Posted on 08/08/2012 6:57:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
My fellow Columbian Wayne Allyn Root may well be correct when he suggests that President Obama transferred to Columbia in fall '81 as a foreign exchange student, and I support his challenge to the president to prove otherwise. At the same time, I'd like to provide some context that may explain how Barack Obama could spend two years at Columbia without Mr. Root or a random selection of 400 classmates remembering anything about him.
The first thing to note is that Columbia was a male-only school in those days (the first co-ed class was the class of '87). This means that it was a far less social place than most colleges. Mr. Root was no doubt more outgoing than I was, but in my experience, the time period when it was easiest to meet friends at Columbia was during freshman orientation and during the first semester of freshman year living in a dorm. As someone who transferred to Columbia as a junior, Barack Obama would have missed out on those opportunities. This is in addition to the obvious point that there wasn't much reason for anyone to spend a lot of time hanging out on campus with all of Manhattan a mere subway ride away.
Classes at Columbia typically had 40-100 students in those days, with a few classes having as many as 150-200 students. In my experience, the norm was for students to come to class, sit down, listen to the lecture, take notes, and leave. I only recall one instance of a student asking a question in class in all of my time there.
Consequently, I didn't get to know many English majors just because they were English majors. The only exceptions to this pattern were the required core courses in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization,
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
So you say three people remember him. Did he merely audit classes? If he did attend as a full-time matriculated student as you imply, the questions still stand: 1. How did a below average 'stoner' at Occidental gain admission to an elite Ivy League university?????
2. Perhaps you know the answer to this but what exactly PROMPTED this moron to suddenly, two years in, apply to a school on the east coast, a place he had never actually lived,...and it HAD to be Columbia, not Yale etc.?????? Did some friend suggest it to him? A kid with NO money to speak of, who used his dough to get high, suddenly decides.....Yeh, Columbia, that's the ticket!
Whoever sold him illegal drugs might remember him.
or bought drugs from him
Wrong. That was 5 years ago. Axelrod has cleaned up every record that could ever be found to hurt this prick. My gut instinct says that Axelrod would NEVER take the chance that even a single transcript or application will ever be found. He’s had a good 5 years to accomplish it. No reason to think they still exist. The bigger scandal now would be WHY DON’T THEY EXIST?????????
I've always said MBA means "Master Bullsh*t Artist".
Wayne Allan Root was probably not in the Choom Gang or he would have remembered Barry real well.
Relatively easy to accomplish, in comparison to their successful concealment of FDR's paralysis resulting from polio.
Neither do I.
However, there was a similar thread yesterday with dozens of FReepers parroting the line that none of his classmates or professors remembered him. This thread is also full of comments about how nobody remembered him - far more comments about that than comments on his foreign student status. In fact, the author of the article makes the mistake of stating that nobody remembers Obama, when that's simply not true.
As conservatives, our currency in the marketplace of ideas should be facts. When we say that nobody remembers Obama from Columbia we're not dealing in facts.
Your other questions - such as how did Obama get to Columbia - are excellent questions.
One thing that is so out of character, is that Obama allegedly became editor of the Harvard Law Review, during his time at Law School. I hear that this is a coveted position, as it probably looks good on a resume, and places one in a very political "power" position. Surely, not a position given up easily, and yet he had it.
It would seem that an undergrad slacker must've had some kind of academic epiphany before they were admitted and entered such a prestigious law school. And from his perch on the editorial board, there were still no publications with his name? No articles attributed to him?
I have believed that to be a strong possibility.
1. Who were his girl friends back then?
2. Who paid for Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard?
3. The media dug up anything and everything on Palin, McCain and now Romney. When they could not find something bad they invented it. If the media did its job, Obama could not be elected as dog catcher. Speaking of dogs, see below.
Note: Obama made a reference to eating dog meat as a child in Indonesia.
Conversation between Daryl Issa and Eric Holder:
Issa, “Where are the documents we asked for and subpoenaed?
Holder, “My dog ate them.”
Issa, “Where is the dog?”
Holder, “The President ate him.”
If he was such a loner, it was his choice and his lifestyle (gay and drugs) had to have contributed to it. Every once in a while, people from high school and college run into me and I certainly don’t have my face on tv 24/7.
Obama hasn't has to spend a cent to cover up his transcripts since it is against the law for the colleges he attended to release them without his approval. There are people who attended with him and even some of his professors who have come forward. So the 4 million figure is made up.
Wayne Allyn Root stated on Hannity that there were around 200 students with the exact same major at Columbia as Obama and Root. My question is: How many of those students were black? I’m only interested in this because I’m assuming that there were very few and that group would be especially noticed at that time in history. Also, that group would be especially popular given the atmosphere in a college setting.
Also, I wonder if any professors remember Obama.
I agree. Like I said, you could find people who remember me in the small circle of people in the Army ROTC with me. Obama's circle likely is a group he doesn't want advertised, and those people are glad to stay mum.
But it is not at all unusual that most people in his class have no memory of him.
My point is: I don't care if 10,000 students remember him. It's meaningless to me. I want to know if he applied as a FOREIGN student and accepted money in the form of foreign student aid. Clear and simple. If he did and actually WAS an American citizen, then he committed fraud. If he wasn't an American citizen, then he shouldn't be President now. Either way he's (Sandra) Fluked!
Obama didn't write an article for the Harvard Law Review - the only editor/president (the title has changed over time) not to do so.
However, Obama did write a case note at 103 Harv. L. Rev. 823 (1990).
There's a huge difference between an article and a case note. An article represents independent thought on a topic and discusses how the law should be changed, or may apply given social or technological changes, and cites a large number of cases on point or for analogy. A case note is simply a notice of an important decision by a court and an explanation of the decision.
Obama wrote about an Illinois court holding that unborn children have no legal right to sue their mothers for damage sustained during pregnancy, from such things as alcohol or illegal drugs.
In my Ivy experience, there was a good deal of interaction as well—though less in the large introductory classes and more in the smaller upper level classes.
As my experience was late 80’s and early 90’s — I think that it unlikely that things had become better over the time period involved. Maybe things were different at Columbia, but I find it extremely odd.
That's our conservative urban legend, and it's not true.
Every time we say that, we're reinforcing the media and leftist claim that conservatives don't care about the facts . . . they're just after Obama.
Cashill covers this in depth. Harvard Law Review changed it's policy on Editor just as Obama matriculated. It had previously been a position awarded on merit (grades, acumen, written papers etc.) and was highly prized. However, it was decided (strangely enough coinciding with Zero's appearance) that it would NOW be based on race and popularity. I know, you don't believe it. Check Cashill for the facts. He was actually VOTED in. Beyond belief, but had it been on merit he never would have gotten it. Cashill also explains what was going on in terms of Harvard's law professors at that time which facilitated his ascension.
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