1. You said: “The information about Stanley Armour Dunham being angry about his daughter being pregnant came from step-grandmother Sarah and appeared in the londonukonline series which was done on Obama.”
Sure, but David made a much stronger claim: “Stanley Ann had been kicked out by her family.” I’d not seen that asserted before and given that Obama also reports Ann’s family coming to accept Senior and his much stronger statements of how angry Senior’s father was about the whole situation, the odds that Kenya would be a respite from parental agitation about the newborn seem low.
2. You said: “At the same time in his book Obama mentioned that Ann and her father were ‘on the outs’ by the time the Dunham family headed for the island.”
Sure, but this happened well before she met Senior, bot pregnant or birthed Junior. There’s no doubt Ann had a smoother relationship with mom than dad, but she also recounts dad trying to (clumsily) fit in with her college friends, so I never interpreted this as some sort of severe, unbreachable rift between them. IF she had been tossed from the house, one could certainly point to this as an early warning signal of a tenuous relationship for which an unplanned pregnancy could have served as the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. But I’m seeking evidence that she ever was tossed out in the first place, not the nature of the relationship itself.
3. You said: “DrC where did you get the idea that Ann was in a PhD program when she didn’t even have a degree?”
My mistake. I misremembered, thinking that Senior was in a graduate program, as I knew he eventually got a graduate degree in economics and because Obama’s description of student gatherings involving his parents reminded me of my own graduate school days. But on rechecking I realize Senior didn’t start graduate school until going to Harvard and that he ended up with Masters, not a PhD. Sorry for the confusion.
4. You said: “On another point ‘The Honolulu Advertiser” verified that Obama Sr graduated and left Hawaii in 1962 before his son was even a year old.”
I’ll take this at face value, but Obama says 2 years and unless Senior graduated from Hawaii in only 3 years, he began in 1959, so his graduation year should have been spring 1963 etc. (which then would be more consistent with Obama’s account). So in the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter, but it’s always been a bit of a puzzle.
In one of the English version African papers which has been scrubbed (for other reasons), I remember reading that he graduated in three years which would support the 1962 date--and be consistent with other data reflecting a Harvard in the fall of 1962 story.
Apologies for a late response as I am a little slow getting going this morning, Obama himself mentions in his book that his father graduated in 3 years. Going by year that would be 1959 - 60, 1960 - 61, and finally 1961 - 62. He also mentions in his book the article appearing in the newspaper upon his father’s graduation and prior to his leaving for Harvard. Reading ‘The Honolulu Advertiser’ regarding Obama and race relations the newspaper published excerpts of the interview with Obama Sr done in 1962. IMO Obama Jr simply expanded on ideas which his father had expressed in that interview, which resulted in his first book but he had led a fairly sheltered life and didn’t really have a clue as to how life could be for blacks on the mainland and elsewhere.