OBAMA: THE AUDACITY OF INAUTHENTICITY

On my Hillary Supporters for McCain site, I have a guest piece by Jean Avery about how McCain should consider Alasska Governor Sarah Palin as a running mate. Jean Avery is someone you should know -- her site is: http://moms4mccain.blogspot.com -- because I hope she's one of many national figures who will "adopt" and support outstanding Pennsylvania congressional candidates.



Obama above with two "typical white people," his grandparents

The piece by Amanda Carpenter at the bottom of this column is good on Obama's misrepresentation of his uncle supposedly liberating Auschwitz (which was actually liberated by the Soviet's Red Army). Like so many things in Obama's "story," it never happened.

Obama tries hard on the campaign to indicate some connection with the U.S. military. Actually, he has none, but he keeps trying. He's also trying -- almost desperately -- to find links to the White voters who have been rejecting his candidacy in huge numbers.

In the early phases of his campaign, Obama's goal was to convince Black voters that he was "Black enough." That approach didn't emphasize that, biologically speaking, Obama is as White (he had a Caucasian mother and was brought up mainly by "white people") as he was Black.

Now, he's emphasizing his "whiteness." In commercials, he shows his 85-year-old grandmother in order to establish his Caucasian "credentials." So much for "post-racial" politics.

In his stump speech,Obama talks about how his grandfather "served in Patton's Army." That is true, but in Dreams From My Father, Obama adds that his grandfather "never saw combat."
He portrays the grandfather (and the grandmother) as clownish figures.

However, if the grandparents had any anti-Black feelings, they certainly had an odd way of showing them, because they apparently never treated him with anything but love. Too bad he hasn't reciprocated.

He notes in his speeches and ads that his grandmother worked in a "bomb assembly plant." That seems to be true, but she's the same individual Obama calls "a typical white person."

In his formal remarks, particularly the famous "race" speech in Philadelphia, he emphasizes that his grandmother was frightened of Black people. That appears to be untrue. The grandmother apparently was frightened by a man (she never told Barack it was a Black man) who was very large and very demanding in his insistence that she give him money. It was his grandfather who told Barack that the man had been Black.

Obama also likes to portray himself as the product of a single-mother childhood (which is partially true, as the grandparents also raised him) and having lived in some measure of poverty. From everything I can see in "Dreams" he lived a childhood similar to mine, and to call it a "poverty" upbringing is false.

There is more going on here than just the normal political hyperbole. Obama has a "rich" fantasy life, and he exaggerates repeatedly about his pre-adult life. If you go on to the SECOND autobiography (Audacity of Hope), you can find the hyperbole about his adult, particularly the "community organizer" phase.

In my humble hometown of Ambridge, PA, we sometimes have something like community organizers, but we generally call them "unemployed."

Michelle Obama made in excess of $300,000 working in something called "community outreach." I don't believe we have any jobs like that in Ambridge.

Obama has made more than $5 million from his books, but Michelle talks, disingenuously about how difficult it is to fork over money for her daughters' ballet lessons. Give us a break, Michelle.


Obama's WWII Uncle Flap
Amanda Carpenter
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Barack Obama’s campaign staff is scrambling to explain a family story Obama told on the campaign trail that rivals say is untrue and warrants explanation.

At a Memorial Day campaign stop Obama told a story about his WWII veteran uncle who allegedly liberated Auschwitz. Upon returning to the United States, according to Obama family lore, the uncle spent months alone in his attic.

“Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” Obama said. “That’s why this idea of making sure that every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need – that’s why it’s so important.”

The trouble is, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz and Obama’s mother is an only child. (His father left him at a young age, so it was unlikely the uncle in question was related to his father.)The Republican National Committee and members of the media seized on the story, demanding clarification.

RNC spokeswoman Liz Mair said in a statement: “Barack Obama owes the American public an explanation in light of his statement yesterday regarding his uncle and the liberation of Auschwitz. It is a well-known fact that Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. Unless Obama’s uncle served in the Red Army, his statement looks nothing short of fatuous—and Americans expect something better than exaggerations and outright distortions from a candidate who hopes to become our next Commander in Chief.”

Shortly after, an Obama campaign spokesman said Obama did have a great uncle who helped liberate a different war camp. The campaign said Obama’s great uncle on his mother’s side, Charlie Payne, was a member of the 89th Infantry Division that liberated Buchenwald in 1945.