Finding The Lost Years

The WSJ runs a piece on the gaping hole in the Obama life story - whatever did he do at Columbia?

The Columbia years are a hole in the sprawling Obama hagiography. In his two published memoirs, the 47-year-old Democratic nominee barely mentions his experience there. He refuses to answer questions about Columbia and New York -- which, in this media age, serves only to raise more of them. Why not release his Columbia transcript? Why has his senior essay gone missing?

I have read that Obama's photo is not in his 1983 graduating yearbook.  However, if an enterprising JOM reader had access to a Columbia yearbook from 1982 or 1983, it would be worth paging through to see whether Obama is listed in any interesting clubs or activities.

SIDEBAR:  Back in April Jim Lindgren of the Volokh Conspiracy looked at the links between Ibama and Ayers that were known at the time and made this cryptic comment about Ayers, Obama, and the Woods Fund of Chicago:

The Woods Fund was created to focus on children by Kelm and staff director Jean Rudd (who probably coincidentally has the same last name as former Weather Underground fugitive Mark Rudd).

Hmm - since Mark Rudd went to Columbia and was close to Bill Ayers from their Weather days, that would be an interesting connection.  However, per Mark Rudd's auto-biography, he never married a Jean nor lived in Chicago.  However, that does not rule out the possibility that Mark and Jean are cousins or in-laws of some type (FWIW, Mark Rudd was born in 1947 and has a brother who is eight years older and a retired attorney).

Jean Rudd gets a mention in this TNR piece.

Comments

[ArturoNO]

Would these have been the 'lost years' he spent with the rich, white, live-in girlfriend?

[ArturoNO]

Would these have been the 'lost years' he spent with the rich, white, live-in girlfriend?

[clarice]

Whoa! Anything to support that?

[baked alaska]

Palin's town used to bill victims for rape kits

WASILLA, Alaska — In 2000, Alaska lawmakers learned that rural police agencies had been billing rape victims or their insurance companies $500 to $1,200 for the costs of the forensic medical examinations used to gather evidence. They quickly passed a law prohibiting the practice.

According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor. When it was signed, Wasilla's police chief expressed displeasure.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-10-rape-exams_N.htm

[ben]

This Obama, the one with gaping holes in his record, is the Obama I know.

BTW, Intrade has McCain ahead in trading 51 to 47. First time I have seen him ahead. It means people actually investing in the results now think the odds favor McCain.

[Enlightened]

Ok well there is some connection here, not sure what -

Jean Rudd-Bolin
Married to Lionel Bolin? Retired Chicago lawyer?
Both Campaing contributors for Obama For America?
Seems like a lot of googly connections to funds and programs for children?

Some conncection here -http://www.openlands.org/reports/OpenlandsAR2004.pdf

This one says Jean Rudd, Lionel Bolin, William Ayers and Berndette Dohrn? Might already have touched on this one?

http://www.crossroadsfund.org/2006%20Annual%20Report.pdf

[ben]

"According to the sponsor, Democrat Eric Croft, the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor."

Nice example of a sentence that purports to mean something but if you read it it means absolutely nothing.

"When it was signed, Wasilla's police chief expressed displeasure."

ditto

[Enlightened]

Baked Alaska - Go away unless you have facts to report.

BTW - During the four years of Sarah Palin's mayorship until the law changed in 2000 there were 4 rapes in Wasilla. Why don't you and your goon squad track down the victims, find out how much they paid and start a pool to pay them back. It might be hard because Wasilla actually billed their insurance companies.

[ArturoNO]

"He wrestled with his racial identity, and one of the casualties was his year-long relationship with a wealthy white girlfriend. 'I pushed her away,' he wrote."
New York Daily News 1/14/07

[clarice]

As I understand it from another board there weren't even any rapes in Wasilla when Palin was mayor so the policy--if it existed--was (a) mandated by state laew and (b) not exactly on anyone's radar.

[clarice]

Help please--

Respecting Treacher's wonderful post noting Axelrod's other business which specializes in astroturfing--I recall a blog a few days ago tracing some O astroturfing to O's Fight the Smears site..Does anyone recall that or similar proof that O's team was engaged in that?

[ArturoNO]

Whoa?
Obama "wrestled with his racial identity, and one of the casualties was his year-long relationship with a wealthy white girlfriend."
"Obama's Lost Years"
New York Daily News
Jan.14, 2007

[clarice]

Baked Alaska and Army Mom most certainly seem to me to be members of the Axelrod astroturf team.
Let's quit mucking about the small stuff--Get Axelrod and his minions and expose them for the smear merchants they are.

[clarice]

Got a link, Arturo?

[Enlightened]

Sorta on topic, sorta off -

Look at this shit from the Weather Underground: (Mark Rudd and BillAyers are part of this interview)

"INTERVIEWEE: What we wanted to do here was deliver the most horrific hit that the United States government had ever suffered on its territory. We wanted to light it up. Our slogan was bring the war home, and we really wanted to give the United States and the rest of the world a sense that this country was going to be completely unlivable if the United States continued in Vietnam, and that was the goal of this group.

TODD GITLIN: I think what has to be stared at is that they brought themselves, they were not brought, they brought themselves to that point, to the point of which they were ready to be mass murderers. This is mass murder we’re talking about. They came to this conclusion which is the conclusion that was come to by all the great killers, whether Hitler or Stalin or Mao, that they have a grand project for the transformation and purification of the world. And in the face of that project, ordinary life is dispensable. They joined that tradition.

Mark Rudd speaks a bit of his Columbia days - how radical it was.

I have to wonder if Obama keeps it quiet because of the company he kept there.
http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/21/ex_weather_underground_member_kathy_boudin

[Appalled]

Obama really had a extensive biography for 1979-1983, but it just disappeared in the the wormhole created by that big bang experiment. Disco is also rumored to have, somehow disappeared, leaving all of us who rember the late 70s oddly relieved and much less ashamed.

[Enlightened]

Oops - let me correct myself by saying Wasilla had 4 Sexual Assaults - nothing to prove they were actual rapes -

[Danube of Thought]

It's pretty clear that during those years Obama was wacked out on LSD. The danger is that, should he reach the oval office, he'll suffer a flashback that will cause him to unleash a nuclear Armageddon. At least that's what I'm hearing...

[Extraneus]

Here, clarice.

Who's Behind Anti-Palin Smear Site?

[DebinNC]

Wayne A. Root, Barr's Libertarian running mate and BO's Columbia/polysci classmate, has challenged Obama to release his Columbia grades. Root on Obama:

Root: [I was} Class of '83 political science, pre-law Columbia University. You don't get more exact than that. Never met him in my life, don't know anyone who ever met him. At the class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago, 20th reunion, who was asked to be the speaker of the class? Me. No one ever heard of Barack! Who was he, and five years ago, nobody even knew who he was.

[Extraneus]

Here, Clarice.

Who's Behind Anti-Palin Smear Site?

[Bill in AZ]

It's pretty clear that during those years Obama was wacked out on LSD.

That's why he appears so "thoughtful". Crossfiring synapses.

[Chris Thorne]

Even more than that, Root has offered a one million dollar prize if Obama releases his Columbia transcripts and test scores. Payable to Obama or, should that seem gauche, to the charity of Obama's choice. Think of how much "community organizing" Obama could get done with that!

Of course the real reason why Obama will not release those transcripts and LSAT scores is that they would make it incontrovertibly clear that he would not have been admitted to Harvard Law School on academic merit alone. And that the beneficient, mysterious hand of Khalid al-Mansour was determinative in Obama's attaining admission to HLS.

--

[clarice]

Thanks Extraneus!!

[Enlightened]

Hmmm. I don't see a Jean Rudd/Mark Rudd connection - Mark Rudd was pretty much gone from Chicago in the 80's.....

But Jean Rudd is connected to Ayers/Dohrn via the "grants" programs.

[DebinNC]

I can imagine young Barry viewing Being There (1979) and Zelig (1983) and having an epiphany.

[capitano]

DebinNC -- I read that piece in Reason by Wayne Root. I think it's possible that Obama graduated Columbia and avoided everyone's attention. I just don't see how he did it and had a sufficient resume to be accepted at Harvard Law, affirmative action or not.

Very strange.

[MayBee]

Didn't Fox report that Barry fasted one day/week during his years at Colombia? Is that in his book?

[ArturoNO]

Clarice: No longer on Daily News site. But here's a reference link and full text:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1767447/posts?page=68

[DebinNC]

In response to Corsi's book, Media Matters quotes from Dreams of My Father:

From Dreams From My Father (Page 120):

"When Sadik lost his own lease, we moved in together. And after a few months of closer scrutiny, he began to realize that the city had indeed had an effect on me, although not the one he'd expected. I stopped getting high. I ran three miles a day and fasted on Sundays. For the first time in years, I applied myself to my studies and started keeping a journal of daily reflections and very bad poetry. Whenever Sadik tried to talk me into hitting a bar, I'd beg off with some tepid excuse, too much work or not enough cash."

[DebinNC]

More on his roommate Sadik:

In “Dreams from My Father,” he talks of having a Pakistani room-mate when he moved to New York, a man he calls Sadik who “had overstayed his tourist visa and now made a living in New York’s high-turnover, illegal immigrant work force, waiting on tables.”

[bad]

Whwere's that journal of daily reflections and sucky poetry? Or is that just literary flair?

[Enlightened]

Well near as I can tell the circle is

Bambi-Community Organizer
Jean Rudd-Community Organizer Fundraiser
William Ayers-Community Organization
Bernadette Dohrn-Community Organization
Mark Rudd-Dipwad Loser

All just "people in the 'hood".

Maybe they all just smoked dope and snorted coke toegther or something. Hmmm. I wonder who his drug dealer was. The one that he didn't trust to get him heroin?

[Enlightened]

Remember when Corsi was asking those questions? Maybe it was a drug ring? Maybe that's why his autobiography is so ridiculously trite when he talks about drugs.

No one that contemplates shooting up heroin thinks about the "air bubble, all shiny and round like a pearl" if they shot up heroin. He is such a bullshitter. Something is just not right.

[clarice]

Thanks arturo O.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Are his Occidental records available, what about friends from there?

[DebinNC]

Info from his Occidental time and an extended except from Dreams of My Father about his coming to NY. It's hard to believe he was lauded for this book, or that his claims are taken by so many as true.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

"He went to socialist conferences at Cooper Union and African cultural fairs in Brooklyn and started lecturing his relatives until they worried he'd become "one of those freaks you see on the streets around here." "

What conferences? Who was running them?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Baked, that one is kinda sorta right --- not complete, poorly reported, but has a germ of truth. Until the law was passed, Wasilla billed the victim's insurance company, and if the victim had no insurance, absorbed the cost.

This, by the way, is also the policy in at least Missouri and North Carolina.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Ugh!

Sarah Palin Investigators Set Up ‘Tip-Line’

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Oh great. With the care they're using on checking rumors right now, that should give them *lots* of "scandals" to cover.

I think we're gonna need a bigger boat.

[DebinNC]

I don't think they could get away with those kind of shenanigans in the South where some degree of chivalry still exists. Mrs. Don Fowler's rapid retreat yesterday is a case in point. When I see these sort of stories, I feel disconnected from most of the country.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I don't think they'll get away with it in Alaska for long either. The arrival thing last night attracted 3000 people --- which doesn't sound so great until you realize that there's only about 80,000 people in the whole county.

[Rick Ballard]

Sara,

It's not really a bad thing at all. It allows people who are interested in Obama's life, say his time at Columbia, to trace out allegations that he paid his way by dealing crack. I seriously doubt that anything will come of trying to run down allegations that he dealt drugs on any kind of regular basis but if Team Obama wants to put up a hot line then perhaps an Obama Tips Line is in order?

Boy those guys are dumb.

[Sue]

A quote from Obama's first book struck me as odd...

"Only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me."

...maybe I don't know enough about Malcolm X to understand what Obama meant?

[MayBee]

Thanks, Deb.
I think fasting once a week is pretty serious stuff.
But then, I think fasting for 4 hours is pretty serious stuff.

[Jim aaron]

I read a blog of a person that worked with Obama at a NYC Financial Newsletter publisher. Obama mentions working there in one of his books, but the blogger said most of what Obama claimed in the book was either B.S. or highly embellished. About 4 0r 5 other employees of the Publisher posted comments and agreed with the Blogger, many thought him to be somewhat strange.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

jim, we would (I think I can speak for most here, baked alaska and leo perhaps excluded) love to see that blog. Any chance you could find a link?

[misanthropicus]

Obama's Columbia years are pretty mysterious, as as you say, and it is quite surprising that that period of "intense study" is barely mentioned by Obama's close to 1000 pages confessionals. Most likely is that Obama during that age (see his transition from Barry to Barack), was a pretty radical figure on the 3rd World/Marxist/Afro-American lines, past a bit uncomfortable for the cozy Whole Foods type he's doing now. Remember, in the 80-s, although we were only a few years before the crash of the Soviet Union/warsaw Pact, the African left movement was at its peak (N'Konmo, Angela Davies, Mugabe, Mengistu, FRELIMO, etc., etc.)
As far as Obama's Columbia thesis (or essay, how do you want to call it), its subject was pointing exactly in this direction: "North-South relationships during post-colonial period", piece which without being mighty clever contains much incendiary rhetoric which would make many uncomfortable today - as I got it, the thesis has as motto Susan Sontag's line "The white race is the cancer of the world" (Sontag had this in one of her crappy essays in the Partisan Review, in the late 60-s).
So, no wonder Obama, now coming to closure from Barack to Barry and paying piano lessons for his daughters, is leary of having that early effort of political ratiotinating made public - a few copies of the thesis float around, and might make for some "Killian papers" fodder later in the campaign.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Whwere's that journal of daily reflections and sucky poetry? Or is that just literary flair?

Bad, just to be fair, my journals of daily reflections and incredibly bad poetry from about the same time are long since lost.

Thank God.