There is much biographical data available for presidential candidate Obama, online and in his two autobiographies. Recently the Wall Street Journal reported :
The Columbia years are a hole in the sprawling Obama hagiography. In his two published memoirs, the 47-year-old Democratic nominee barely mentions his experience there. He refuses to answer questions about Columbia and New York — which, in this media age, serves only to raise more of them. Why not release his Columbia transcript? Why has his senior essay gone missing?
Obama attended Columbia from 1981 until his graduation in 1983. Very odd, for a graduate from an Ivy League School to keep this experience such a closely guarded secret. Is the reason for secrecy because it was here that Obama and Bill Ayers formed their relationship ? Ayers was a 1984 graduate of Bank Street College located four blocks from Columbia University. Ayers later attended Columbia himself, completing his post graduate studies in 1987. When Obama describes Ayers as “just another guy in my neighborhood”, is this the neighborhood of which he speaks ?
Two years after graduation, Obama left the New York area to go to Chicago, a place where he had no known ties, but Chicago is Bill Ayer’s home town. Was Bill Ayers Obama’s connection to the Chicago area ?
Once in Chicago, Obama served from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP). During his tenure, DCP’s budget ballooned substantially, receiving funding from the Woods Fund of Chicago, the foundation he would later serve as board member, alongside Bill Ayer’s.
While attending Harvard, In Obama returned to the Chicago area in the summer of 1989 to work at the Sidley Austin law firm. Bernadine Dorhn, another leader of the the Weather Underground and Bill Ayers’ wife, also worked at Sidley Austin from 1984 to 1988. It was at Sidley Austin that Obama met Michelle, his future wife.
The connections between Ayers and Obama seem to be terribly coincidental, for “just another guy in my neighborhood”.
I have guys in my neighborhood as I am sure you do too. Tell me, did you go to school less than the length of four football fields away from the school any one of them attended ? And after graduation, did you also move to any of their home towns ? In addition to this, did you also work at the same place as any of their wives ?
We are being asked to believe that this is all a coincidence. Unbelievable.
This is a non-story that plays only to the base. No one else is listening. Every time you do this, you drive swing-voters towards Obama.
You speak the language of defeat with fluency. Get a message that speaks to people, or we lose.
I agree with Natasha. Further when McCain picked Palin he finished himself off. Looking at how this blog here has gone into the twilight zone lately with these crazy stories about Obama it shows the far right is so desperate and knows it is losing this election and losing badly.
ANd yes you are driving voters to Obama with these stories. Just look at the polls.
Natasha,
then the smart thing to do is keep quiet and let the other side slit its own throat.
Watching you guys descend into madness has given me an enormous amount of pleasure these past few days. You guys are starting to sound like wackos who claim to have been abducted by aliens, Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists and nuts who think Bush planned 9/11 all rolled up in one.
Sidley Austin is one of the largest law firms in the world. The number of people who work there or have worked there who went to Columbia, who went to schools in New York and/or who are married to people who went to schools in New York is extremely large. I can personally name a few people besides Obama who fit this criteria, but I won’t, because watching you guys spin yourselves into the kind of crazy that even John Nash in A Beautiful Mind would laugh at is too entertaining.
Most Americans are looking at how you right-wing nutcases are reacting to the possibility that Barack Obama will be elected President and wondering. “How did we let these guys run the country for the last eight years?”
Keep up the good work.
Jacob is right, if all the Obama stories are bunk, why not do the politically wise thing and let the Republicans destroy themselves? That is Politics 101.
Because we know if we say nothing you might think to yourself, “I wonder if these liberals are saying nothing because all the Obama stories are bunk and they are letting us destroy ourselves.” By saying something, we are fooling you into thinking, “These Obama stories are surely not bunk or the wily liberals wouldn’t have said anything and let us destroy ourselves,” which, in fact, is exactly what you are thinking. See, we’re one step ahead of you.
zimzo,
Yes, but I know that you know, that I know you know. Ya know?
“let the Republicans destroy themselves”…
The light has come on.
Zimzo, To use a Stone-ism, when are you going to retract your head from your ass? You SO fooled me (and all Republicans), wow.
Edmund – Your one liners are so inspiring. For the 3rd time, defend your candidate. We all know you have problems with the Republican Party, tell us why Obama is so stinkin fantastic. Inquiring minds want to know.
Cathymac, I bet you are as beautiful as you are eloquent.
The level of protest is a clue.
Obama’s past is only now seeing the light of day.
Connect the dots on this guy and you have a whos who of leftists nitwits.
It would be one thing if the Pope of Hope used these people to forward his political march and disposed of them as useful idiots. however, this guy is a believer. He will not admit it, but the truth is coming out and his candidacy is beginning to unravel.
Based on the proof of this mans past associations and his core beliefs God help us if he manages to get elected.
Let me repeat if all this BS about Obama is working then McCain would be winning. Again McCain is losing and losing badly. And all this negative pr conspiracy theories about Obama has done nothing to help McCain.
You are correct, Leej. Why? Because liberals do not care who their candidates are, or what they do. Only winning matters.
Obama could not even get a security clearance to work at the FBI or CIA, because of his many ties to radical extremists, but we are going to let him be President? Ayers said, after his trial, 100 percent guilty, one hundred percent free. He is not some washed up old terrorist, he is infecting the minds of our youth, and has infected the mind of Obama, he is still winning, and his revolution is more alive than ever–not washed up, just smarter in his attack.
How do you know that “Obama could not even get a security clearance to work at the FBI or CIA, because of his many ties to radical extremists” or are you just making stuff up? And please name Obama’s “many ties to radical extremists” besides sitting on a board with Ayers that was chaired by Ronald Reagan’s friend Walter Annenberg.
Ayers got the money from the Foundation, and I hope he never gets another dime. He has been quite ingenious in bilking us to support his radical education of youth. Ferrakan, marching in the Million Man March with Ferrakan, just another neighbor. Rev Wright, who says the chickens have come home to roost after 9/11 and other incendiary things, and shouts Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, over and over, his support of radical Islamics in Kenyan politics, his endorsement by radical Islamics, contributions traced to the PLO, lots more connections to the radical right than to mainstream America. He has been groomed by Ayers to infiltrate politics, and he is on target to destroy our traditions of fair elections, free markets, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms… The 9/11 terrorists were well dressed, well groomed, got their Virginia drivers licenses with no problem, they blended in to try to destroy us. Obama is no centrist, he is radical left whose agenda is to destroy us. And yes, I have spoken with people I respect regarding security clearances, and I do not believe he would be able to get one. Of course the President of the United States does not need one.
Also, supposedly Obama had an Indonesian passport until just recently, having been adopted by the Muslim man his mother married in Indonesia. Some blogs have published copies of that passport. On his last trip to Pakistan he used his Indonesian passport. Was he a dual citizen? I do not know, but why would he have an Indonesian passport? He will not say who he met with in Pakistan on that last trip. Also, there are rumors that Arab money paid for Harvard, and that his record at Columbia has been sequestered, because his grades were so poor (too much marijuana and cocaine?) Nothing he published or wrote (his required senior essay at Columbia) or anything as Editor of the Harvard Law Review have ever been published? Why? radical ramblings? Who is elected Editor of a law review, who never even wrote to get onto the law review? very strange…
And why did his campaign staffer Asabhi resign? To many radical contacts, too many meetings with Muslim groups who want to overthrow our government? What about the most recent meeting by the Obama campaign (with Asabhi there too) in Springfield Virginia no less, with representatives of Hammas, CARE (un indicted co conspirators in un American activities) and other extremists, that Obama is now trying to distance himself from, saying he did not know his campaign was meeting with them–on CNN right now. Why have radical Islamic groups endorsed him, like Hammas? like the PLO. Too many questions, including the millions (I read somewhere 200 million dollars) of small donations coming in from abroad–an investigation ongoing to trace these obviously phony donations with made up names, and no real addresses– to the PLO. Why is the mainstream press not talking about all of this?
Thanks for compiling all of the batsh– insane email rumors that have been concocted about Obama in one place, Sally.
Your tinfoil hat is very shiny, Sally, now if you will just follow the nice men in white coats they will take you to a very pretty place where you can get some rest.
Zimzo, it is sheep like you who refuse to use your brain that will cause the down fall of this country. Like all those people Howard Stern interviewed…who had no clue who Obama was, or even who he was running with… just knew they were voting for him… We need answers not your partisan BS defense. Obama will not answer any questions about his background, friends, history– He has only been in the Senate for 3 years, no one really knows him. We know John McCain, he is a patriot. I disagree with McCain on some things, but I trust him completely to do what is in the best interests of our country, our economy, our national interests. All you Democrats, listen to Leiberman– he is a patriot too.
Sally, Sally,
What on earth did you put in your coffee this morning?
I don’t believe one gets accepted to Harvard Lawschool without very good grades and I DEFINITELY do not believe that one becomes Editor of the Harvard Law Review without extremely high qualifications. There’s something called competition. It’s not handed to just ANYone on a silver tray.
““Obama could not even get a security clearance to work at the FBI or CIA, because of his many ties to radical extremists””
Are you ready for the kicker folks :
http://www.fbi.gov/clearance/securityclearance.htm
The answer of how he can get a clearance is apparent, just change the rules !
Lovisa, I’ll disagree with you later, but how was your trip? What did you hear overseas about our Country’s elections and financial crisis?
I have a good friend who married someone, with extreme wealth, who got into Harvard and did not deserve to get in…but his family made tremendous donations. You may think he got into Harvard on merit, then why won’t he release his Columbia transcript? I think he had a benefactor. How did he pay for it? How did he get his 1.7 million dollar home several years ago (living coincidentally directly next door to a convicted felon, who made him a little deal)? What a neighborhood! Lots of questions, unanswered questions.
sally.
I have “a good friend” who married “someone”….
Yes, get into Harvard on parental contributions, OK, (case in point some Kennedy folk), but to get into Harvard LAW SCHOOL I believe is different.
As for your other allegations, that’s just what they are, ALLEGATIONS.
It was Harvard Business School and the Law School is no different. You will not find one other Editor of any law review who was not published more than once by the law review. (you have to publish to get accepted as staff on law reviews.) Why is it impossible to find anything Obama published? It is all strange. No loans for school. How did he pay for it?
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Thursday, October 09, 2008
Obama-Khalidi-Ayers and the MSM
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:47 AM
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza is a regular and very welcome guest on the program. Prompted by Ace of Spades, I asked Chris on Tuesday prior to the presidential debate about MSM’s treatment of Joe Biden’s serial misstatements at last week’s VP debate. The transcript is here.
At the conclusion of the interview I inquired if Chris knew of Rashid Khalidi, and Khalidi’s friendship with Bill Ayers and Khalidi’s long association with Barack Obama. Chris didn’t, which didn’t surprise me as I hadn’t know about it either until an interview with Stanley Kurtz on Monday.
Khalidi is a Columbia professor and strong advocate for the Palestinians. He is a man of the left, and he is close to Obama and Ayers. Obama’s friendship with Khalidi would be unsettling to many supporters of Israel –if it was well known, which it isn’t. How close have Obama and Khalidi been? Here’s the opening of a Los Angeles Times article from 2007:
It was a celebration of Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.
A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.
His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”
Today, five years later, Obama is a U.S. senator from Illinois who expresses a firmly pro-Israel view of Middle East politics, pleasing many of the Jewish leaders and advocates for Israel whom he is courting in his presidential campaign. The dinner conversations he had envisioned with his Palestinian American friend have ended. He and Khalidi have seen each other only fleetingly in recent years.
And yet the warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor’s going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say.
Their belief is not drawn from Obama’s speeches or campaign literature, but from comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his presence at events where anger at Israeli and U.S. Middle East policy was freely expressed.
What Kurtz explained to me is that Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi are very close:
HH: Tell us about Khalidi. Tell us who he is and his role in Obama’s life.
SK: Rashid Khalidi is really, in a sense, the American successor of Edward Said, a very strong advocate for the Palestinians, extremely radical in his views and his opposition to American foreign policy. He was a friend and colleague of Obama. Apparently they used to get together and discuss world affairs. And he’s practically the best friend of Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers features Khalidi in some of his books about how to politicize the teaching for students. So actually, the more you look into it, the more you see that this is not just people running into each other. And again, I object to the idea of just simply counting the times people were together in a room. When you fund Bill Ayers education projects, with hundreds of thousands of dollars, when you as Bill Ayers publish Rashid Khalidi’s essay in your book of collected essays, they might have gone on. That’s a lot without meeting once.
What all of this suggests is that the Hyde Park community of hard left intellectuals was tightly knit, and that Obama was at the heart of it. MSM’s indifference to this community and its impact on Obama is nothing short of astounding, like leaving Harvard and Hyannis Port out of story after story on Kennedy’s run for the presidency in 1960, or his Vietnam experiences out of Kerry’s bio in 2004.
NoVisa,
“I don’t believe one gets accepted to Harvard Lawschool without very good grades”
And you would be wrong. Harvard??? That’s a pay-as-you-go school for most applicants. If you had enough money you could go there also. What does that tell you?
ACTivist,
What should it tell me? That I could into Harvard with any grade or IQ?
Princeton gave Dubya a degree.
I guess you’re right, ACTivist – those high falluting universities are up for sale.
My husband went to grad school at Harvard, but that was on the GI bill, which meant that you had to qualify. Seems like almost everything has deteriorated, doesn’t it?
lovisa,
1. dubya did not go to princeton
2. he went to the same school as Kerry
3. he go better grades than kerry
4. that means kerry is really, really, really dumb
OK, jacob, Yale, Princeton – what’s the difference?
“2. he went to the school as Kerry” As Kerry???
3 & 4. Guess it means that Dubya is only really, really dumb while Kerry is really, really, really dumb.
BTW – I don’t feel that you commented on what I wrote at all.
here’s an interesint point, and one that will lose me some recently earned cred with jacob…Jesus had some lost years as well.
seriously guys, time to get back to the qualin love fest or something. natasha is right, implying obama is a terrorist and scaring people, while an accurate reflection of the base lunacy, does not seem to be doing the trick. it is even turing repub voters against mccain…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlIigHg1v0
what independent voter wants to be a part of that. try some policy arguments for once.
McCain does not want this to dissolve into allegations of race, which is what Obama has been trying to do with questions about his friends, and history. There is a great deal of worry about violence if Obama does not win. McCain does not want to have riots if he wins. He is sure he will win, just on his centrist ideas, and has not wanted to attack on these other issues, for fear of racial violence. The crowd boo’d him when he tried to say we do not need to fear Obama. The truth is many Americans are afraid, and we have the right to know the answers to these questions. Many are angry that McCain is not pushing this issue, and these questions that they have had, which the liberal press ignores. We should not be afraid to ask a black man the same questions we would ask any other candidate, because the push back with be to have race thrown in our face. And for your Jesus comment, apparently Farrakan has preached that Obama is the “Messiah”–something else that is very terrifying to your average American. Not only are Obama’s far left agendas corrupt and wrong, but his friends have wanted to destroy America…McCain is down playing it, but many Americans are rightfully very afraid. I am disgusted that the Obama campaign gave $800,000 to an entity not identified as ACORN, and only after scrutiny was forced to acknowledge the $800,000 was made to ACORN. WHat is he hiding? His “friends” will do anything, break any law, cause any damage to our system to accomplish their leftist agenda. Americans are and should be afraid of Obama.
el jefe,
there is little known about Christ between his time in the temple when he was 13 and when he took up his ministry. No loss of street cred there. However, Christ was born ~2045 years ago, the second messiah was made man ~45 years ago. We should be able to get a better accounting the second time around don’t you think?
As for policy arguments:
- On Iraq Obama’s stated policy ranges from get out yesterday to having the troop stick around until 2013. So which policy do I address?
- On energy, we have addressed his loopy ideas, and i saw scant defense of those ideas.
- When it comes to the economy, Obama want to reduce the taxes of 95% of the people when only ~60% if the work for pays ANY taxes at all. I guess I could address that.
- on regulation, lets remove the politics from who gets a mortgage, that was the snowball that started the avalanche
I am Jacob Ash, and I approve this message
From another blogger: “It’s like that serial killer from Kansas named Dennis something. He worked a normal job, was president of his church congregation, and then on weekends went out and murdered people.
Or Sarah Jane Olson. Hung with murderers and then married a doctor and pretended to be a normal person for a couple decades until she got caught and sent to prison (and then accidentally got released early and sent back to prison.)
Or Bill Ayers. Spoiled rich kid of fantastically wealthy parents, goes on a killing spree and then dad buys his freedom and some university hires him.
From Obama’s book, Dreams of My Father: “I choose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors.” Rezco (claims he did nothing, but is a convicted felon, Ayers (“rehabilitated”), Ferrakan, Wright (who said “God Damn America”)….ACORN….
Lovisa,
“2. he went to the school as Kerry” As Kerry???”
what are you talking about?
“BTW – I don’t feel that you commented on what I wrote at all.”
considering your typical responses, you should feel at home then
they are lost years all the same. for a different analogy, it seems fair to keep bush’s ‘lost years’ off limits and not use it as a rationale of whether or not to vote for him. i’m not a fan of the man but his behavior during his youth was not an indicator of how he has perform as president. i think obama’s been fairly forthcoming. i don’t believe the ayers stuff at all, but really, who holds a position at a university and doesn’t know a marxist or a 60’s radical. i had a professor say that nat turner’s statue belongs on the dc mall one time and my college was relatively conservative.
jacob, there are clear policy differences and problems as you pointed out. i think there should be more of an effort convincing your fellow repubs, including your nominee, obama isn’t an enemy of the state.
el jefe: of course you don’t want anyone to think about this or ask any more questions about Obama’s associates (Ayers, Rezko (and the purchase of his house) Farrakan. George Bush did not have any lost years or friends he did not want to acknowledge–what are you talking about? There were and have been lots of articles about his youth, how he met Laura, stopped drinking, became a Christian… There is absolutely no comparison. We knew George Bush, we do not know Obama.
I’m not sure which is worse. Sally spreading her paranoid hateful crazy smears without presenting a shred of evidence or the conservatives on this blog who aren’t embarrassed by her. Even John McCain is beginning to fear people like Sally that his campaign has unleashed.
Zimzo,
I take it you opened you big mouth without looking at the you tube videos. Thats OK, I am providing the link.
William Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with whom Barack served on the board of an education-reform organization in the mid-1990’s. According to the Associated Press, they are not close: “No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago …” (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93KD6Q00&show_article=1)
But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”Barack has publicly denouncedAyers’ radical actions from the 1960’s (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html):
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
William Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with whom Barack served on the board of an education-reform organization in the mid-1990’s. According to the Associated Press, they are not close: “No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago …” (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93KD6Q00&show_article=1)
Smear groups and now the McCain campaign are trying to connect Obama to acts Ayers committed 40 years ago – when Barack was just eight years old. Here’s what the New York Times reported on the connection (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html)
But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”
Barack has publicly denouncedAyers’ radical actions from the 1960’s (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html):
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
fugazi,
It isn’t that he is connected with events when he was 8, but the kind of people with whom he associates on a regular basis in the recent past, and his public record. The people with whom you associate says a lot about who you are. If their was only one extreme person in the sphere in which Obama moves, it would not be that big a deal. The problem Obama has is that he has surrounded himself with extreme views.