shocked if BO ever rejects Wright or Wrightism, other than egregious examples of it that make the news. His "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community" was true, because most tenets of Wrightism are accepted as gospel in the black community. Any major distancing of himself from Wright would be political harikari imo, because only his long, close association with Wright assured the black electorate that the biracial Obama was truly "black enough".

[MayBee]

DebinNC-
I agree.
Even on The View, Obama had to say that this is a great country, even with all of it's flaws. You can never leave the flaws out when you're a Dem, and especially if you need the Wright-like voters.

[PaulL]

Isn't it racist to fact-check Barack, let alone to criticize him?

Let's put this in perspective. The white slavemasters killed the hopes and dreams of the proud black man. Isn't it justified, in that context, that a black man would sometimes be creative with history?

I mean, if you ignore the fact that neither Obama nor any of his forefathers were slaves.

[windansea]

I'd be shocked if BO ever rejects Wright or Wrightism

sure he can, he'll just tell his base he's pulling the okie doke on whitey

[MayBee]

**its***.

[Topsecretk9]

"This is a distraction. It is yet another cynical attempt at the divisive politics of the bitter partisanship of Karl Rove tactics,"

You know, the Obama campaign says they are all about change, but all I see are a bunch of standard lefty talking points cliché's about Karl Rove. No new ideas.

Also, the way I see it, If you can get yourself a million and half dollar 10,000 sf home with a butlers pantry by dissing and hating your country then the country is really pretty great.

[PeterUK]

"Wait, wasn't he named after that famous mountain climber, Sir Edmund Barack?"

I thought he was named Hussein after the great secular Muslin uniter.

[ben]

Distraction is the new favorite word of the Obama campaign...everything they don't like is a "distraction". He wants the nomination wrapped up by June, when he will then declare he wants the general election over by August, presumably so there will no distractions for the transition team.

Actually, after he annointed himself President last year, this whole process has been one huge distraction.

[MayBee]

Muslin uniter

That would be Huseamstress.

[ben]

"It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified."

This could be devastating to Obama...his whole life he thought he owed it all to that famous bootlegger, Sir Joseph Kennedy...

[Soylent Red]

Actually, after he annointed himself President last year, this whole process has been one huge distraction.

I get that feeling every time he talks about something unscripted. He comes off like, with much sighing and disdain for your ignorance, he is stooping to answer your doubts, so that we can at long last just go ahead and elect him President. Because he's worth it. Idiots.

I don't know if that is a product of his patrician educational background or if he really believes all the hero worship. I think it might be a combination of both.

Like most Americans, I don't like people with a sense of entitlement. Hillarity paid the price for hers, and I think as the nomination gets closer, Obamessiah will become incorrigible in that respect as well.

I blame the voters who are too stupid to grasp issues and have to be won over with "narratives" 90% of which are carp

You got that right Clarice. One of the reasons they get away with whoppers like this is because voters become fixated on the narrative, and don't delve into the facts. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

It's like a mass outbreak of some kind of dreadful combination of Alzheimer's and ADD. Can't pay attention, can't remember from day to day.

They really should come up with some means of voter qualification.

[clarice]

If voters get even slightly more ignorant we will have to do what they do in the Third World--just vote for emblems...Cow/Sun, etc.

[PeterUK]

Muslin uniter

That would be Huseamstress.

It's shrouded in mystery Maybee.

[Soylent Red]

Clarice:

Electronic voting machines that produce food pellets (or beer) when you bang your head on the buttons.

[PeterUK]

"Electronic voting machines that produce food pellets (or beer) when you bang your head on the buttons."

Where?

[DebinNC]

LAT piece about the battles, some physical, between the BO and HC camps in TX ..."It's bedlam," said Houston lawyer Daniel J. Shea, a Clinton backer": [link at my name]

"Not only do Clinton aides believe that scrutinizing the caucus process can help them squeeze out more delegates, due to math or certification errors, but they believe that a drumbeat of complaints about the caucuses bolsters Clinton's argument to superdelegates that they are not as legitimate as primary elections. In addition, the fighting delays the official delegate count, which helps keep Obama's lead from growing too fast and gives Clinton more time to raise questions about his electability."

[MayBee]

It's shrouded in mystery Maybee.

Proof he IS the Messiah!

[steveaz]

The Shinola is strong on this one, I think.

Some of us Americans can still smell the difference...

[glasater]

he is stooping to answer your doubts, so that we can at long last just go ahead and elect him President. Because he's worth it. Idiots.

Is that statement right on Soylent. The arrogance of this guy is breathtaking.

If Obambi is elected he will destroy the economy. Wish there were a way to construct an argument simple enough to present to the voters just such.

[Neo]

When an Obama commercial, running here in Pennsylvania, mentioned a "Windfall Profits Tax", the conversion of Barack Obama into the black version of Jimmy Carter was complete.

In the past 2 years, the Democrat controlled Congress has done nothing to create a single drop of "new oil" while standing around with their hands in their pockets as the price of gasoline goes up and up.

Now Obama wants to take us back to the gas lines that were synonymous with Jimmy Carter.

[PeterUK]

"Proof he IS the Messiah!"

He cannot come straight out with it because the separation of State and Church.
If Obama loses this one,you know what 2012 will be?

[DebinNC]

The second coming?

[Neo]

You have got to check out this rant at Liberal Rapture.

compliant, brain-dead, synchophants in the MSM

I’m a bit confused though .. does this prove that there is no "liberal" bias in the media ? .. or is it the other way around ?

ht qando

[Neo]

He has taken the difficult issue of race and turned it into a Benetton commercial and wonders why Pennsylvania isn't buying it.

Wow ! This guy is about to be flushed out of the Matrix.

[kim]

I like Synova's 'change you can believe in' from QandO comments. Disillusioned liberals ranting like conservatives.
==========================

[Neo]

Senator John Kerry, another Obama surrogate, offered the startling observation that Obama is better equipped than anyone else to bridge the divide between the U.S. and the Muslim world and end Islamic extremism and terorrism -- "because he's a black man." There is absolutely no empirical evidence to sustain that claim, the notion that a single individual, even one with a resume filled with appropriate experience, would be able to halt terrorism because of the color of his skin. It is patently absurd. But Kerry presented nothing to back up his astounding racial reasoning. And the Obama campaign was remarkably silent on Kerry's racialization of the foreign policy discussion.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[Jane]

Oh I bet Kerry is not alone in believing that.

[PeterUK]

"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day"

No,due to a strange temporal paradox. the Kerryometer flip-flops a nano second before it reaches the right time.Thus it is always wrong.

[Thomas Collins]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/3/29/65423/4259

Check out the above link for a hypothetical campaign ad that all of B_O's smoothness won't be able to combat.

[boris]

mydd video

[Thomas Collins]

Good thing that Boris is more "IT adept" than I and has supplied a direct link. In any event, with HRC running out of money and time and more and more Dems realizing that B_O has a big "Wright Stuff" problem, the next few weeks leading up to Pennsylvania should be interesting. I don't see the Dems turning to Elmer Gantry Gore. I think that HRC and the Big Bill Machine will have enough gas left in the tank to take Pennsylvania by at least 15, at which point Bomentum will be stopped.

[Rick Ballard]

Our ads will be much better than that - Dems go to crayons, butcher paper and stick figures to hold prog's attention (nothing shiny in the ad). We don't have to shoot that low. There is a difference between toddlers on trikes and midgets on Shetland ponies.

[Jane]

I get some You Tube videos and can't load others. Any one have a clue why?

[CS]

2012(end of the calendar, end of the earth, this is George Noory - Coast to Coast AM Radio ) won't happen cause of the black hole CERN is creating:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS01/803300383/1190/LOCALNEWSFRONT

Obama is for money for his group, which is African and African Amercian. The group, which is also their making with lucifer, etc; is for money for themselves. The government and Americans owes them the money and it's okay to break the law and God's rules to get it cause God knows their owed too. A non African American might wonder if they have any money for him. They don't.

The Messiah had his life ruined by lucifer, was tortured, hung, killed, resurrected into the afterlife by lucifer, placed on back on the earth by lucifer and will come back by lucifer to destroy everything in existence and, maybe, make a new heaven and new earth. So, he is the Messiah, but I dont' think it's nice to do that.