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Obama's Columbia Years (Could you spend 2 years at Columbia without classmates remembering you?)
American Thinker ^ | 08/08/2012 | Michael Iachetta

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: columbia; obama
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To: Doc Savage

Yes.

I attended a top private university with less than 2000 in each undergrad class. If I became President (or a infamous serial killer), I’d guess 10-20% would say they knew me then, and another 20% would say they remember me.


61 posted on 08/08/2012 9:24:49 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Hold My Beer and Watch This!)
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To: chessplayer
What the hell is he so desperate to hide that he would fork over 4 million to keep it hidden?

And not even his OWN $4 million.
62 posted on 08/08/2012 9:26:00 AM PDT by crosshairs (America: Once the land of the free. Still the home of the brave.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The strange thing about encountering and remembering people from your past, is what you remember . . .
(I played ELEMENTARY school baseball with the writer, his dad was our coach. I remember their “rock-n-roll” band too, with Peter and Brian in High School.!)
When I transferred to Columbia, Physics was in the classic Pupin Lecture Hall (”The Paper Chase”) with more than 200 in attendance. But other classes where in Lewisohn, Havemeyer or the Math building with only 20 students.

The oddest part about Obama is the real lack of people who come forward and say “I knew him when . . .”, or “He is a real honorable man since . . .”. So few come forward and talk about this now famous person they once knew.

It’s weird too, because the main subway stop for the 1 and 9, at college walk, is 116th street.

Oh yeah, 110th street is definitely the dividing line between heaven and hell. Famous song Bobby Womack “Across 110t Street”


63 posted on 08/08/2012 9:27:07 AM PDT by Macoozie (1) Win the Senate 2) Repeal Obamacare 3) Impeach Roberts)
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To: Hieronymus
I agree - the big freshman lecture courses you tended to know only the folks that regularly sat in your corner of the hall. But the precepts (10-15 people) for the lecture courses you knew everyone, and once you got into your major courses (which for me was sophomore year) then you knew everyone. I can't call everybody's name to mind, but if somebody got famous the name would ring a bell and I would look him or her up in the yearbook.

This was the early 70s.

64 posted on 08/08/2012 9:36:00 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

Eating club?


65 posted on 08/08/2012 9:36:40 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Molon Labe)
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To: Osage Orange

Equivalent of a fraternity. Greeks were persona non grata at my college.


66 posted on 08/08/2012 9:39:01 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse, TTGS Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: SeekAndFind
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.

Unless you're a political activist which 0bummer has said he was.

67 posted on 08/08/2012 9:40:10 AM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: Doc Savage; FrankR
He had to submit transcripts to Harvard.

Schools and colleges may admit whomsoever they please. They may waive whatever requirement they please.

Bets:
(1) He was never matriculated at COLUMBIA COLLEGE, rather he was registered in the school of General Studies. (General Studies students are given degrees by Columbia College)
(2) He was not at Columbia long enough to complete enough course work to get a degree. Off in Pakistan or god-knows-where, most of the time he was supposed to be at school.
(3) He was given credit for life experience in lieu of coursework and pushed through to his degree (without any particular merit or distinction.)
(4) Obama never took the LSAT
(5) He was admitted to Harvard Law on the recommendation of Percy Sutton and Harvard's Affirmative Action Director, a very good "friend" of Sutton's. All requirements waived, as is their right.

Never a good student, Obama exhibits great factual ignorance. His mentors saw that he could be presented well (not an orator, just without any obnoxious accent, was physically impressive, and was of just the right color.) He was the manageable, teleprompter-reader man for their agenda. The "Fix" has been in for this fellow for a very long time.

68 posted on 08/08/2012 9:43:34 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Do not listen to Conservative Talk Radio ... until they talk to Sheriff Joe.)
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To: PhatHead; SeekAndFind
you’d be very hard-pressed to find anybody that remembers me.

I've made this comment on a few other threads, so stop me if you've heard it already.... :-)

Your circle at college might have been small. BUT - how many people in ROTC would "remember" you "really well" if you went on to become the next Chairman of the JCS? (or some other position of prestige....)

In '08, BO was the messiah, the second coming of The Beatles, and Michael Jordan after winning his 6th Championship .... all rolled up into one. Liberal Profs should have been elbowing each other out of the way to get on his coattails and in front of a camera. "I could tell from the first day Barack Obama sat down in my classroom that he was something special" And so forth.

Instead? Nada. Makes me wonder why that particular dog didn't bark.

69 posted on 08/08/2012 9:47:27 AM PDT by wbill
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To: SeekAndFind
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).

Funny, though, how Columbia University had two undergrad colleges, Columbia College for men and Barnard College for women and Barnard College is still for women.

I wonder, though, if Barry could have gone to The School for General Studies of Columbia University, "created specifically" for "returning and nontraditional students." Is he covering this up because, in his mind, just the name would make it sound like he got a university level GED (though it's supposed to be a very excellent undergrad college) and because on subsequent applications and curriculum vitae he didn't list this school but, instead, Columbia College?
70 posted on 08/08/2012 10:06:46 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

Don’t forget, in the publication that Breitbart released, not only did Obama write that he was born in Kenya - but that he “attended” Columbia University. Big difference between that and graduating.


71 posted on 08/08/2012 10:40:43 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Kenny Bunk
He was the manageable, teleprompter-reader man for their agenda. The "Fix" has been in for this fellow for a very long time.

Ah...

As I am reading these posts, it kept occurring to me, "if Presidents aren't born, when are they made?" Or put another way, who picked this non-distinguished person with just the right attributes, and decided to fund and groom them into Presidential material? Obviously, they had to fabricate some story about his upbringing and pedigree, but I think we all agree, there are more that enough holes in his story to sink a large battleship.

72 posted on 08/08/2012 11:05:59 AM PDT by Lou L (Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")
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To: Kenny Bunk
Who knows, and we'll probably never know. Cashill mentions Percy Sutton and I suspect you are correct on that. I guess the real question I have about all of this is WHY?

1. Why choose Columbia? Who prompted him? A known 'stoner'. A poor student in both Hawaii and Occidental (according to what we have been able to piece together) suddenly decides to move 3,000 miles to a school he's never seen, in a city he may never have actually visited,...why?

Sure, any college or university can admit anyone they want IF they are willing to forgo standards for race or politics. I'm not disputing that. But WHY this particular little nobody? Who made the call to Columbia saying let this doper in? Who was propelling him forward,...and why him?

It just seems impossible that up until this twerps arrival at Harvard the Editor of the Law Review is chosen on merit. But as soon as doofus arrives it's made into a popularity contest. Why? First Black (mulatto!!) Editor. It wouldn't have taken a genius professor to size this mental midget up immediately and yet they still elevate him. Very typical of the liberal agenda and playbook.

Hard to believe that Obama criminally exposed Ryan's divorce papers to force him out of the race (and payed NO penalty even though everyone knows he was behind it),...and here he is doing everything in his power to block the public from seeing his college transcripts and applications. Simply amazing how the Lamestream Media lapdogs have licked this guy's ass for 5 years and yet they will hound Romney to death about releasing his taxes.

Is there NO shame?

73 posted on 08/08/2012 11:17:58 AM PDT by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: tired&retired
What are the odds that O’Bummer was a CIA operative and his visits to Pakistan were part of his work?

At one time in my life, I'd say you needed a tin foil hat. But after the Valarie Plame-Joe Wilson fiasco and the recent crap which has come out ob the late Senator Robert Byrd and the rivalries between the CIA and FBI, I'd concede anything is possible. Even that large portions of the CIA have been infiltrated by the enemy.

74 posted on 08/08/2012 12:14:46 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Doc Savage
the real question I have about all of this is WHY?

Doc, Obama was mentored at Occidental by a gay activist commie, Professor Laurence Goldyn. Goldyn was a very good friend of Bill Ayers. It is my theory that Goldyn passed Obama onto Ayers, who was active in NYC at that time and had very close family ties to Columbia Faculty. Obama seems to have lived very near Ayers in those days.

Who made the call to Columbia saying let this doper in? Who was propelling him forward,...and why him?

Columbia School of General Studies had two entrance requirements: a pulse, and a check. It was pretty much a walk-in service school operation. For instance, I took Organic Chemistry there one summer to get it out of the way and because I was frightened of the Chem Faculty at my college! Aced it! And boy was it expensive (late 50's).

However, many used General Studies it to get a degree from Columbia, too, which was possible. The degree was strangely enough, issued by the College, even though General Studies students were definitely not part of that prestigious operation.

In re Harvard LAw: Obama was NOT THE EDITOR of the HLR. He was the President, an administrative job, which he screwed up royally, having to be covered by others. The guy can neither write nor edit anything unto this day. He is actually bit of an ignoramus.

75 posted on 08/08/2012 2:05:44 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Do not listen to Conservative Talk Radio ... until they talk to Sheriff Joe.)
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To: Scoutmaster

I looked up that case note and I can’t find anything that authenticates it as his own work. The only claim I found is that, in 2008, some Politico writers claim to have received a letter from Harvard Law Review stating that it was his work. The letter further stated that it was policy to maintain internal records of authorship of the unsigned items published. Does anyone know if there was any other proof or if that Harvard Law Review letter was ever published?

I can see where Harvard would have a vested interest in covering up the embarrassment of being so far in the tank over white guilt and multiculturalism that they would be willing to falsify his authorship. Otherwise, his appointment as President of the Harvard Law Review is not supported by a shred of scholarship or any other measurable means of indicating why 0 got that ultimate plum appointment. In other words, a sham through and through. Kind of like everything else about this jerk in the WH.


76 posted on 08/08/2012 2:10:59 PM PDT by JewishRighter (Anybody but Hussein)
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To: txrefugee

He is not factoring in the issue that this man and Hussain have the same major in the same year. Those are small upper class seminars and classes. No way they wouldnt meet.


77 posted on 08/08/2012 5:27:20 PM PDT by Chickensoup (STOP The Great O-ppression)
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To: Kenny Bunk

Thanks, I appreciate the information, especially the Occidental relationship. I am sure you’re right. I just wonder why Cashill didn’t include this information in his book, ‘Deconstructing Obama’. He is usually extremely thorough.


78 posted on 08/08/2012 6:09:41 PM PDT by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: Kenny Bunk
You are correct on the title of President, not Editor. Here is a note from Cashill which mentions it:

As Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and her Harvard partners in crime are learning, academic fraud is not as easy to get away with as it used to be in the good old days before the emergence of a vigilant alternative media. Writing for Breitbart, Michael Patrick Leahy revealed on Friday a spring 1993 article that listed Warren as one of approximately 250 “women of color” in legal academia. The article was published in what was then called the Harvard Women’s Law Journal and would have been released roughly when Warren was being considered for tenure. At the time, Harvard Law was desperately seeking just such women. Just three years earlier, the Law School found itself embroiled in a nasty racial brouhaha. Black firebrand law professor Derrick Bell was demanding that Harvard appoint a woman of color to the law faculty. This protest would culminate in vigils and protests by the racially sensitive student body, in the course of which Bell supporter, Barack Obama, would compare the increasingly absurd Bell to Rosa Parks. Feeling the pressure, Harvard Law Review editors wanted to elect their first African American president. “Obama cast himself as an eager listener,” the New York Times reported in the article that would catch the eye of literary agent, Jane Dystel, “sometimes giving warring classmates the impression that he agreed with all of them at once.” In effect, the pressure Bell had brought to bear launched Obama’s political career, and it may have given Warren the idea to reinvent herself as Pocahontas. One could almost forgive Warren for cheating a little. At the time, the Law School faculty was flush with cheats, including Obama’s two most prominent mentors. One of them, liberal icon Laurence Tribe, hired Obama as his research assistant in 1989 and took a powerful liking to the young man. After the 2008 election, Tribe would gush, “His stunning combination of analytical brilliance and personal charisma, openness and maturity, vision and pragmatism, was unmistakable from my very first encounter.” Obama found a second prominent mentor in professor Charles Ogletree. In the run up to the 2008 election, Ogletree would enthuse, "I'm so excited about this candidacy that I just can't tell you. I'm just overfull with joy.” If anything, Ogletree and Tribe should have been both overfull with joy in the simple fact that they had hung on their Harvard jobs.

79 posted on 08/08/2012 6:17:29 PM PDT by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: Chickensoup
He is not factoring in the issue that this man and Hussain have the same major in the same year. Those are small upper class seminars and classes. No way they wouldnt meet.

Root was at Columbia College. Obama was not. He was at Columbia University, most likely in the School of General Studies.

Best Bet? Obama was not a "Transfer Student" to Columbia College. He was a walk-in General Studies student, who was slipped into the "graduation track," which in and of itself is or was not so unusual.

The deal is (or was) that if you completed enough at General Studies, had acceptable credits from another school, or for "life experience," one could get a Columbia degree for General Studies work. That degree; that diploma, oddly enough, was issued by Columbia College.

Furthermore, what is also really unusual is that Obama actually spent very little time at Columbia ... so little time that it IS scarcely credible that he completed enough course work to qualify for a degree. "How much time" "What was he doing and where?" Those are the real questions.

Root should know all about General Studies students and the GS programs. He should also tell us that fellows from the élite Ivy League Columbia College did not pal around with General Studies students, who with good reason or not, were usually viewed as oddballs. General Studies people were not Ivy Leaguers trying out for football, or crew. More importantly, they were certainly not required to take the then famous Core Curriculum (which is why Columbia College very rarely accepted transfers).

>"Nobody knew Obama at Columbia?"
(a) Not quite true as several have surfaced who did, and
(b) no big deal if the overwhelming majority of the Columbia College Class of 83 did not know him. Why would they? He wasn't one of them.

Root was a Poli Sci major, Obama claims the same. However we have no idea what Obama took and neither does Root. That's a real issue. It is quite possible that they never took the same Poli Sci courses ... or that Obama never took any Poli Sci courses at all.

That's why the records are important.... not that "nobody knew him."

80 posted on 08/08/2012 7:55:00 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Do not listen to Conservative Talk Radio ... until they talk to Sheriff Joe.)
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