Posted on 01/03/2011 2:35:42 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
For reasons clear to no one just yet, Hawaii's new Democrat governor, Neil Abercrombie, has gone public with his desire to silence the so-called "birthers" with proof of Barack Obama's Hawaiian birth.
"Maybe I'm the only one in the country," Abercrombie told the Los Angeles Times just before Christmas, "that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, 'I was here when that baby was born.'"
A few days later, Abercrombie clarified to Mark Niesse of the Associated Press that he didn't exactly see Obama's parents with their newborn son at the hospital, but that he "remembers seeing Obama as a child with his parents at social events."
Although the major media have questioned why Abercrombie would raise an issue that, according to the Los Angeles Times, "most people see as resolved," they take Abercrombie at his word as to what he knows about the young Obama family.
They shouldn't. Abercrombie's boasts about his relationship with the president's presumed parents, Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham, have got to unnerve the president and his close advisors. They know something the media perversely choose not to know: Abercrombie is remembering a past that never happened.
A member of the House's progressive caucus before his election as governor, Abercrombie has been talking excitedly about the relationship for years, playing John the Baptist to Obama's Jesus.
"Little Barry, that's what we called him," Abercrombie told the Chicago Tribune while "recalling his days with Obama Sr. and his future wife, Ann Dunham, at the University of Hawaii." If Obama were born on August 4, 1961, however, there could not have been many such days.
As is thoroughly documented, Ann and little Barry were in Seattle two weeks later, where she enrolled at the University of Washington. By the time she returned to Hawaii in late summer or fall 1962, Barack Sr. had left for Harvard for good.
Citing Abercrombie as source, a 2007 Hawaii TV news report claimed that Ann "became estranged from her husband, Barack Obama[,] Sr., after his departure for Harvard." I don't know about Hawaii, but in Missouri, if you flee your husband with baby in tow two weeks after his birth, that qualifies as "estrangement."
According to divorce papers filed in 1964, Barack Sr. and Ann married in Wailuku, Maui on February 2, 1961. But one has to wonder whether it was a marriage in anything but name, or whether there was a marriage at all. Obama himself writes in Dreams, "In fact, how and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I've never quite had the courage to explore."
No one attended the wedding -- not Abercrombie, not Ann's parents. In fact, no one in Barack Sr.'s clique seemed to know there was a relationship, let alone a wedding. Neil's brother Hal never saw Ann and Barack Sr. together. Another clique member, Pake Zane, who had distinct memories of Barack Sr., could not recall Ann at all. When Neil Abercrombie and Zane visited their friend in Nairobi in 1968, Barack Sr. shocked them by never once inquiring about his putative wife and 6-year-old son.
The 17-year-old Ann had met the 24 year-old Barack Sr. in Russian class at the University of Hawaii. Why they were studying Russian (in 1960, people like Lee Harvey Oswald studied Russian) is a question for another day. In Dreams, Ann provides only the sketchiest detail of their first date -- Barack Sr. came an hour late and with friends -- and nothing more.
A high school friend of Ann's claims to have received a letter or two from Ann in which she spoke about Barack Sr., and there is no reason to doubt her. But beyond this, there is no evidence of a relationship, and the only evidence for the marriage are the divorce papers, which are real and have been posted online.
One reason people marry in a county other than their own -- Maui County, for instance -- is to keep the announcement of the marriage license out of the local paper. By claiming a Maui wedding, and perhaps even attaining a Maui license, the Dunhams could have assured the baby an identity without drawing attention to the relationship.
If Obama had, in fact, been born out of wedlock, or if his father had been someone other than Barack Sr., that would not have affected Obama's eligibility for higher office, but it would have surely de-glamorized him. "Barry Dunham" does not exactly tease the imagination.
Whatever his contribution, Obama Sr. lent young Barry a name, an identity, and a romantic storyline. Obama's mother and grandparents sustained this narrative throughout Obama's childhood.
Barack Obama repeated this story in his memoir Dreams from My Father, and to good effect. When Obama hooked up with campaign guru David Axelrod in his 2004 race for the U.S. Senate, his story crystallized into a marketing strategy. In the retelling, little Barry is always two years old when Barack Sr. reluctantly leaves wife and son for Harvard. This is a lie.
Guided by Axelrod, Obama held off in his breakthrough keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention for all of 46 words -- including "Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much" -- before sharing his story with the world.
At the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver, Obama leaped into the story in the very first sentence. "Four years ago," he began, "I stood before you and told you my story -- of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to."
In between the two convention speeches, the story of Obama's birth was told more often than that of anyone's since Jesus. No one, of course, told it as convincingly as Obama himself, especially in his game-saving Philadelphia speech, immodestly titled "A More Perfect Union."
In this speech, delivered to negate the baleful impact of the Jeremiah Wright videos, Obama attributed his faith in the American people to his "own American story." He reminded those few registered voters who might somehow have forgotten that "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas." Although the proto-hippie Ann spent her formative teen years in Seattle, the storyline always places her in Kansas.
Obama and his operatives would invest enormous political capital in what sympathetic biographer David Remnick calls his "signature appeal: the use of the details of his own life as a reflection of a kind of multicultural ideal." From the beginning, they worked hard to protect the investment and did what they had to do to keep the storytellers in line.
Abercrombie may not have gotten the memo. Although the president was likely born in the United States, he may not have been born in Hawaii, he may not have been born in August 1961, he may not have been the son of Barack Sr., or he may have simply been listed as "white" on his birth certificate.
The truth is that the storied little family never lived together. Any fact that blew the storyline could have derailed Obama's candidacy before it got going. Expect the Abercrombie fuss to just sort of fade away.
Seems to me that the missing page 11 indicates that the name of the “father” listed on the BC is not what Barry0 is hiding.
If that page is, indeed, the missing BC, there would be no reason whatsoever to include it in the divorce documents if Obama Sr. were not the father.
Since we have no evidence that a marriage ever took place, Stanley Ann’s likely reason for filing for “divorce” is simply to clarify legal custody of the child. She would need to do that only if Obama Sr. is named as the father.
Therefore, it’s something else on the BC that he can’t let us see, most likely place of birth or legal entity issuing the certificate.
And then there’s the matter of what Hawaii has on file, since he may have been adopted once or twice and have amended and sealed records.
What a mess.
Just two blocks south of Aloha Street and the University of Washington is only about a mile north of there.
AH! A link for the video, thanks, shorter than the original iirc, but good to have.
In 1961, it wasn't the ubiquitous plan that it is now in Canada, and varied widely depending on which province you lived in. It is the provinces that historically and individually have complete control over all health issues. Furthermore, even today only about 68% of costs are picked up by the health care systems in most provinces....what it was in 1961 in British Columbia (north of Seattle), who can say.
And just as an FYI, my mother (U.S. citizen) last year had medical problems while visiting Nova Scotia and was charged exorbitant full fees (demanded in cash!) for several treatments and a hospital stay because she was a non-citizen. Free.....HA! If it's not free today, it certainly wouldn't have been free in 1961.
For you conspiracy nuts, SURE....she could have lied, she could have snuck across the border in a jeep through the woods, faked a local address, told them she lost her Health Card and all other documents, had the delivery, and then skidaddled with the kid in the middle of the night. Yeah, right.
And one more thought: in 1961 they didn't give credit cards to students or the unemployed like they do now. She would have needed lots of cash to fly, drive and pay for the delivery.
Blake recalls keeping in touch by mail. "She said she was in love with an African exchange student from Kenya, and in spring wrote to say she was marrying him, (the senior) Barack Obama. ... One day, after 'Barry' was born, she came for an afternoon, (on her way from Hawaii to join her husband at Harvard.)" Blake remembers "the infant. He was sweet and pink and very new." The two talked and cuddled the baby. "And I changed Barack Obama's diapers."
Sure she did, the lying piece of *&%$##! Barak Hussein Obama Onyango, the son of a kenyan goat-herder didn't leave Hawaii until THE 22ND OF JUNE 1962.
I didn't know Whiz Bang Comic Books contained prizes.
Back when there was the video online of Susan Blake, my first impression was that Ann, like most teens (and some dads — you know who you are), just couldn’t be bothered. Like, ewwww, a poopy diaper! So, just push it off onto Susan who grew up changing her siblings’ diapers.
Hmm, so Susan claims they hadn't married yet. What was the marriage date Butter got from the HI index? Wikipedia says Feburary 2, 1961. That's hardy springtime. You're right, none of it makes any sense.
Didn't Susan also say that Ann had visited someone else before her?
Here’s a link to the VERY confusing marriage index data:
Which has NO DATES.
“...Didn’t Susan also say that Ann had visited someone else before her?”
iirc, Susan’s story was that SAD had borrowed a car from a friend of her mothers - no names - and had driven the borrowed car to visit.
Yeah, I remember she borrowed the car but I thought somewhere there was mention of a guy she went to visit. I could very well be wrong on that account because I don’t remember seeing again.
The “no date” info for the marriage is what I recalled but hoped I had missed a post that gave the date. Very strange that the HDOH didn’t give the date or the book/volume. That’s always something we did because it’s useless without referencing where the document is filed. Makes one wonder if it was entered in a much later book than ‘61.
U Washington and U Hawaii documents here — about half-way down:
http://www.theobamafile.com/_eligibility/AbercrombieLiar.htm
Of course Ann was presumably a penniless college student, but her family was not.
If, as you speculated, she had "MONEY, and lots of it", especially in 1961, why the heck would anyone want to come to Canada? In 1961, outside of Montreal, Canada was a rural backwater. The health care was far superior in the States back then (and now). Even if she was trying to hide the fact she was unwed, and had money, why wouldn't she simply go to the next U.S. town or county?
The basic fact is that the U.S. is 10 times the size of Canada in population, hence 10 times as wealthy, 10 times the industry, 10 times the hospitals, 10 times the doctors, and [ahem] 10 times the number of unwed mother facilities, with 10 times the people and money to support them, thus 10 times the number of places to hide out, have a kid, and get better care.....if you believe this part of the histoire.
However, none of what you say makes sense to me as a Canadian. Maybe it's because you also have 10 times the number of people who have trouble thinking logically. Personally, I enjoy the intrigue of the "story" that she adopted Obama....which eliminates all the pregnancy issues, the hospital issues, her early recuperation, travel ability, the creation of a revised BC, father ignoring the kid, etc.
Of course, what do I know? After all, there are statistically 1/10th as many smart people up here, than there are down there.
{sigh}
It wouldn't surprise me if we were to learn some day that Stanley Ann was in an unwed mother's home in Canada where her baby was supposed to be put up for adoption, wouldn't surprise me at all, and then in the minutes & hours after giving birth, she decided to NOT let him go, so snatched him from the nursery and got back to the USA where she learned how to correctly diaper her infant son.
No, because summer quarter starts in late June.
That August 19th date just doesn't make any sense.
I've seen that document before, but I have doubts about its authenticity, primarily because of the 8/19 start date for classes. It makes no sense. No classes at the UW start in late August. Summer quarter begins in late June and ENDS in late August. Fall quarter begins in late September.
Someone has already posted a pdf of the 1961 course schedule and verified that that was the case back then, too.
The WND article with Staley Ann’s transcript is at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=107889, as Fred Nerks posted in linked post.
The image in that article shows a print-out of her transcipt with the following courses:
ANTH 100 INTRO STUDY MAN
08/19/61 - 12/11/61
POL S 201 MODERN GOVERNMENT
08/19/61 - 12/11/61
That’s 19 August 1961, isn’t it? What do you make of it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.