Patterico's Pontifications

8/23/2008

Obama Nation; Obama World

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 2:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

If you enjoy Mike K’s comments as I do, then you will also enjoy his reviews at Amazon.com. His most recent review covers Jerome Corsi’s The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.

Corsi’s book deals with Obama’s parents and his formative years as well as his years in Chicago. The Chicago portion of Mike K’s review is especially interesting since we should hear more about those years between now and the election. So while I recommend you read all of Mike K’s review, I’ll limit my discussion to this excerpt regarding Barack Obama’s parents:

“Corsi does delve into some areas that are interesting and were new to me. I vaguely knew the story of Obama’s mother and her two marriages to foreign students and “men of color.” Corsi goes into much more detail, albeit with a few minor errors in facts pointed out with high dudgeon by the Obama people. He tells the story of her childhood where she grew up on Mercer Island Washington, a wealthy enclave in Seattle. She did not want to move to Hawaii but her father was seeking a new job and she had graduated from high school. She was described as a bit of a radical in high school and she followed an unconventional course in Hawaii and later in Indonesia. This story is interesting and well told by Corsi no matter the quibbles by the Obama people. His discussion of Obama’s involvement in Kenyan politics is a matter of concern and I had been unaware of this part of the Obama story.”

This portion reminds me of something I read earlier at Barack Obama’s Senate website. Obama visited Kenya in August 2006 in his second year as a U.S. Senator, and he met many Kenyans including his youngest half-brother George Hussein Onyango Obama and other relatives. Barack and George have the same father but different mothers.

Geneology.com records that Barack’s parents divorced in 1962 and his mother remarried in 1967. Barack Obama’s father died in 1982, 6 months after George was born, leaving 3 wives, 6 sons, and 1 daughter.

George Obama’s story was recently chronicled in the Italian edition of Vanity Fair (via ABC News) as well as in the UK Telegraph here and here. The Telegraph reports that George Obama is living in a shanty owned by Barack Obama’s older sister (George’s aunt) in Nairobi’s Huruma slum, “one of the more violent areas of the city.” George Obama was portrayed as a former recluse who drifted for many years but is now studying to be a mechanic. George credited Barack Obama’s book Dreams of My Father with helping him “understand my past and my family.”

This press release from Obama’s Senate office describes his 2006 reception in Kenya as not unlike the celebrity welcome he received on his recent European tour. Obama’s message was a mixture of toughness and hope:

“During his speech on Monday, he laid out a tough prescription for Africa’s ills, calling for government cutbacks, more openness and less ethnic politics.

Kenya is one of the more developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the closest to the West, but it is consistently ranked by international organizations as one of the most corrupt. Mr. Obama said this corroded its ability to attract investment, fight terrorism and provide security for its own people.

Most of all, he told Kenyans to stop complaining about the injustices of the colonial past and to accept responsibility. “It’s more than just history and outside influence that explain why Kenya is lagging behind,” he said.

He ended by telling the crowd, “I want you all to know that as your ally, your friend and your brother, I will be there in every way I can.”

Many in the audience left in high spirits. “He’s inspiring,” said Miriam Musonye, a literature professor. “He really seems to believe what he says.”

People all over the world believe, or want to believe, in Barack Obama.

— DRJ

10 Responses to “Obama Nation; Obama World”

  1. I think the Freddoso book is probably better and, I am told, has even more detail about the “Chicago connection” a very important part of his story. It wasn’t out when I ordered the other one and the furious response from Obama people piqued my curiosity.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  2. Why is his message of personal responsibility to the Kenyans so different than his prescriptions for the ills of the minority community here?
    Could, pray tell, we have someone who speaks with forked tongue?

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  3. “he laid out a tough prescription for Africa’s ills, calling for government cutbacks, more openness and less ethnic politics”. Whoa. That sounds like the opposite of the usual democrat policy prescriptions. Or can we assume that the party platform here in USA will actually implement Obama’s visionary scheme? No more identity politics, victimhood, class warfare, government waste and the sun now shining on their backroom deals? Let’s see if the to-be-released soon Annenberg challenge documents reinforce Obama’s ideals for America in the same African mode he calls them to follow.

    As far as Africa goes, even Bono admitted that the Bush administration did yeoman’s work providing funds for African AIDS.

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  4. AD – Such a vile racist comment. Can you imagine what kind of impact the words Baracky spoke in Kenyan could have if he would dare utter same here in the States?

    JD (5f0e11)

  5. People all over the world believe, or want to believe, in Barack Obama.

    That’s true. Then he stiffs them. Kinda like the kids in Chicago who weren’t helped at all by his leadership in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

    Barack Obama – screwing kids around the world in the name of Hope & Change. (He hopes you’ll cough up your change.)

    Rick Ballard (0a8990)

  6. Thank you JD.
    I denounce myself.
    Bigot!

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  7. Another Drew:
    Thank you JD.
    I denounce myself.

    Denounce and renounce?

    m (40be14)

  8. Barack Obama let his halfbrother live on one dollar per day – imagine what he has in mind for the american people

    Rudolf (3974ba)

  9. “…Can you imagine what kind of impact the words Baracky spoke in Kenyan could have if he would dare utter same here in the States?…”

    Actually, we know what the response would be.
    Bill Cosby has been saying this for some time, and we haven’t seen anyone try to elect him President.

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  10. #8 @ 6:35p,

    I saw several reports which put it at $1 per month. I know it doesn’t seem possible and that $1 per day, or per week, is more like it. But if it’s really only $12 bucks per year, Hannity’s offer to send the guy $1,000 dollars would be like hitting the Lotto for O. Obama.

    I hope someone in the Obama family has the brains to send Hannity O. Obama’s address. That’s the deal Hannity offered, if someone in Bambi’s office would provide the address, Hannity would write a check for $1,000.

    Ropelight (4a83c9)


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