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Angry Obama the pothead is not how they remember him on Hawaii
Daily Telegraph ^ | March 25, 2007 | Hans Nichols in Honolulu, Sunday Telegraph

Posted on 03/25/2007 12:18:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

.....Sen Obama's self-portrait of an angry young black man who became a "pothead" is scarcely recognisable to those who knew him during his formative years in Hawaii.

Now some are asking whether the first serious black contender for the White House may also be the first major candidate to exaggerate his drug use for political effect.

....The Illinois senator's depiction of his Hawaiian upbringing as a time of intense inner struggle, full of racial angst, is also a surprise to those who shared his time in the archipelago where the "Aloha Spirit" of racial harmony defines America's 50th state.

The verdant islands, with their golden beaches 5,000 miles from the American capital, are the home to a Pacific melting pot, where Polynesians, Japanese and Chinese have harvested sugar cane for generations and whites from the mainland, known as haoles, have long been a minority.

A keen basketball player, Sen Obama highlights in his book the feelings of alienation caused by "always playing on the white man's court - by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't."

But that's not the Barack Obama, nor the Hawaii of the 1970s, recalled by his friends, teachers and team-mates. They remember instead the summer of 1978 when "easy-going Barry" was in constant search of a basketball game, strutting around the island as if he owned it, dribbling a ball from school to the golden sands of Waikiki beach as he belted out Earth, Wind and Fire songs in a distinctive, gravelly voice..............

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: campaign; obama
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1 posted on 03/25/2007 12:18:50 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I can only hope the rest of America asks the question I ask of libs who solicit my opinion on Obama--"Why am I supposed to think this guy is capable of being president?"


2 posted on 03/25/2007 12:25:13 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Anti-socialist Bostonian, Anti-Illegal Immigration Bush supporter, Pro-Life Atheist)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
may also be the first major candidate to exaggerate his drug use for political effect.

That's a strategy that may well work with the shameless Democrats.

3 posted on 03/25/2007 12:27:33 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Darkwolf377
"Why am I supposed to think this guy is capable of being president?"

Well don't you just.... feel.... that Obama would be a good President?

4 posted on 03/25/2007 12:29:19 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"always playing on the white man's court - by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't."

Hawaii wasn't exactly a hot bed of racism back then. This fool makes it sound like he grew up in Mississippi or something.

L

5 posted on 03/25/2007 12:31:31 AM PDT by Lurker (Calling islam a religion is like calling a car a submarine.)
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To: Lancey Howard

Ah, you're right--I'm not supposed to THINK about it, just FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL it!


6 posted on 03/25/2007 12:31:57 AM PDT by Darkwolf377 (Anti-socialist Bostonian, Anti-Illegal Immigration Bush supporter, Pro-Life Atheist)
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To: Lurker
Hawaii wasn't exactly a hot bed of racism back then. This fool makes it sound like he grew up in Mississippi or something.

The article goes on to make just that point.

7 posted on 03/25/2007 12:33:52 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Lancey Howard

Sad that he thinks drug use helps him connect.


8 posted on 03/25/2007 12:34:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Sen Obama highlights in his book the feelings of alienation caused by "always playing on the white man's court - by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't."



A pasty white man was the "first black president" and now the first black man with a chance to become president has to try to prove he's black. That's what they call irony.


9 posted on 03/25/2007 12:35:44 AM PDT by Sapper26 (All men should marry, you can't blame everything on the government - Jed Clampett.)
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To: Darkwolf377

I guess if you act like you can, others think you can.


10 posted on 03/25/2007 12:35:56 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Sapper26

From the article:

"Kelli Furushima, 46, a close friend of Mr Obama, recalls: "We're just such a mixed-up bag of races, it was hard to imagine that he felt that way because he just seemed happy all the time. Smiling all the time." Flicking through an old school yearbook, full of pictures of a grinning Obama, she added: "You see he talks in his book about race and stuff, and we all have the same reaction: we're all so surprised that he had any sort of anguish at all. You can see we had so many tones of brown. If someone is brown, they can be Samoan or Fijian or Tongan. I can't tell if someone is Fijian, or black." She paused to point out how Sen Obama had dotted his signature with a little Afro-haircut symbol atop the "B" and the "O"."


11 posted on 03/25/2007 12:37:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

12 posted on 03/25/2007 12:38:39 AM PDT by Dallas59 (AL GORE STALKED ME ON 2/25/2007!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I grew up on Oahu. What a pile of crap he's spouting. Everyone is a minority in Hawaii, even whites.

A keen basketball player, Sen Obama highlights in his book the feelings of alienation caused by "always playing on the white man's court - by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't."


13 posted on 03/25/2007 12:44:34 AM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
'the "Aloha Spirit" of racial harmony defines America's 50th state'

Oh please. As a soldier once stationed there(I know, tough job). I got in many a fight because of such 'harmony'.
14 posted on 03/25/2007 12:45:19 AM PDT by Dacb (De Opresso Liber)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"He came up to me and said: 'You know, coach, I was never as good as I thought I was'," said Mr McLachin. "And I said: 'No, Barry, you weren't'."
SLAM!
15 posted on 03/25/2007 12:46:43 AM PDT by philman_36
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To: philman_36

I liked that.

You'd almost think Hillay's team is behind this article.


16 posted on 03/25/2007 12:50:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Clicky
17 posted on 03/25/2007 12:59:45 AM PDT by Huntress (I believe in government by grumpy old guys.)
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To: Lurker
Hawaii wasn't exactly a hot bed of racism back then

It never was. If anything, Hawaii is the least racist place in the whole country.

Obama is insulting his "home" state by suggesting that people there treated him badly because of his race. The Aloha spirit pervades the islands, and Blacks are welcomed with open arms, just like everyone else.

Hawaii is the best place to race a bi-racial child. If you're not of mixed heritage in Hawaii, you are in the minority. If Obama thinks people in Hawaii were mistreating him because of the color of his skin, he is delusional.

18 posted on 03/25/2007 1:02:22 AM PDT by wai-ming
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

"Hippies of the World, Unite!"


19 posted on 03/25/2007 1:04:22 AM PDT by endthematrix (Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.)
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To: Lurker
Hawaii wasn't exactly a hot bed of racism back then. This fool makes it sound like he grew up in Mississippi or something.

There was a lot of anti-Irish prejudice. Young Bearach O'Bama experienced that.

20 posted on 03/25/2007 1:05:17 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("Red Meat. We were meant to eat it" - Sam Neill for Meat and Livestock Australia)
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