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."