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Obama's mom: Not just a girl from Kansas
Chicago Tribune ^ | March 27, 2007 | Tim Jones

Posted on 02/28/2008 4:55:05 PM PST by george76

Chip Wall can't help but zero in on the little stuff whenever he watches Barack Obama on TV.

It's his old pal Stanley.

For Wall and a few dozen others, Obama on the campaign trail often brings to mind Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's mother and a strong-willed, unconventional member of the Mercer Island High School graduating class of 1960.

"She was not a standard-issue girl of her times...

"She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she'd read about and could argue,"

the only child was a ... daughter of a father who wanted a boy so badly that he named her Stanley -- after himself.

Stanley Ann Dunham's formative years, spent not on the Great Plains but more than 1,800 miles away on a small island in the Pacific Northwest.

Stanley Dunham died in 1992, and the Obama campaign declined to make Madelyn Dunham, 84, available.

In 1955, the chairman of the Mercer Island school board, John Stenhouse, testified before the House Un-American Activities Subcommittee that he had been a member of the Communist Party.

The marriage failed. Stanley Ann filed for divorce in 1964 and remarried two years later, when her son was 5. The senior Obama finished his work at Harvard and returned to Kenya, where he hoped to realize his big dreams of taking a place in the Kenyan government.

Years later, Abercrombie and another grad school friend looked up their old pal during a trip through Africa.

At that point, the senior Obama was a bitter man, according to the congressman, feeling that he had been denied due opportunities to influence the running of his country. "He was drinking too much; his frustration was apparent," .

To Abercrombie's surprise, Obama never asked about his ex-wife or his son.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: Hawaii; US: Kansas; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: atheist; atheistmom; barack; barackhusseinobama; barackobama; barakobama; barryobama; dunham; election; hussein; husseinobama; jeremiahwright; kookmom; liberalracism; loonymom; madelyn; madelyndunham; muslim; nigerianspy; nobama; noobama; obama; obamafamily; obamamama; stanleydunham; stealthcandidate
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To: G.Love; george76
And my point is that it should be sufficient to discuss Obama's radicalism without dragging his dead mother into it. It doesn't add anything to the case against him. Is it the position of some of the Freepers here that people will be convinced to vote against him because his mother was an atheist?

No, but it is a part of his story. Understanding his background is helpful in getting a better picture of the candidate. Barack seems to be using his mother in this latest ad to make a point about health care reform. From the Huffington Post Obama Ad That Touches On Mother's Cancer Released In More States
61 posted on 02/28/2008 6:47:28 PM PST by Girlene
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To: Jo Nuvark
Most journalists have an obvious agenda which can be identified within the headline or the first sentence.

Especially with headlines like "Obama Feeds Five Thousand" and "Barack Takes Up Water-Walking." ;)

Momma Obama was the "progressive" secularist, correct?
62 posted on 02/28/2008 6:47:43 PM PST by Das Outsider (Future tagline suggestions welcome)
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To: george76
"She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she'd read about and could argue,"

Its funny how all the Obama apologizers are now claiming that she was Agnostic, or just a "White Bread Christian."

Q: How does the son of a Muslim and an Atheist become a Christian?

A: He doesn't. He becomes a Muslim, like his Dad.

63 posted on 02/28/2008 6:49:06 PM PST by Cowboy Bob (Illegals : Why spend the money to educate them if its against the law to employ them?)
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To: smoothsailing

Thank you for helping.

Six more pages !

I will be back...


64 posted on 02/28/2008 6:51:00 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: smoothsailing
He’s also related to Dick Cheney. For God sakes people stop bashing others ethnic origins. Argue his policies there’s plenty to attack, leave his dead relatives alone. To my knowledge none of them were law breakers.
65 posted on 02/28/2008 6:52:11 PM PST by mimaw
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To: wideminded; Mr Rogers; george76; Fred Nerks; USF; Beckwith; forkinsocket

1. He looks very happy.
2. In the way she is looking at and holding him she appears very devoted.

I’m sure you can find pictures of Madelaine Murray
O’Hare smiling devotedly with her sons and grandchildren
too. A picture is an “acting” moment and cannot reveal
whether someone is either good or bad let alone what
kind of parent they are.


66 posted on 02/28/2008 6:52:36 PM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: forkinsocket
Obama’s radicalism has been discussed plenty here & will continue to be discussed. There is no reason for discussions of his family background to be off-limits.

Agreed. Clearly, there are children of radical liberals who grow up conservative, Alex P. Keaton style. We can hold Obama responsible for his radical beliefs, no matter where they came from or who inspired them.

Dragging his family into this is something even Hillary has not done (yet). Let it remain the tactic of the soulless.

67 posted on 02/28/2008 6:53:56 PM PST by hunter112 (The 'straight talk express' gets the straight finger express from me.)
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To: Cowboy Bob

BS


68 posted on 02/28/2008 6:58:56 PM PST by mimaw
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To: G.Love

I don’t see the discussion here as posters “dragging his dead mother into it” for the purpose of using her to convince others not to vote for Obama.
I haven’t seen anyone post that and I cannot see people making a presidential choice on that basis.

Like it or not, Obama is certainly the the product of his environment to one degree or another.
His parents were far from being average americans and as a consequence he had a childhood that was outside the norm, even for a child of mixed race parentage. To understand the mother, the father, the grandparents that raised him is to better understand the man.


69 posted on 02/28/2008 6:59:01 PM PST by Iron Munro (Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.)
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To: hunter112

Of course Obama is responsible for his own radicalism, but I don’t see what is so off-putting to some about discussing his family’s radical background as well. If I were running for President, I would expect the media & the public to want to learn more about my family & heritage, at least to get to know where I’m coming from.


70 posted on 02/28/2008 6:59:02 PM PST by forkinsocket
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To: Mr Rogers
If she was such a good mother, why did her PARENTS raise Obama from ages 10-18?

As interesting as that all is, how is it his fault, or his problem, and how is it relevant?

She was an anti-American hippie who wanted dark-skinned men (but didn’t stay married to them) and left her parents to raise her son.

Again, how is that relevant, since I presume he had no choice in the matter. Specifically, what difference does the color of the men she liked have on anything. Seriously. What difference at all?

No use attacking Obama for that - not in this PC age - but it certainly had an impact on him.

So it is legitimate (but not PC) to attack a man based on the color of the men his mother liked and on who raised him as a child? Interesting.

And just how often has he thanked his white grandparents for raising him as a teen?

I don't know, but since you seem to know that he did not, what are your sources?

If you really think that these are the issues that will put a conservative in the White House come the next election, I think you have another think coming.

71 posted on 02/28/2008 6:59:17 PM PST by mountainbunny
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To: Cowboy Bob; wideminded; Mr Rogers; george76; Fred Nerks; USF; Beckwith; forkinsocket; ...

One knows a tree by its fruit. To find if Obama
is a Christian requires an inspection of what he
does (fruit). We are what we do, not what we say.

Now DO, if you continue to neglect flagging your
sarc comments, I’ll have to sick the snark dogs on
you. Secular Progressive indeed. LOL!


72 posted on 02/28/2008 7:02:53 PM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: G.Love
Is it the position of some of the Freepers here that people will be convinced to vote against him because his mother was an atheist?

I can't speak for anyone but myself when I say that the theological and philosophical positions of our parents don't necessarily determine who we are. If such were the case, I'd be an atheist/agnostic, or at best, a very left-leaning Episcopalian or Unitarian Universalist.

Obama is a Marxist radical with a lot of funding--and from questionable sources--and no real managerial experience to speak of. Isn't that enough?
73 posted on 02/28/2008 7:03:03 PM PST by Das Outsider (Future tagline suggestions welcome)
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To: CarrotAndStick
and the one the media doesn't want you to see.


74 posted on 02/28/2008 7:03:31 PM PST by CJ Wolf (The Ron Paul - Let Freedom Ping list - freepmail me to be on it.)
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To: Jo Nuvark
Now DO, if you continue to neglect flagging your sarc comments, I’ll have to sick the snark dogs on you. Secular Progressive indeed. LOL!

Obviously you understand that Obama is a lowercase god for the godless, Jo-- even if so-called churchmen endorse him.
75 posted on 02/28/2008 7:06:25 PM PST by Das Outsider (Future tagline suggestions welcome)
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To: Jo Nuvark

I have a son who is only slightly older than Obama in that picture. He is also a very happy child and it is obvious that a primary source of his happiness is the good relationship he has with his mother.


76 posted on 02/28/2008 7:07:31 PM PST by wideminded
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To: smoothsailing; forkinsocket; Jo Nuvark; Beckwith; Fred Nerks; Girlene; USF; girlangler; LucyT; ...

Oops...

A jon cary seared in my mind moment ?


” Obama has told the story—one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness—time and again, in remarkable detail.

He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an “ambush attack.”

The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled.

“I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,” Obama wrote of the magazine photos in “Dreams.”

Yet no such Life issue exists, according to historians at the magazine. No such photos, no such article. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, “It might have been an Ebony or it might have been ... who knows what it was?” (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.)

In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin. “


77 posted on 02/28/2008 7:10:01 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Das Outsider

[... Obviously you understand that Obama is a lowercase god for the godless...]

I find this to be true as well as weird. It is my
opinion that Obama is popular because he is
physically appealing. Period! That’s all he’s
got and that’s enough for the vapid masses to
qualify him to be POTUS. Go figure.

The Emperor truly has no clothes.


78 posted on 02/28/2008 7:12:45 PM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: forkinsocket
I don’t see what is so off-putting to some about discussing his family’s radical background as well.

I don't either.

Is Obama to be declared untouchable or granted immunity from the same treatment as others because he is half black?
Or perhaps because his father's family is muslim?

Digging into a candidate's ancestry, their upbringing and the forces that shaped them is standard fare for presidential candidates.

There certainly was wide open discussion about Bill Clinton's parents and his upbringing.

As first lady Hillary's history was discussed in detail and there have been plenty of second looks since she embarked on the present campaign.

George Bush's parents, upbringing and early adulthood have been beaten to death by the media and his detractors.

I don't believe there should be a different standard for Obama or any one else.

79 posted on 02/28/2008 7:14:40 PM PST by Iron Munro (Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.)
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To: wideminded

Perhaps Obama is happy in those pictures because
of the relationship he has with his Mother. Or
perhaps Obama is just a happy child. Pictures are
posed and one dimensional. Yet I hope she was
a good Mother.


80 posted on 02/28/2008 7:16:27 PM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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