Obama Overstates Kennedys' Role in Helping His Father

[Mags]

By Michael Dobbs
Sunday, March 30, 2008; Page A01

Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.

The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html

[gristy]

1. Is this a "drive-by" OP? What are your views on this?

It's your OP. What do you think?

[anamandujano]

6. Obama misspoke, and misspoke only, but he does that a lot.

:shrug:

Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father's arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy involvement in the Kenya student program apparently "started 48 years ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past."

[roguevalley]

35. ha. a year off. hillary was about a war off with tuzla.

[question everything]

43. Didn't he also "misspeak" about how his parents met, in a Civil Rights march

that happened a year after they met?

A year here, a year there, what's the dif, I suppose

:sarcasm:

[Mags]

7. I think that so many more things are gonna come out of this

guy that it will be like a tornado before the election is over.

[bhikkhu]

14. Hardly a tornado...I think it is pretty cool that the Kennedy's funded the program.

Even if, as said, they did not fund the specific flight Obama's father was on.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Yes, between this and the flag pin and some speeches his pastor gave

clearly we will see a parade of bullshit non-issues with which fools will unsuccessfully try to drum up bogus manufactured outrage against the guy.

And did you see the picture of him in a TURBAN?!!!?111!!! :o

[Vinca]

2. How many versions of this post will we see today?

I propose we ask Sen. Kennedy and Caroline about this story. As I recall, they were on the stage when it was told. It was also told at other stops where the Kennedys were present. Don't you think the family might have said something if the story wasn't accurate? (Wait, don't tell me, Kennedys who support Obama don't count.)

[Mags]

8. Just tell me why would you trust Ted Kennedy's word?

[roguevalley]

37. sweet jesus, mags. you are beyond the pale.

No dem has done more good for this country in the last 40 years than Ted Kennedy. He didn't vote for any of the albatrosses hanging around clinton's neck and he defended bill when he was lying to everyone in the world over his bullshit. this is unbelievable.

[anamandujano]

16. Could you do us a favor and get a rough estimate of the Bosnia threads? TIA

[question everything]

45. Ask Teddy and Caroine about Obama? Why not ask Michelle, or Rev. Wright?

same unbiased opinion, right?

[gateley]

3. You know something, Mags?

It's too late. This shit doesn't work anymore.

[Mags]

11. I know the truth means noting in the Barry campaign

[gateley]

15. Not going to get me with that one again.

:hi:

[Evergreen Emerald]

34. oh but it does work. This "shit" is what is used against Clinton.

Same shit...different candidate. And the reason it will not work on Obama, is becasue the media will not make it a story like they made Bosnia.

Same Shit. Double standard. Different Result.

[Unsane]

4. You really are pathetic.

[Mags]

12. why, for posting an article about Barry?

[dsc]

5. This is every bit as irrelevent as the named after Edmund Hillary nonsense

but I bet only this will be treated as such.

[bhikkhu]

9. Very informative article, with a minor point.

The title is a bit of journalistic prudence - controversy sells - while the research and history in this should be of interest to either camp. I am not too concerned with how some family story or other got mixed up. The same has happened with Hillary's supposed namesake, and it really makes no difference. Probably everyone has such family tales that might not stand up to critical scrutiny.

That the Kennedy's funded the program that brought Obama's father to this country is very cool to me, even if the funding was not for that specific flight.

[EmilyAnne]

10. The article talks about the boastful nature of Obama's absentee father. Sounds like poor Obama

believed some of his dad's stories. Big deal. I've never fact checked my parents meeting, or who they named me after, or the little girl down the street with polio who my grandmother was named after, etc. It doesn't matter who Hillary was named after, either. These are the sort of stories we are told by our families that may or may not be true, exaggerated or out and out lies.

Regardless, Barack Obama is not winning because of a story about who paid for his father's airfare to the US or whether or not his parents met because of a particular march.

[gateley]

19. I believed for years that a scar on my Dad's face

was the result of a hand-to-hand knife fight between my father and a "Jap" during WWII, until my mother knocked some sense into my head...

[anonymous171]

21. As I have said before this is like Hillary's "Edmund Hillary" boast.

[VolcanoJen]

24. Yes. And I don't hold that one against her, because she's not running...

... on 61 Years of Being Named After Edmund Hillary.

[anonymous171]

36. Me neither.

[roguevalley]

38. oh please. yes she is, really. she is asking us to trust her and believe

in her. therefore, what she says no matter how misty it might be removed from the truth by time, we have to believe her. or not. after all, there is Tuzla. There is her hypocritical posturing about preachers and all the rest. And there is bill and the shit he will bring to the GE. i personally don't want to see anymore chick stories. Back a few months ago, I read in the papers and some posts here that some news organizations have stories about him and chicks and were holding off on putting them out there. GE fodder. I lost my relationship with two brothers and an aunt and uncle over Bill's shit and I'm not ready to hear about it again. Trust her? Right.

[EmilyAnne]

46. But the Tuzla story is so different from story about were she got her name. That is my point.

I won't fault Obama for believing some stories he heard from his family just as I won't fault Hillary for a story about who she was named for. The Tuzla landing, however, is different.

[VolcanoJen]

13. Doesn't seem to me like he was trying to deliberately mislead anyone.

Many people are fuzzy when it comes to the experiences of their parents... stories are told down generations and it looks like the whole thing got oversimplified.

Good thing he didn't run around saying it over and over, though.

[anamandujano]

18. Yes, he made an honest misspokement.

They are beginning to add up though.

[bhikkhu]

17. Let it sink...OP only an excuse to spit bile

It was an interesting article, and the responses were not bad...so why is the poster the one hurling insults?

Just an article for bait. People should have better things to do.

[anamandujano]

20. Not "bait" but "debate." Why is it so hard for you?

[Mags]

22. keep on sinking the truth and your canidate will sink with it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

23. b b but Obama only misspoke...he is the messiah and cannot lie on the campaign trail

[anamandujano]

29. Got to love the rationalizations though.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

These guys always cheer me up.

[Blondbostonian]

31. I look forward to you supporting the Democratic nominee in November

[ElsewheresDaughter]

33. and I you

[mkultra]

55. actually

They article is full of shit.


Heres a link to Mboya's website, this is factual proof from the man who set up the airlift.


http://www.tommboya.com/detail.asp?id=9




I think you've been had again.

[Onlooker]

26. Hillary exaggerates; Obama exaggerates. Big deal.

They're both politicians. It's just that a lot of young Obama supporters are naive enough to believe he doesn't play politics.

[ulysses]

27. what number is this for you tonight?

[VolcanoJen]

30. ulysses!!!!

Hi!!!

:hug: Old friend! :hug:

[oasis]

28. More Obama flim flam exposed.

Wake up Democrats. Wake up America.

[JayFredMuggs]

32. WOW

Reason NOT to vote for Obama......something that happened before he was born was not accurately reported by Obama.

This will be the headlines in the NY Times tomorrow.

Hillary's LIES about Bosnia will be forgotten, in light of this new mis-statement by Obama about when the Kennedy's gave some money to Kenyan scholars.

Earthshaking upset for the Obama folks. Yeah right!

[oasis]

52. Duh! The word "more" was used to indicate previous flim flammery. Wake up.

:dunce:

[roguevalley]

39. well, if the worst you can do it point out he got the year wrong on

his family story, bully for you. now, rationalize tuzla and all the rest of the clinton shit like a good lad. (or lass.)

[emilyg]

40. Thanks for posting.

[Cant trust em]

41. This won't be a big deal because the details are too murky

Even after reading the article it's tough to pinpoint exactly where the gap between truth and fiction are. It seems like Obama's story slipped up a bit, but isn't too far from the truth. Comparing this to the other "overstatement" story we've seen recently where there was a very definitive detail gap as well as video to corroborate the truth.

[question everything]

42. But.. but... Obama does not "misspeaks," Only Hillary does

:puke:

[JoFerret]

44. "The Camelot connection"

What a load of codswallop.

[Teaser]

47. DEAR GOD WHAT AN EGREGIOUS ERROR!!11!!!

.

[JayFredMuggs]

50. Oh yes,

Errors like that......being off by a year, a couple years before you were born........

My oh My, how could ANYONE be President for being off by a year about such an insignificant issue?

[hulka38]

48. Another desperation shot from half-court.........

and an air ball.

[AX10]

49. The media will let this die.

They love Obama, just as they loved Bush.

[tabasco]

51. Equating something like this to the Tuzla lie exposes a person as a hack,

if not a fool.

[mkultra]

53. You should check out the Mboya website

He is the guy that organized the trips and his website makes it very clear that Kennedy was responsible for the whole damn thing.


You have been suckered in by Hillary. Put down the koolaid and back away.

[DerekJ]

54. FUCK .. How many fucking times, do we have to respond to this. ?!!! there is a fucking thread about

it already !!!
have some 140 posts. :WTF:

[Skip Intro]

56. .

:kick: