Obama Overstates Kennedys' Role in Helping His Father

WAPO ^ | 3/30/08 | Michael Dobbs

[DogBarkTree]

Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.

The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."

It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.

[DogBarkTree]

Who cares if it's true or not? O makes me feel faint and wet as October.

[metesky]

Yeah, I get a little damp myself.

[gusopol3]

After bloggers pointed out that the Selma bridge protest occurred four years after Obama's birth, a spokesman explained that the senator was referring to the civil rights movement in general, rather than any one event.

when Romney said his father "marched with MLK in Detroit," they wouldn't let it go for days with this kind of answer.

[maine-iac7]

There's also his clintonian “misspoke” about his father and mother re the Civil Rights marches -

I hope they remind people of this too - and make HIM answer = not his people...

Let's remind people that both candidates are systemic liars - “Typical Politician Lawyers”

[norwaypinesavage]

I see the WAPO is very liberal with its use of the word “divorce”. Most accounts of Obama Sr. indicate that he married his additional wives without being subjected to the agony of divorce.

[not2worry]

Ochieng remembered Obama Sr. as “charming, generous and extraordinarily clever,” but also “imperious, cruel and given to boasting about his brain and his wealth.” Obama Jr. paints a similar portrait in his best-selling 1995 autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” describing his father as exceptionally gifted but also “wild,” “boastful” and “stubborn.”
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Evidently the nut doesn't fall far from the tree

[The Forgotten Man]

Obama said that "folks in the White House" around President Kennedy

Would these be typical "white" folks?

He returned to Kenya and became a close aide to Mboya, a fellow Luo tribesman, at the Ministry of Economic Development. According to his old "drinking buddy" Ochieng, he antagonized other officials with his "boasting," was "excessively fond of Scotch" and ended up in poverty "without a job." He got into frequent car accidents, one of which led to the amputation of both his legs. He was killed in another car accident, in 1982, at the age of 46.

Sounds like after his acquisition of a valued education, he did nothing of importance or relevance to be worthy of praise. The dreams of his father were just that, a dream with no connection to the reality of the present....

[steve8714]

This is Obama’s Hillary moment.

[The Forgotten Man]

Most accounts of Obama Sr. indicate that he married his additional wives without being subjected to the agony of divorce.

In the muslim religion, one does not need to apply to the courts to seek a divorce. One only, in the company of other men, must says three times, "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you. There, he casts aside the current wife allowing him to "whore" around as stated by the Reverend Dr. David Manning of a Harlem black church....

By the way, did I mention his father was a Muslim?

[buffyt]

It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.

Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father's arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy involvement in the Kenya student program apparently "started 48 years ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past."

BUT HILLARY REALLY WAS NAMED AFTER SIR EDMOND HILLARY AND SHE WAS REALLY SHOT AT IN BOSNIA, RIGHT? wink wink nudge hudge AND SHE WAS CO PRESIDENT FOR 8 YEARS, TOO, RIGHT? That one is actually pretty funny since HE was impeached, then was she Co IMpeached?

[OldSmaj]

After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his (Obama) candidacy...Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."

If this is a direct quote from the Kennedy broad, then it is puerile pap.

If not, and the words spring from Alter, then it is wistful bull excrement from a so-called "journalist" with a Camelot agenda.

Bunch of damn fools, regardless.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

To be ignored the the drive-bys...

[mtbopfuyn]

IIRC that was the day his dad was coaching Hillary's soccer game.

[norwaypinesavage]

"did I mention his father was a Muslim?"

Then, wouldn't that make him a Muslim, in the eyes of 1.3 billion other Muslims?

[kenmcg]

Two bits says that if the truth were none his old man was an illegal. The more things change the more they stay the same.