Posted on 07/11/2012 6:38:32 AM PDT by Smokeyblue
In his book, Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss is remarkably detailed about things that have nothing to do with The Story (Betty Davis' opinion of a film, how a letter was handled in Kenya, what President Johnson said to Bill Moyers) but is inexplicably incurious about many things that are very important to The Story.
Maraniss, in an interview on the June 18 Today Show, stated that Barack Obama's book, Dreams from My Father, was "literature," adding, "There's a big difference between memoir and biography." So big a difference that Ben Smith of Buzzfeed counted "38 instances in which the biographer [Maraniss] convincingly disputes significant elements of Obama's own story of his life and his family history."
Yet Maraniss continues to rely on Dreams for much of his narrative. A case in point is the story of how Obama Sr. (going forward, "Obama") and Ann Dunham met in a Russian class. Maraniss goes into elaborate detail as to why Obama would take a Russian class while ignoring the very real possibility that the whole story is hogwash.
Maraniss makes note of "Author Sally Jacobs" and "her vibrant study of Obama, The Other Barack." On page 112 of her book, there is a footnote: "Barack Obama's transcript from the University of Hawaii, Syracuse University, Frank C. Laubach Collection." These transcripts would show if Obama ever enrolled in a Russian class. However, the reading room supervisor of the Laubach Collection, Nicole Dittrich, has advised me that "Obama Sr.'s Hawaii transcript is currently missing from our collection." Maraniss makes no mention of the missing transcripts. He also makes no mention of Janny Scott's assertion in A Singular Woman that a friend "said he remembered Ann saying she had met Obama in the University Library."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
What’s with the two fingers in the last picture? Not a peace sign in 1959/60 and this was two decades after WWII.
True. The only thing I remember doing with two fingers like that in those years (of course I was a child) is holding them up behind an unwitting person’s head as a joke...
You can’t date ANYTHING by that dock image, the central character’s FACE appears to be taken from the AIRPORT image from his visit to Hawaii in 1970/71.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2905229/posts?page=17#17
you got a 1971 face on a 1960’s image?
Sally Jacobs's The Other Barack has the story about the Russian class as well. If you took one semester or one year of Russian, you wouldn't be fluent enough to put it on your resume either, so I wouldn't discount the story out of hand because Barack Sr didn't claim fluency or proficiency in the language.
What's interesting is that Barack Sr. was hanging out with people who later became high-flyers in the US government -- Robert Ruenitz at the Foreign Service, Arnold Nachmanoff at State and Treasury, both CFR members.
Interesting points. Is there a color scan available? Would be interesting to see if different color inks were used.
I finally saw the Joel Gilbert film earlier this week, BTW. Gilbert's theory on the dock picture is that is from the 1959 arrival of Obama Sr. Stanley Armour Dunham's presence is explained by assuming he had already begun "commuting" from the Seattle area to Hawaii at this time to start keeping an eye on the foreign students for the CIA.
The face of the Kenyan Obama in the dock photo is shopped from one of the airport photos. The dock photo is so messed with that it is impossible to know what and who it all was originally. Whoever is wearing the Kenyan’s face appears to be a lot taller than the Kenyan.
I've seen this assertion, but it isn't convincing. There isn't anything to back it up. They do look somewhat similar, since it's the same guy with the same face shot from approximately the same angle. But there are also subtle differences.
Whoever is wearing the Kenyan’s face appears to be a lot taller than the Kenyan.
Well, from what little we know, Barack Sr (5'9") should be about three inches shorter than Stanley Armour Dunham (6'0" ? Is there a cite for this? Do we know he wasn't closer to 5'10" or 5'11"?). Sr appears at first glance to only be about an inch shorter, but he is standing closer to the camera than Dunham. We also can't see their footwear, which could easily account for an inch difference or even more.
I'm not sure what you think the purpose of such a manipulation would be, anyway. As it is, the photo completely undermines the DREAMS myth of Ann's parents disapproving of Barack Sr. Yet here is Gramps yukking it up with Barack Sr with Ann nowhere in sight.
Phil is the one who figured it was the same face. Looks exactly and precisely the same to me. That photo has been taken apart on other threads and is a crappy patched together photoshop job. No telling who or what or where or when it was taken. It’s a stew.
Smile is wider on the dock photo.
That photo has been taken apart on other threads
Not convincingly. I've read most or all of those threads.
If you’ve read the threads wherein that photo was taken apart and you still don’t see it’s a stew, the only thing I can say is “None so blind as he who does not want to see”.
A child could understand the photo is a shop job, and not a very good one at that.
Feel free to respond to the actual points on this very thread debunking your childish claims....
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