Why Obama's Columbia Years Went AWOL

What did Barack Obama do while at Columbia from 1981 to 1983 and in the year after his graduation?  That part of his life is scarcely mentioned in "Dreams From My Father"; the Wall Street Journal remarked in the mystery a month ago and the NY Times puzzled over it a year ago.

Let me just toss out the outlines of a theory that has just hit my inbox and left me agog.  First, the usual disclaimers - this is speculative, there are gaps and leaps of logic, and nothing can be proven. However, that said... well, see if you are agog as well.

1.  From Dreams From My Father and other sources we know that Obama was interested in South Africa divestment in the early 80's.  For example, he had a moment of awakening at Occidental College when he gave a brief but well-received speech to kick off an anti-apartheid demonstration.  Other sources indicate he maintained that interest while at Columbia.

2.  A major focal point of the anti-apartheid movement in the fall of 1981 was the Springboks rugby tour - they were an integrated South African rugby team on a "goodwill" tour of the US, creating controversy and drawing protests everywhere.  Some of the protests were violent, including one at John F. Kennedy Airport (from whence the team departed, I believe), and bombs were exploded.

3.  Did I say "bombs"?  Yes, and here is the jaw-dropping connection - the Weather Underground was involved in some fashion and the Brinks robbery which left two police officers and a security guard dead was apparently undertaken to finance activities such as the Springboks bombings.  A flavor from the Times:

The police said they had several links between the robbery suspects and other people associated with radical activities in the past. Federal officials said they were looking into possible links between the holdup gang and the Black Liberation Army, which, like the Weather Underground of years ago, has been linked more recently to bombings, attacks on police officers and other violence aimed at toppling ''the establishment.'' Getaway Car Recovered

A yellow Honda used as one of the getaway cars, for example, was recovered and found to have been registered to Eve S. Rosahn, who was a Barnard College student in the late 1960's and was arrested in radical demonstrations at Columbia University then and more recently at a New York City airport demonstration against the Springboks, the South African rugby team.

These are just dots and it may be impossible to connect them, but we have Barack Obama at Columbia working on South African divestment (as were many peaceful protestors) while other radical elements with a Weather Underground flavor are setting bombs, killing cops, and working on South African divestment.  As a bonus, Bill Ayers is studying at Bank Street College a quarter mile from Columbia towards his Masters in Education and Kathy Boudin, one of the Brinks getaway drivers, was working at a progressive Upper West Side School.  Eventually Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn raised Kathy's child while she was in jail, so it seems a fair guess that they were close.

A small, small world in which Obama never met any of these people despite their shared passion for justice in South Africa.  Never heard them speak at a rally, never heard anyone describe the Weather Underground to him, and felt comfortable assuming that Bill Ayers had been rehabilitated by 1995.  In fact, a world so small that Obama won't talk about it now.

For clarity, let me emphasize that I am not alleging that Obama was making bombs with Kathy Boudin. I am wondering how he managed to be active on South African divestment without ever encountering these radicals, I am wondering why he won't talk about his Columbia years, and I am wondering why he and his campaign have consistently provided misinformation when asked about Bill Ayers.

Three more weeks to keep the lid on.

FROM THE TIMES LOOK AT COLUMBIA:

When the Times peered into Obama's Columbia past they found this:

In a long profile of Mr. Obama in a Columbia alumni magazine in 2005, in which his Columbia years occupied just two paragraphs, he called that time “an intense period of study.”

“I spent a lot of time in the library. I didn’t socialize that much. I was like a monk,” he was quoted as saying.

He said he was somewhat involved with the Black Student Organization and anti-apartheid activities, though, in recent interviews, several prominent student leaders said they did not remember his playing a role.

Odd.  Here was a guy who had spent his life hanging with radicals and seeking out causes.  Now, at what was practically Ground Zero for campus activists, he decides to hide in the library.

MORE:  From this book, Bill and Bernardine surfaced in NYC in December 1980.

And the Ace was quicker to the Columbia/Weather link but did not note the South African connection.

LATE ADDITION:  A heavily researched article just can't prove the link between Obama and the violent anti-apartheid protests,but it is surely suggestive.

Comments

[clarice]

Hides in the library and still achieves the IMPOSSIBLE--graduating without honors from Columbia with a poli sci major!! Fantastic.
You could take anyone off the street who can read and write and even if they didn't hide in the library he could match that record.

[clarice]

And Obama was achieving the impossible while hiding in the library..graduating with a poli sci major without honors!

Dohrn goes to jail rather than cooperate with the gj about the bombings and later adopts Boudin and Gilbert's child, Chessa, when they begin serving long prison sentences for their roles in the bombings.
Pretty picture.

[Elroy Jetson]

Chessa, I guess, was doomed to be indoctrinated.
What a bizarre background for a guy who could be the next president of the US.

[PaulL]

All kind of moot when it's going to be McCain the wimp until election day. NO NEGATIVITY!

And not even campaigning full time. From the WSJ:

****Sen. McCain has very little on his calendar in battleground states planned for the rest of this week. After an appearance in Pennsylvania Tuesday morning, he heads to New York where he will stay until Friday morning. He will meet Sen. Obama Wednesday for the third and final debate at Hofstra University on Long Island.****

[BumperStickerist]

Speaking of education - an Obama ad that's running in Pennsylvania features The One speaking to us from a Typical Suburban Classroom - blackboard, big red alphabet on the wall, posters, desks, the works - He says that he learned in a classroom just like this ...

H'uh?

I was unaware that Indonesian classrooms featured American flags and an English-only alphabet and posters.

Barack Obama: Just Like You and Me ... and Them.

-

[kim jane il]

a quarter mile from Columbia

This is the wingnut equivalent to the fevered speculation on the left that McCain caused the Forrestal fire by wet starting his jet as a practical joke.

But I guess you need to keep yourselves entertained for the next few weeks, so enjoy yourselves.

If all of you are that bored you could keep looking for the whitey tape.

[Lori]

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there is an archive in the Columbia University Library (69.5 document boxes) about activism and protest (1958-1999). Someone who has access to the library needs to do some research.

[Cecil Turner]

This is the wingnut equivalent to the fevered speculation on the left that McCain caused the Forrestal fire by wet starting his jet as a practical joke.

Hardly. The "wet start" nonsense is stupid, impractical, and demonstrably not the cause of the Forrestal fire. The idea that Obama met Ayers in NY is entirely plausible, and goes a long way toward explaining why he left NY to "community organize" in Chicago, summered at a law firm that hired Ayers's wife, and was sponsored by Ayers for his first executive position and then political office.

[Pigilito]

This is getting too speculative. Obama is placed in the same city as Ayers and bombs, and we start seeing dots everywhere.

As interested as I am about Obama's background (I still hold out hope some in the MSM will do some reporting), this is pretty out there, and smacks of desperation.

[BumperStickerist]

This is the wingnut equivalent to the fevered speculation on the left that McCain caused the Forrestal fire by wet starting his jet as a practical joke.

Your analogy is inapt, sir. Inapt, I say.

This is the wingnut equivalent of having a guy who served on the same TANG base as George W. Bush cut a political ad saying that all the TANG pilots tom-catted around the base at bars and such and that he never saw Bush while he was out drinking, therefore Bush must not've been at the base.

Of course, that was a lead-pipe cinch.

[MayBee]

I'm always curious about the Farrakhan connection as well.
I want to know why Obama fasted every Sunday.

[kim jane il]

The "wet start" nonsense is stupid, impractical, and demonstrably not

Parallels abound.

[Jane Whitman]

It's no longer about McCain so it doesn't really matter what he does.

[rhodeymark]

So now Dylan Avery is frame watching the Forrestal conflag film that every carrier sailor gets as training? Rich.
"he decides to hide in the library"
I'm sure his thesis must have "Dreams From My Father" brilliance all over it with that much time.

[Pe]

Haering it's not true?

[Chris]

To ask such questions is entirely out of bounds (see: The Narrative) and racist. Don't you know a couple of folks screamed some bad things at MP rallies. Come on, man!

[Lou]

Long time lurker...

I've had a Tuesday morning epihany: McCain is not running against Barrack Obama; he's instead running against the MSM - or at least the virtual candidate created and sustained by the MSM. Now ask yourself why the media does not investigate or criticize BHO.

Then you might start wondering how much influence a certain journalism school has on suppling so-called journalists to the NYC big media industry.

[sylvia]

Wow. This is the missing connection. I forgot how crazy the students were about South Africa back then. It all makes sense now.

And even this from Obama: "I spent a lot of time in the library". On yesterday's BHO post I saw from a search that Bank Street College Records were transferred to Columbia's Teacher College Library, in 1984, the year Ayers graduated from Bank Street. (That transfer might be some conspiracy fodder in itself somehow.)

So we know that education college Bank Street had a connection to the extensive education library of Columbia, which Ayers presumably would have used to research his masters. Strange that Obama mentioned being in the library there. Hmmm.

I think we've got it.

[Fisher]

Good God! Isn't there anyone out there that actually knew this guy at Columbia?

Had he no friends or acquaintances? Professors? Roommates?

Hello? Anyone??

It just seems unfathomable to me that this country is poised to elect this guy?

[sylvia]

Didn't Obama also say in his book that he spent his Columbia years smoking cigarettes with punk rockers and radicals? How do you square that with being in the library all the time?

[sylvia]

Well, let's think big. I think it's not impossible that Obama was part of the offshoot of the Weather Underground. And maybe he did bunk down with Ayers, which is why we have few addresses for Obama during those years. Now that would take the cake. That would be very amusing if we found that out after he was elected. If would love to see the EuroLefties try to expain that away.

You know, I bet the FBI has files on this. Ayers just coming back from being on the run, for sure they watched him back then. What would it take to get them to release them?

[kim jane il]

Home ownership is also an important part of our economic vitality. If -- when we meet this project, this goal, according to our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, we will have added an additional $256 billion to the economy by encouraging 5.5 million new home owners in America; the activity -- the economic activity stimulated with the additional purchasers, the additional buyers, the additional demand will be upwards of $256 billion. And that's important because it will help people find work."

- George W. Bush, U.S. President, October 15, 2002 1:55 P.M.

[Paul Zrimsek]

I'm afraid you just lost your right to talk about "deranged lefties".

[Kristen]

Barbara Ransby, UIC history professor, and Dan Armstrong http://www.findatree.com/daniel.html started a group called the Coalition for a Free South Africa in 1981 at Columbia, which originally was part of the Black Student Organization (I believe it later became it's own group). I assume that if Barack Obama was involved with this cause and group at Columbia, that they would have known each other.

I believe apartheid was wrong so supporting this cause is a good thing. Unfortunately, that cause got hijacked by violent groups, too, and may have made it difficult for Obama to claim no prior knowledge (prior to 1995 anyway) of the Weather Underground, Ayers and Dohrn, when their names were linked to and plastered all over the papers at that time in New York City b/c of the more violent protests and the Brinks Robbery.

I've not seen that any reporter has asked Barbara Ransby, for example, if she worked with Barack Obama, on South African divestment at Columbia and whether they were friendly. It's Obama's lack of openess about his college years that fuels speculation.

[MayBee]

Every so often, I get re-curious about Obama's passport file being looked at by his supporters. It was such a Breaking Story, and then it was nothing.
Maybe because it was nothing, but maybe not.

[JBean]

Sylvia --

Didn't Obama also say in his book that he spent his Columbia years smoking cigarettes with punk rockers and radicals?

No, he didn't.

[Geek, Esq.]

Man, TM, you've descended into Jeff Rense and Mikey Rivero territory with this. Obama was involved in anti-apartheid activities, ergo he must have been involved in coordinating terrorism. Well, then half of Brooklyn must have been involved in the first WTC bombing, since a lot of people in Brooklyn protested the invasion of Iraq and lived within a quarter mile of Atlantic Avenue.

[sylvia]

"I'm afraid you just lost your right to talk about "deranged lefties".

If Obama hadn't been attached at the hip to Bill Ayers and Bill Ayers causes and didn't work where Ayers worked or lived where Ayers lived all of his whole adult life, it might seem deranged. However, if you look carefuly at the big picture here, it becomes less far-fetched.

[sylvia]

Well JBean, where did that information come from about Obama hanging out with radicals when he was young? I know I heard something about that. I'll have to google it shortly.

[MayBee]

Hey Geek- do you mean he's descended into Ethan Winner territory? If Maguire made a YouTube of this, would you help him distribute it?

[pmm]

Kim Jane Il, do you get issued a cd full of the clip-art equivalent of troll quotes when you go to work for Axelrod? Or do you have to make your own mix tape of lefty talking points and comments?

[Cecil Turner]

Parallels abound.

Really? Then perhaps you could "demonstrate" Barry didn't meet Billy until 1995? Or why it's farfetched to believe they may have met in NYC in the early 80's? Thought not.

At this point, there's no doubt the relationship is deeper than claimed. The only questions are "how deep?" (including when they met) and "why do they lie about it?"

[Sue]

Obama was involved in anti-apartheid activities, ergo he must have been involved in coordinating terrorism.

Really? Ergo or you go? Tom didn't say nor imply Obama was coordinating terrorism. He said and implied Obama knew Ayers while at Columbia.

[RichatUF]

Oh come on guys, it was just a loose affiliation between 2 committed progressives and they didn't have a collaborative operational relationship. Nor was it a partnership-it was mostly interests. Obama and Ayers wanted to fix schools and start calculating the "educational debt" owed. They wanted to divest from South Africa. To further the cause of "social justice".

[kim jane il]

Or why it's farfetched to believe they may have met in NYC in the early 80's?

TM defends 2nd amendment rights and spent time in NYC; is it far fetched to believe he may have met David Berkowitz?

[Nils]

Let me see if I can shorten this up:

Fact 1: Obama lived in New York in early 80s.
Fact 2: Various lefty organizations were operating in New York in the early 80s.
Fact 3: Obama has never proven he didn't hang out or conspire with these lefty organizations.
Conclusion: Clearly Obama has some 'splainin' to do, and until he does, we should assume he probably did conspire with these lefty groups.

Most compelling.

For the sake of posting a thank you note for this illuminating post, may I inquire your exact address in Outer Wingnuttia?

[cathyf]

I'm kind of skeptical. Suppose, instead, that Obama spent his Columbia years mostly doing drugs, doing the bare minimum to barely pass his courses. And the "I was anti-apartheid" is resume padding.

It certainly wouldn't be the first example of an Obama exaggeration. And it would explain why nobody has come forth to say that they remember him.

[sylvia]

Okay I tried to find the quote on what I was remembering on Obama hanging out with punk rockers and beatnicks, etc and couldn't. But I know I saw a video clip of Obama saying "I know a thing or two about Washington Square Park. And the Village. And the bars here." So that doesn't square with BHO being in the library all the time, all the way uptown, during those years.

[bad]

Obama is so brilliant and compelling and is so masterful at achieving consensus among warring factions, it is inconceivable that he was not immediately a mover and shaker in these groups.

[JBean]

Sylvia --

Well JBean, where did that information come from about Obama hanging out with radicals when he was young? I know I heard something about that. I'll have to google it shortly.

The information came from "Dreams" -- while he was at Occidental, not Columbia.

Why not read the book? It's a much better solution than relying on Google.

[sylvia]

"And it would explain why nobody has come forth to say that they remember him."

Yes but how would that explain his lack of listed addresses during that time. What young college student is vague about, or feels he has to hide his addresses to his college? How would that connect to him doing drugs? Maybe he was a dealer? I don't know. It seems that that obfuscation was a deliberate act not commonly taken by young college students. Why would he want to hide where he lived?

[kim jane il]

real clear politics electoral map shows big momentum for Obama

Not counting leaners:

Obama/Biden 313
McCain/Palin 158

[RichatUF]

I'll dust off this link again.

[boris]

If palling around with anti-US radicals and racist demagogs for about 20 years is not a problem ... then why so much screeching about adding another 10 ??? Why is 20 years okay but speculate 30 years and that's outrageous?

[Soylent Red]

Why not read steal the book?

In deference to the political leanings from whence our Obamessiah (TMATC) arose.

[RichatUF]

His continuing political education at Columbia:

"Political discussions, the kind that at Occidental had once seemed so intense and purposeful, came to take on the flavor of the socialist conferences that I sometimes attended at Cooper Union or the African cultural fairs that took place in Harlem or Brooklyn during the summers..."

What he was looking for:

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets."

Yeah sure, he was "alienated" only at Occidental. That's why he was so friendly with Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi.

[JBean]

TM --

I think the Reeboks bombing connection is a bit of a stretch, since they took place in September '81, only a month or so after Obama says he arrived in NYC (August '81).

They would certainly have grabbed his attention, though, if he were as interested in the apartheid issue as he claims to have been at Occidental -- and the bombings certainly wouldn't have gone unnoticed at Columbia, where apartheid was a hot topic in those years.

Then a month later, the Brinks robbery makes headlines, and the connection of the WU to the Reeboks bombings is uncovered, followed by Dohrn being linked the string of robberies culminating in '81...all this is swirling around Columbia University, in Obama's student days, and Axelrod & Co. wants us to believe he "didn't know" Ayers' history.

[Soylent Red]

But, uh, please...do not attempt to flush it down a toilet when you finish with it.

Despite the metaphorical implications of such an act, it could land you in Newsweek, QED.

[boris]

Sarah on Rush right now!

[ex-democrat]

Rich - is that from "Dreams"?

[sylvia]

"since they took place in September '81, only a month or so after Obama says he arrived in NYC (August '81)."

Or if you look at it the other way, and think that they might have had a connection through a family friend, say Frank Marshall Davis, they waited till Obama arrived.

[bio mom]

Electoral maps are derived from POLLS. The polls are garbage, hence the maps are garbage. Ignore all polls!!

[bio mom]

Why is it so hard to get college records for presidential candidates? We went through this in 2004 with Kerry. Seems the least that the American electorate should get to know.

[sylvia]

You know, if we are on to something here, I'm starting to feel nervous for us all. This would not be anything the Obamabots want to get out.

[sylvia]

So would you say Ayers is Obama's Captain Kirk to his Mr. Spock? Or would you put it the other way around...

[bio mom]

Obama is not a terrorist nor is he a committed radical. Instead he is a lefty, social justice guy. That is what his whole adult life demonstrates. So why should anyone expect anything else from his presidency should he get one. What amazes me are all the people who believe he would govern from some centrist position. That's improbable. They are seeing what they want to see. He, in league with his lefty congress and Senate, will move the country dramatically left. If you like that idea, he is your guy, if you do not, DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM.

[RichatUF]

ex-dem-

Yes.

[narciso]

Let's be clear, Obama, wasn't really against
South Africa; he was pro Azania; the Soviet style people's republic that the Unkhonto du Sizwe, the Joberg version of 'community organizers'. Mandela, was a great deal like Ayers, The Rivonia trial centered arounf his violent actions, that why Amnesty International;couldn't list him as a 'prisoner of conscience' just a political prisoner. That's why Fidel supported them, Stanley Greenberg, Clinton's pollster supported them. It's not a coincidence that these affiliations continue.

South Africa didn't turn out exactly like they thought they would. The ANC turned out to be more pragmatic (read corrupt)than expected. Johannesburg and other cities were for a time as violent as post Soviet Moscow or 'insurgency riddle' Baghdad. The mantle went from Mandela to virtual flat earther Thabo Mbeki to now the corrupt thug Jacob Zuma. South Africa's chaos, paved the way for the rise of Islamist leaning organizations like Quibla & PAGAD; with a whole slew of false passports for jihadists.
As these trends show, the future Zimbabwe-fication of South Africa is well on course.

[sylvia]

"What amazes me are all the people who believe he would govern from some centrist position"

Well he would have to be somewhat centrist because he would be neutered by the power of the Congress and American public opinion. To get really radical, and be successful at it as President, he would start having to play some really dirty tricks. And I for one am hoping he will not go there. We can only hope.

[Sue]

All you need to do is listen to Obama when he explains his association with Ayers. He always says, Ayers is not part of his campaign, and is not someone who he regularly shares ideas with. He doesn't deny the question just changes the answer to appear he is clearly distancing himself from Ayers. Even though the question is never asked, is Ayers advising you or part of your campaign? Obama is unwilling to straight up answer the question posed, what was your relationship to Ayers?

[JBean]

Soylent -

Why not steal the book?

In deference to the political leanings from whence our Obamessiah (TMATC) arose.

Well, if all goes well in Obamessiah land, it will be required reading -- distributed free to every household, and serialized in an endless loop on the new and improved Obama channel. TMATC.

[Sue]

And I for one am hoping he will not go there. We can only hope.

Get on board the non-secular prayer chain with Hitchens and Buckley.

[PeterUK]

Was Obama having trouble with his glands whilst at Columbia,so much so it completely dampened his youthful libido?

As for this :-
"a quarter mile from Columbia".
There are countless examples of "birds of a feather flocking together". College inmates invariably all use the same amenities,bars,clubs,cafes,shops and general hanging about areas,share the same dealers,they even meet in the library. Doesn't even the librarian remember him?
The point is, Barrack Hussein Obama started his political networking somewhere,where was it?

[Tom Maguire]

Fact 1: Obama lived in New York in early 80s. Fact 2: Various lefty organizations were operating in New York in the early 80s. Fact 3: Obama has never proven he didn't hang out or conspire with these lefty organizations. Conclusion: Clearly Obama has some 'splainin' to do, and until he does, we should assume he probably did conspire with these lefty groups.

That gave short shrift to:

4. Obama and Bill Ayers eventually did associate and have lied consistently about the nature of the association.

5. Obama and Ayers had many overlapping interests in the early 80's - Ayers had to have been involved with apartheid and racial justice, to pick two.

I think the Reeboks bombing connection is a bit of a stretch, since they took place in September '81, only a month or so after Obama says he arrived in NYC (August '81).

I don't for a moment think Obama was involved with any bombings, so the timing does not bother me. I just don't know how he was involved with divestment/apartheid politics for two years there and never heard any Weatherman stories or took an interest in Bill Ayers, Kathy Boudine, et al.

[jorod]

Obama never mentions his years in the education reform project in Chicago. What happened?

[bgates]

Why is it so hard to get college records for presidential candidates?
We have full college (,military, and medical) records for Bush and McCain. The difficulties arise with a certain class of presidential candidates. The ones without class.

he would be neutered by the power of the Pelosi/Reid Congress and American public opinion which he'd throw over for world public opinion even if he couldn't manipulate broader support from veto power over anything in the press, or outright fabricate "public opinion" by moving ACORN into the polling business.

[Barney Frank]

Well he would have to be somewhat centrist because he would be neutered by the power of the Congress..

Hoping for Nancy and Harry to reign in Barry seems a vanishingly thin reid to lean on.

[bad]

Bill Ayers launched Obama's political career from his home in 1995 and in return, Obama gave Bill Ayers' Small Schools Workshop over a million dollars from The Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was at odds with Mayor Daley's education agenda, so how did Obama redeem himself with Mayor Daley? Perhaps with the nearly $4 million that went from CAC to the newly created Chicago Public Education Fund embraced by Mayor Daley.

This press release is from March of 2000:

The Chicago Public Education Fund was unveiled today, announcing over $1.5 million of investments in programs related to improving principal and teacher leadership. The Fund acts like a venture capital fund for public education, raising money and investing in programs that can improve student achievement. The Fund has been able to quietly raise nearly $4 million of an initial $10 million goal and will begin expanding this strong initial base of support. The Fund has the full support of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Chicago Public Schools Board President Gery Chico, and Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas.

LUN

[bad]

The Fund has been able to quietly raise nearly $4 million of an initial $10 million goal and will begin expanding this strong initial base of support.

It was raised very quietly from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge which gave $2.2 million in grants and another $1,659,013 via a distibution of assets from CAC to Chicago Public Education Fund.

LUN to CAC 1999 tax return (990) page 2 and page 17

[bio mom]

No sylvia, We can do a lot more than hope. We can NOT ELECT HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[michaelt]

Sylvia,

Obama played the alienated loner at Occidental College, not Columbia.

Aside: I think of Occidental as the Skidmore of the West. Am I being unfair (and to which institution)?

[Caro]

outright fabricate "public opinion" by moving ACORN into the polling business.

bgates, how do we know they are NOT in the polling business?

[clarice]

The first presidential candidate whose college records were hidden IIRC was Adlai Stevenson who also posed as a living genius and who got Harvard's dean to lock up his records. Turns out --when we saw them years later--his grades as an undergrad were mediocre and he flunked out of law school.
When he died the great intellectual had one book only in his fancy NYC apt--the Green Book (the social register).

[JBean]

TM --

I just don't know how he was involved with divestment/apartheid politics for two years there and never heard any Weatherman stories or took an interest in Bill Ayers, Kathy Boudine, et al.

Or the Black Liberation Army, who had joined ranks with the WU hangers-on, and wound up being the triggermen, some dying in shootouts, while the tough-talking white revolutionaries of WU never fired a shot when cornered.

No mention of that, no details of what may have been happening at the time, and yet he was obsessed with race in NYC:

"Uncertain of my ability to steer a course of moderation, fearful of falling into old habits, I took on the temperament if not the convictions of a street corner preacher, prepared to see temptation everywhere, ready to overrun a fragile will. My reaction was more than just an attempt to curb an excessive appetite, though, or a response to sensory overload. Beneath the hum, the motion, I was seeing the steady fracturing of the world taking place. I had seen worse poverty in Indonesia and glimpsed the violent mood of inner-city kids in L.A.; I had grown accustomed, everywhere, to suspicion between the races. But whether because of New York’s density or because of its scale, it was only now that I began to grasp the almost mathematical precision with which America’s race and class problems joined; the depth, the ferocity, of resulting tribal wars; the bile that flowed freely not just out on the streets but in the stalls of Columbia’s bathrooms as well, where, no matter how many times the administration tried to paint them over, the walls remained scratched with blunt correspondence between niggers and kikes.

It was as if all middle ground had collapsed, utterly. And nowhere, it seemed, was that collapse more apparent than in the black community."

[Elliott]

He sure figured a lot out in the library.

[Mustang0302]

Sylvia -

So would you say Ayers is Obama's Captain Kirk to his Mr. Spock? Or would you put it the other way around...

More like...Ayers is Sulu, and BHO is a redshirt...a means to an end.

And we know now how Sulu likes his "ends."

[cathyf]

What young college student is vague about, or feels he has to hide his addresses to his college?

Well, the lack of an address may indicate that he was more-or-less homeless. He wouldn't be the first student of that generation to have gotten by sleeping on peoples' floors. Especially if his grandparents were sending him enough money for living expenses and he was spending it on drugs... I had friends in college who did this just because they were poor. That would be an alternate motivation, too -- if he wanted solidarity with the poor, then sleeping in the library stacks was a way to do it. I would think that he would have 'fessed up to that in his autobiography, though -- he wasn't shy about confessing that he was an overdramatic radical wanna-be, and this would have made the story even better.

[MayBee]

BO's spokesman just said 'ACORN has nothing to do with us'.

David Shuster, to his credit, asked if the BO campaign had taken any ACORN PAC money and if they would return it.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I was sick in bed all day yesterday with a fever hovering in the 104 degree range, so this may be old news. Have you all seen the latest from Stanley Kurtz and his investigation of the CAC documents?

Wright 101

It looks like Jeremiah Wright was just the tip of the iceberg. Not only did Barack Obama savor Wright’s sermons, Obama gave legitimacy — and a whole lot of money — to education programs built around the same extremist anti-American ideology preached by Reverend Wright. And guess what? Bill Ayers is still palling around with the same bitterly anti-American Afrocentric ideologues that he and Obama were promoting a decade ago. All this is revealed by a bit of digging, combined with a careful study of documents from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the education foundation Obama and Ayers jointly led in the late 1990s.

[...]

African Village
In the winter of 1996, the Coalition for Improved Education in [Chicago’s] South Shore (CIESS) announced that it had received a $200,000 grant from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. That made CIESS an “external partner,” i.e. a community organization linked to a network of schools within the Chicago public system. This network, named the “South Shore African Village Collaborative” was thoroughly “Afrocentric” in orientation. CIESS’s job was to use a combination of teacher-training, curriculum advice, and community involvement to improve academic performance in the schools it worked with. CIESS would continue to receive large Annenberg grants throughout the 1990s.

The South Shore African Village Collaborative (SSAVC) was very much a part of the Afrocentric “rites of passage movement,” a fringe education crusade of the 1990s. SSAVC schools featured “African-Centered” curricula built around “rites of passage” ceremonies inspired by the puberty rites found in many African societies. In and of themselves, these ceremonies were harmless. Yet the philosophy that accompanied them was not. On the contrary, it was a carbon-copy of Jeremiah Wright’s worldview.

Rites of Passage
To learn what the rites of passage movement was all about, we can turn to a sympathetic 1992 study published in the Journal of Negro Education by Nsenga Warfield-Coppock. In that article, Warfield-Coppock bemoans the fact that public education in the United States is shaped by “capitalism, competitiveness, racism, sexism and oppression.” According to Warfield-Coppock, these American values “have confused African American people and oriented them toward American definitions of achievement and success and away from traditional African values.” American socialization has “proven to be dysfuntional and genocidal to the African American community,” Warfield-Coppock tells us. The answer is the adolescent rites of passage movement, designed “to provide African American youth with the cultural information and values they would need to counter the potentially detrimental effects of a Eurocentrically oriented society.”

... much more

[Pofarmer]

David Shuster, to his credit, asked if the BO campaign had taken any ACORN PAC money and if they would return it.

It's the other way around, actually.

[JBean]

michaelt --

Obama played the alienated loner at Occidental College, not Columbia.

Once again, it was the other way around according to his so-called memoir: he was a party-animal at Occidental, and a virtual monk at Columbia, per Obama.

There were plenty of former classmates interviewed at Occidental that pretty much confirm that story. The only personal friend that was briefly dug up (probably by O's campaign) was his roommate, "Sadik," (Sohale Siddiqi), who appeared in an AP story back in May. His job was to soften the image, apparently:

In his memoir and in interviews, Obama has said he got serious and buckled down in New York. “I didn't socialize that much. I was like a monk,” he said in a 2005 Columbia alumni magazine interview. He told biographer David Mendell: “For about two years there, I was just painfully alone and really not focused on anything, except maybe thinking a lot.”

In his memoir, Obama recalls fasting on Sunday; Siddiqi says Obama was a follower of comedian-activist Dick Gregory's vegetarian diet. “I think self-deprivation was his schtick, denying himself pleasure, good food and all of that.”

But it wasn't exactly an ascetic life. There was plenty of time for reading (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, V.S. Naipaul) and listening to music (Van Morrison, the Ohio Players, Bob Dylan). The two, along with others, went out for nights on the town. “He wasn't entirely a hermit,” Siddiqi said. Siddiqi said his female friends thought Obama was “a hunk.”

“We were always competing,” he said. “You know how it is. You go to a bar and you try hitting on the girls. He had a lot more success. I wouldn't out-compete him in picking up girls, that's for sure.”

Hannity tried to interview Siddiqi for that Ayers special, by the way --  he appeared briefly on camera, running away...

Bernardine Dohrn was described as a vegetarian by a waitress she worked with in NYC in 1978. Arugula, anyone?

[Cecil Turner]

I don't for a moment think Obama was involved with any bombings, so the timing does not bother me.

That particular aspect of the timing isn't bothersome. But the latter claims that Obama was somehow unaware of the BLA/WUO activities in NY at the time (and in particular the Brinks armored car heist) beggars belief. The continued nonsense about Ayers doing something bad when Oboy was 8 is similarly impossible to swallow . . . he can't possibly believe it, nor have missed the linkages during his Columbia days.

[MayBee]

Cathyf- you'll like this.
Obama today: But they [ACORN] are not advising our campaign.

[PeterUK]

Some are losing faith on Obamessiah

[Elliott]

From the introduction, signed by Ayers, Dohrn et al., to "Prairie Fire"* the Weather Underground's 1974 manifesto:

Our movement urgently needs a concrete analysis of the particular conditions of our time and place. We need strategy. We need to battle for a correct ideology and win people over. In this way we create the conditions for the development of a successful revolutionary movement and party. We need a revolutionary communist party in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power, and build the new society. [snip]

PRAIRIE FIRE is written to communist-minded people, independent organizers and anti-imperialists; those who carry the traditions and lessons of the struggles of the last decade, those who join in the struggles of today. PRAIRIE FIRE is written to all sisters and brothers who are engaged in armed struggle against the enemy. [snip] It is written as an argument against those who oppose action and hold back the struggle.

PRAIRIE FIRE is based on a belief that the duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution. This is not an abstraction.

________________________

*Included in this collection, pp. 233-34.

[Andrew]

Responding to Sylvia's comment 10/14/08 at 1:15 PM:

You remember correctly - I don't recall the context, but it was a video snippet of Obama saying that to some people - a smallish group, in a room? Not sure of the context of the video, but it was a part of the FOX News channel special [bio] about Barry - on this past Saturday or Sunday night. FOX also did one on McCain. However, Obama was clearly speaking of his experiences in NYC - there's no where else with a Washington Square Park and "the Village".

[bgates]

PUK - your columnist lays out David Freddoso's book, agrees with every particular, still plans on voting for Obama, and says he's free of the mania.

[Richard]

You are truly, absolutely, despicable and dangerous.

[Soylent Red]

I know I am, Dick.

These others up here? Amateurs!

[Hudson]

Columbia doesn't award honors to exchange students who were there only two years. His grades could have been all A+, he still would not have been eligible for honors.

This is a red herring, based on trumped-up "facts" and tenuous associations -- like every previous attempt to smear Obama.

[hank48188]

I remember reading a Blog from a guy that went to Columbia at the same time as Obama, he was a poly sci major too. He was offering a Million Dollars to anyone that actually knew Obama at Columbia. He claimed to know many people from there and NOBODY can ever remember Obama. I just fould the article, it was called "Wayne Allyn Roots Million-Dollar Challenge" http://www.reason.com/news/show/128461.html

[clarice]

Always grabbing the glory, Soylent. PHEH

[clarice]

Dear Hudson, not that i don't take the word of trolls who just happen to pop up whenever we criticize The One, but perhaps you might favor us with some credible citation for your point which I do not believe.

[Barney Frank]

Obama has a lot of known associates.

Has anyone ever turned up a single person in his life who could be described as an actual friend?

[clarice]

Per Columbia's website:
College (Latin) Honors
The Bachelor of Arts degree is awarded with honors in three categories (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude) to no more than 25 percent of the graduating class, with no more than 5 percent summa cum laude, and the total of summa and magna cum laude not exceeding 15 percent. College honors is the highest academic recognition awarded by the College. The Committee on Honors, Awards, and Prizes reviews the academic records of the top 35% of the graduating class. Selection is based not on GPA alone, but on the breadth, depth and high quality of academic achievement, departmental recommendations, and outstanding academic work beyond that which is required for the degree. Students may not apply for honors nor may they solicit faculty for recommendations in this process.

There is no separate consideration of honors for October or February graduates. Each spring the Committee on Honors, Awards, and Prizes considers the October and February graduates along with those who are degree candidates for May. The report of those graduating with honors is in the May Class Day program. The honor is noted on the diploma and transcript. October and February graduates may ask the Registrar to add an honors notation to an already issued diploma.

Valedictorian and Salutatorian
The Committee on Honors, Awards, and Prizes reviews the academic records of the most exceptional students nominated by faculty for Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Selections is based not on GPA alone, but on the breadth, depth, and high quality of academic achievement, departmental recommedations, and outstanding academic work beyond that which is required for the degree.

Departmental Honors
Departmental Honors may be established and awarded by any Columbia College department or academic program, and is recorded on a student’s final transcript.

College guidelines for Departmental Honors include the following three criteria:

Departmental Honors are awarded to no more than 10 percent, or, in small departments, one member of the graduating majors (including all October, February, and May degrees);
a grade point average of at least 3.6 in major courses is expected for a student to be considered for Departmental Honors;
an honors thesis or equivalent project of high quality should be required by each department or academic program in order to receive Departmental Honors.
Students should consult with their director of undergraduate studies no later than early in the first term of their senior year if they wish to be considered for Departmental Honors. Students who are awarded Departmental Honors are notified by their department in mid-May. Not all departments and programs offer Departmental Honors.

As for transfer students--they are admitted with advanced standing--that is they are given credits for their time spent elsewhere..there is no special hurdle for them respecting honors--departmental or school wide.

"Each year the College admits, to the sophomore and junior classes, transfer students from other colleges. These students are said to be admitted with advanced standing (see Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts and Programs of Study)."

Since next to education, anthropology etc, poli sci is one of the easiest majors, it is inconceivable that he didn't qualify for a single honor.

[PeterUK]

Nonesense Soylent,he obviously meant me!

[DebinNC]

Link: "Federal law limits the information that Columbia can release about Mr. Obama's time there. A spokesman for the university, Brian Connolly, confirmed that Mr. Obama spent two years at Columbia College and graduated in 1983 with a major in political science. He did not receive honors, Mr. Connolly said, though specific information on his grades is sealed."

I doubt Mr. Connolly would have failed to mention any rules which prevented an honors worthy Obama from receiving such a distinction if he'd earned it.

[bad]

Smarmy-ass Bill Burton lying again on Fox News.

[DebinNC]

I think Obama is justifiably reluctant to bring up his time at Occidental and Columbia because his friends were largely Pakistanis, which feeds the "he's Muslim" idea. I bet his core group included Black nationalist, Nation of Islam types as well, with any whites being the Ayers-Phleger variety.

[ex-democrat]

soylent, PUK: "I Am Despicable!"