Two Views Of Obama

The Times On Line takes a measured view in exploring the Secrets of Obama Family Unlocked. But unlocked is a misnomer and it's increasingly clear that there may be elements of Obama's life that play less positively with the American electorate, than they do with the editors of the Times.

Obama, 45, has two half- sisters, one living in Britain, and five surviving half-brothers, the eldest of whom converted to Islam, and whose stories span the globe.

The worst of it in purely political terms may have to do with Obama's decision to conceal elements of his life by relying on composites in his autobiographical Dreams From My Father.

The Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet was the first to spot in 2004, when Obama burst on the national stage at the Democratic party convention, that his memoir, Dreams from My Father, contained “composite” characters and changed names. “Except for public figures and his family, it is impossible to know who is real and who is not,” she pointed out.

And, unfortunately, quotes like the one below, as well as the potential for charges of bigamy and his own out of wedlock birth, there is clearly a great deal for Obama to overcome in an America that still struggles with issues of race - an America that so far has always seemed to prefer an adherence to a western sense of marriage and morality in its Presidents.

While it might feel uncomfortable focusing attention on some of the issues, the contest of all contests for leader of the free world isn't usually one in which any source for derision, or hint of mud goes unsung, or un-flung.

“You know Ann was really, really white,” smiled Suryakusuma, looking through the album, “even though she told me she had some Cherokee blood in her. I think she just loved people of a different skin colour, brown people.”

Obama’s African family is particularly complicated. By his own account, his father never really left Kezia, his first wife, in Kenya. She bore Obama Sr two children, Roy and Auma, who now works in social services in Berkshire.

They were separated, Obama’s mother claimed, but “it was a village wedding and there was no document that could suggest a divorce”.

His own father and mother’s wedding in Hawaii may not have been properly documented either. “How and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I have never quite had the courage to explore,” Obama writes in his memoir.

Comments

[scarshapedstar]

"While it might feel uncomfortable focusing attention on some of the issues, the contest of all contests for leader of the free world isn't usually one in which any source for derision, or hint of mud goes unsung, or un-flung."

Clearly, George W. Bush's campaign promise to restore "honor and integrity" to the Presidency was so successful that future Republicans feel no need to even attempt to mirror his greatness...

[Dan Riehl]

future Republicans

Yeah, except the dirt is flying at Obama just as Hilly's start is rising. heh! Coincidence? I think not.

[Dr Zen]

Those damned nigras, eh? They wasn't even wedded by a preacherman.

Basically, anyone who gives a fuck about that isn't voting Obama anyway, so you are, as usual, preaching to the choir.

[Lynn Gazis-Sax]

"Coincidence? I think not."

Oh, I don't think it's coincidence *at all* that mud is being flung at Obama and attributed to Sen. Clinton just after both have announced. What better time to try to kill two Democratic frontrunners with one stone?

"potential for charges of bigamy and his own out of wedlock birth"

"Potential for charges of bigamy," particularly when followed by "seemed to prefer an adherence to a western sense of marriage and morality in its Presidents," makes it sound as if Obama's own marital life isn't up to snuff. When in fact all that's being said is that his father follows the traditional Kenyan practice of polygamy. I have a sister-in-law from Africa (though not Kenya) whose father is similarly polygamous. I'd hate to think that would disqualify the whole family from politics, if any of my nieces or nephews should have the aptitude.

[Northerner]

So now you're blaming Obama for the fact that his parents (in Kenya) may not have followed the US "rules" for a wedding?? How would you like it if we blamed you for your parents' mistakes (and I'm sure they've made a few, they are/were human after all), especially if what they did wasn't seen as being a mistake when and where it was made?

Pretty pathetic try, Dan.

[ApplePie]

Dan, all you do is try to smear Democrats. I mean, why bother? Republicans have such an exemplary record from the last 8 years. Why from Katrina, Tom Delay, Mark Foley, Jack Abramoff, the Occupation of Iraq, the non-capture of Osama Bin Laden, illegal immigration, outsourcing of American jobs, debt accumulation and the dismantling of the Constitution, the Republicans will win in a landslide.
You should only post Republican accomplishments because there's just so many to choose from. '08 is in the bag!

[Dembob]

Yeah, Katrina! Bin Laden! Illegal illegal occupation! bringing in Hitler to secretly run the country! lying about some guy called Saddam (where is he? He ain't nowhere, cos he never was - yeah Bush made him up to have something to revenge against! and forget about Afghanistan cos its all about Iraq, no I don't want to hear that things are bad in Afghanistan cos that doesn't fit my argument...
Anyway, I know Bush did Katrina cos he secretly controls the weather, and my braiiinnnn...

[hum dono]

"Hillary comes out of the gate already screaming inside, for Barack is vaccinated against much of her top-of-the-line industrial-quality political anthrax. His blackness trumps her womanhood. His cliches and bromides are as inane as hers: he passes the blush test in front of a liberal crowd as well as any politician in recent history. Both are intellectually soporific (apparently the sine qua non of the modern liberal politician), but Obama doesn't look like a walking Picture of Dorian Gray. Obama is Young: and Youth is what Democrats crave. Those long lines at rationed-care federally-sponsored health clinics, the pious bureaucratization of all human effort, the drudgery of Managed Life, defeat, emasculation and joylessness as the New Vision: you don't want to slap the face of a wrinkled harridan on the label of that bottle--no, the face that markets that pill must be Young and Exciting and Visionary. Hillary can try to run to Obama's right as the Voice of Experience, the RealPolitikian: but she has to ask herself how well that will play in front of the hordes of Daily Kossacks, who want bear-baiting and cock-fighting, and to whom moderation and logic convey the mustiness of Old People. Never forget the First Political Principle: the White House is never won, only lost. No one prevails: the job is merely to establish that you are the lesser of two evils. So, although the Republicans have done a fine job of trying to lose the White House before the first ballot is cast, I think the Democrats will start gaining on them now, because they're permanently enraged, and itching for some good-ole' Iraqi-style internecine butchery."

stolen from Mark Steyn's Mailbox.

[TheSpartan]

Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

[johanna]

The more I read and learn about Obama, the more I can't wait to vote for him. My dream ticket is Hilary/Obama! Can't wait. There's NOBODY in the Republicans that's exciting. Same old boring candidates.

[Artie]

Mike Huckabee isn't exciting??? Or that Massachusetts Mormon?? Or Newt (I served my wife divorce papers on her deathbed) Gingrich? Surely you jest.

[Phoenix]

"..they're permanently enraged, and itching for some good-ole' Iraqi-style internecine butchery."

Heh. Perfect. Just like Iraq, it might be we get to sit back while they implode into nothing but a bunch of tired losers.

[katie]

Obama is our next president. Thank goodness.