More Questions We Don't Have Documents to Resolve: Did Obama Go To Columbia College?

The Virginian ^ | 11/1/2008 | Moneyrunner

[moneyrunner]

There is so much that we are taking on faith with Barack Obama. Unqualified Reservations blog asks a question that has been asked in other places and in different ways. For example, what were Obama's grades at Columbia.

This blogger asks a very basic question: was he even a student there? If so, why don't more people remember this leading contender for President?

I know. I swore that my evil demagogic talents would go unused in this volatile, historic, and deliciously operatic election. And we'll certainly have a fun discussion after the event.

At the moment, though, I find myself tussling with a question I'm not sure anyone has seriously asked. And I just can't resist.

My question is: was Barack Obama ever a student at Columbia? Because here's how one scurrilous compendium of racist smears puts it: (read the rest)

[Unkosified]

1. Occidental College records — Not released

2. Columbia College records — Not released

3. Columbia Thesis paper — ‘not available’

4. Harvard College records — Not released

5. Selective Service Registration — Not released

6. Medical records — Not released

7. Illinois State Senate schedule — ‘not available’

8. Law practice client list — Not released

9. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate — Not released

10. Embossed, signed, paper Certification of Live Birth — Not released

11. Harvard Law Review articles published — None

12. University of Chicago scholarly articles — None

13. Record of baptism— Not released or ‘not available’

14. Illinois State Senate records—’not available’

[moneyrunner]

Thanks, mind if I use your list?

[realcleanguy]

The Obama “lost years”. Maybe he died, and this guy is an imposter

[coon2000]

Bizarre beyond belief.

[Unkosified]

Actually, it’s not mine. I saw it posted and asked the poster if I could use it and he/she said yes.

[Unkosified]

We should all post that list all over the internet for the next three days. Every blog we can find, every RCP editorial that allows blog posting, every youtube video we watch.

Spread the list!

[ScaniaBoy]

Has any other presidential candidate been allowed to hide all his important records from the media?

I assume you’ll have to go back to the early 20th century to find something similar.

[Tarheel]

With most jobs when you apply you are expected to list your education—name of school, year graduated, major.

While many employers do not bother checking this sort of info, some do. As his future employer, I want to know, in an official letter from the university, that he did indeed graduate from Colombia, also when and with what major.

[Pan_Yan]

Was Putin directly involved in planting Obama in the United States, or did he work in another part of the KGB?

[Brown Deer]

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. "

[Arizona Carolyn]

Well to quote Tom Brokow and Charlie Rose: "We don't know anything about Obama."..

But let's push him on the American people /s

[angkor]

F’n unbelievable!!!!

The press is doing a GREAT job!!!! /sarc

[FarRightFanatic]

If he actually graduated from Columbia, wouldn’t he have his diploma hanging on the wall of his office? Anyone seen any pictures of his office so we might be able to verify this in some way (supposing any diploma wasn’t a fake)?

[MIchaelTArchangel]

There are several "Columbia Colleges" in the United States. One is the undergraduate school which is part of Columbia University. Another is Columbia College Chicago which is NOT part of Columbia University. There are others as well.

If you think back about a year or so, there was a scandal in which civil servants had purchased degrees from "universities" with names similar to well known universities to further their careers. [Note: This is not to say Columbia College Chicago or any of the other schools will similar names are degree mills.]

There are also two recent cases in which students falsified their transcripts and letters of recommendation to gain admission to Yale University. Those two able to function reasonable well. One of those two, I believe, murdered someone; the other was at the center of a homosexual love affair that caused his downfall.

I wonder if it is possible that Obama may be a bigger fraud than he appears?

[x]

One possibility is that he may have been in the School of General Studies at Columbia, rather than Columbia College.

That's not likely if he went to Columbia directly from Occidental (SGS is supposed to be for students whose education has been "interrupted" by at least a year), but it has been suggested as a reason why so few people at Columbia remember Obama.

In any case, he didn't live in the dorms, so fewer people would remember him (if he went there) than would otherwise have been the case. It is strange that hundreds of people who were there at the time don't remember him, though.

There are apparently two Columbia grads (and I believe Obama contributors), Michael Baron and Michael Wolff who say they knew him at Columbia and that he was a standout student, but such unsupported testimony may make people more suspicious, rather than less. More here.

But is it more likely that his whole resume has been a lie or that there would be things on his transcript and papers that he doesn't want released to the public?

[angelsonmyside]

Great list!