Barack Hussein Obama and his hardship growing up
usamamasan1
Posts: 4,695
Poor guy
A newly published report raises questions about some established narratives in the early life of President Obama, suggesting the president's upbringing was one of privilege and not hardship.
The Washington Examiner published a 10-part report detailing Obama's path to the White House. Some of the information appears to conflict with the narratives the Obamas and the Democratic Party have pushed, most recently at the party's convention in Charlotte.
At the convention, Michelle Obama said they "were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions."
Examiner Executive Editor Mark Tapscott questioned that.
"I'm sure he had a difficult childhood given the circumstances with his parents, but from a financial standpoint and social standpoint and so forth , it was not an underprivileged childhood," Tapscott said.
The Examiner reports that the Indonesian neighborhood, Menteng, where Obama's mother and step-father raised the young Barry Soetoro was the most exclusive in Jakarta.
Later sent to live with his grandparents in Hawaii where his grandmother was a bank vice president, Obama attended the exclusive Punahoe school. He later went on to Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
In his first job as a Chicago community organizer, Obama rejected more lucrative offers.
But while he worked in the city's impoverished Southside, he lived in exclusive Hyde Park.
Of his 12 years as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Time Magazine said in 2008: "Within a few years he had become a rock star professor with hordes of devoted students." But student evaluations obtained by the Examiner tell a different story. In 2003, only a third of students recommended his courses.
"It went steadily down in the last five or six years that he was there. He was among the lowest-ranked professors," Tapscott said.
Nor did the future president leave any record of scholarly writings, while similarly credentialed colleagues had a prolific presence in law journals.
"He showed up to class, he gave his lectures and he was gone," Tapscott said.
The Examiner found sharp contrasts between Obama's memory of his legal work, and the record of it.
In "Dreams From My Father," he wrote: "In my legal practice, I work mostly with churches and community groups, men and women who quietly built grocery stores and health clinics in the inner city, and housing for the poor."
But a document filed with the Illinois Secretary of State shows the young lawyer represented some well-heeled clients. In one case, he represented a politically connected preacher and real estate developer, Bishop Arthur Brazier, who had failed to provide heating and running water to 15 apartments in the dead of winter. Obama's client had all the tenants forcibly removed from the building, yet paid only a $50 fine under Obama's legal counsel.
For all of his critics on the right, community organizer Obama left many colleagues on the left disheartened, by allegedly selling out to the Chicago establishment.
The late radical journalist Robert Fitch, who specialized in urban politics, said: "What we see is that the Chicago core of the Obama Coalition is made of blacks who've moved up by moving poor blacks out."
D'Anna Carter, a neighborhood activist, singled out the president's closest aid, Valerie Jarrett, for criticism. Jarrett was CEO of Habitat Co., a low-income real estate firm that made millions of dollars in part by leveraging federal programs like the Low Income Housing Tax Credit with subprime lending to poor people.
"They were never interested in poor people. They would sell poor people a bill of goods," Carter said.
Some argue that President Obama won office on his strength as a reformer - he did vow to "fundamentally transform America." But the Examiner found as a state senator he rejected overtures to reform the Chicago machine.
"He made it pretty clear he wasn't interested in risk-taking or challenging the Chicago machine's lock on a lot of mechanics of government in Cook County in Chicago," said one frustrated former colleague, former state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger.
Mayor Richard J Daley -- the last of the big city bosses -- built that machine by rewarding allies with patronage positions. Today, Obama's choice of aides suggests an unbreakable bond to that machine. Closest aide Valerie Jarrett, campaign adviser David Axelrod, and former chiefs of staff Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley all cut their political teeth in the Daley machine.
The legendary Chicago Tribune writer Mike Royko once penned this advice to mayoral candidate Richard M. Daley, the son of the big city boss: "Reward your friends and punish your enemies." It is a phrase the president once used to describe how Latinos should think about elections.
In a 2010 interview, Obama urged Latinos to say: "We're gonna punish our enemies and reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."
To that end, The Examiner says 31 Obama campaign bundlers received clean-energy loans and grants totaling more than $16 billion. The auto bailout favored the United Auto Workers -- over secured creditors -- and eight of the 10 states getting the most contracts from the stimulus program were heavily Democratic.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09 ... z272UffG00
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Comments
Godfather.
Godfather.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
cuz someone didn't email it to ya? ... :P
you are quick my friend
Godfather.
let's bot take anything gospel from foxnews.. even MSNBC.. let's stick with CNN etc. etc.
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
which news station is paid off by thr democrats ?
Godfather.
so they all have agendas...fox is just more fun to read/watch.
usally the news is correct(as correct as anybody elses station) but with
their own Fox spin to it and all the other news stations I read have read/watched have their own spin
so I just lump it all togeather and move on.
Godfather.
Godfather.
Great answer Godfather, why am I not suprised??
A perfect example of a news outlet that actually makes something up, and you flippantly pass it off. No doubt you will continue to use it as a realiable source of your info.
and you will continue to be just as you are now and I am not suprised
you are always look for argument or a way to pass judgment...you're starting to bore me, be good boy and run along now
Godfather.
Great answer Godfather, why am I not suprised??
A perfect example of a news outlet that actually makes something up, and you flippantly pass it off. No doubt you will continue to use it as a realiable source of your info.[/quote]
and you will continue to be just as you are now and I am not suprised
you are always look for argument or a way to pass judgment...you're starting to bore me, be good boy and run along now
Godfather.[/quote]
So in other words you have nothing to add. Suprise suprise.
and you will continue to be just as you are now and I am not suprised
you are always look for argument or a way to pass judgment...you're starting to bore me, be good boy and run along now
Godfather.[/quote]
So in other words you have nothing to add. Suprise suprise.[/quote]
add to what ???? your opinion of a news station ? if your opinion ment anything to me then I might as you say... "add" to it, are you still here ????
Godfather.
They might occasionally read the news but it's mostly just political propaganda, made up and slanted and warped to the point that it's just the rantings of a bunch of conservative jerks.
Yeah, Fox is not even entertaining.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
a ladies man
you guy's take things too serious, I don't know how many times I have said that fox .....oh shit never mind,
you guy's are worse than any republican I have ever met, always blamming,complaining and trashing anything that doesn't fit into you ideas of life love and politics....more so than most anyway.
IT AIN'T ALL THAT BAD :shock: relax take it ez,have a beer and chill.
Godfather.
you tell people to chill when they post something negative about fox news, but most of the links you post on serious topics are from FOX news.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
yea...I'm not the only who has used Fox for a news storys and just because the others don't like fox am I supposed to stop reading fox and start reading the onion or the globe or one of the other on line mag's just to make everybody happy ?
Godfather.
If this nerd can do it, you can too POD! lol
no, read what you want. but you missed the point. you can't elevate it to serious bi-partisan news outlet one thread, and then laugh about it in another.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
oh yeah, no one cares because he doesn't share a moniker with a former terrorist dictator. silly me. :roll:
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
How can you not feel bad for Pananma Jack.
Wonderful article.
Are you sure that's not Panama Red?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
the onion is deliberately satirical... foxnews isnt even deliberately factual.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say