Newsweek: On his own (about Obama's childhood)

[n2doc]

Cerebral and cool, Obama is also steely, and his strength comes from the absence of a father. The making of a self-reliant man.

By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK
Published Aug 23, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Sep 1, 2008


The boxing gloves were new, and smelled of leather. It was the mid-1960s, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Barack Obama had come home the day before with what he recalled as "an egg-sized lump" on the side of his head, the result of a fight with a boy who had stolen a friend's soccer ball and then hit Obama with a rock. Wounded but not bleeding, a humiliated Obama found his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, in their yard, tending to the chrome on a beloved motorcycle. The boy whined a bit—"It wasn't fair"—and Soetoro said little. Now, 24 hours later, the stepfather appeared with two sets of boxing gloves, one for himself and one for Obama. "The first thing to remember is how to protect yourself," Soetoro said as they began to spar. "Keep your hands up," he ordered, circling the boy. "You want to keep moving, but always stay low—don't give them a target." Obama bobbed and weaved, learning to throw punches; at one point in the half-hour lesson, he let his defenses down, and paid for it. "I felt a hard knock to the jaw, and looked up at Soetoro's sweating face," Obama recalled. "Pay attention," Soetoro instructed.

"Keep your hands up." Afterward, sipping water from a jug next to a crocodile pond, the stepfather mused about the nature of things, and about what it took to survive in a difficult and dangerous world: "Men take advantage of weakness in other men. They're just like countries in that way. The strong man takes the weak man's land. He makes the weak man work in his fields. If the weak man's woman is pretty, the strong man will take her." As Obama recalled the moment in his 1995 memoir "Dreams From My Father," Soetoro took another sip and then asked: "Which would you rather be?"

Obama did not answer—the question seemed rhetorical—but in a way Obama's whole life has been a reply to the question Soetoro posed four decades and half a world away, in the dusty heat of Jakarta after the boxing lesson. "I remember that very vividly, and my stepfather was a good man who gave me some things that were very helpful," Obama told me in an interview last Thursday. "One of the things that he gave me was a pretty hardheaded assessment of how the world works."

more: (but link is sloooooow)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/155173

[Berry Cool]

1. One thing Soetoro had wrong, though.

He seems to have regarded women as property that strong men can "steal" from weak men. While it may be true that the "pretty" women (whom I suppose he saw as the only desirable ones) may be more drawn to a man who LOOKS strong than to a man who LOOKS weak, they do have their own say in whom they choose to be with.

Women aren't just property for men to divvy up amongst themselves, the way lions divide a kill.

[Flaxbee]

2. true. But we're talking Soetero being an adult in the 1960s,

so he was born perhaps in the 1930s in Indonesia -- I wouldn't necessarily think he was being a misogynist pig, I think he was just reflecting everything that had been part of his life. :shrug: Most certainly, Barack does not see his wife, nor his daughters, as "property"

[Berry Cool]

5. True. And I don't think it reflects

Barack's attitude toward women as an adult.

[Median Democrat]

3. Really? Have You Seen John McCain's Entourage?

Is it just a coincidence that all of the women in his campaign are generally blonde, caucasian and attractive? It reminds me of a Robert Palmer video. Indeed, they look like younger clones of Cindy McCain. I mean what are the odds? Blonde is a recessive gene. McCain should have at least some brunnettes.

My tip to John McCain, diversify dude. Its like watching the Bionic woman going against the Thembots. Heck, sign up some women of color, if not some women who have brown hair. Also, throw in a Helen Thomas or a Madeline Albright.

[Berry Cool]

6. I've seen John McCain's entourage

and you couldn't find a better set of Stepford Wives anywhere.

I noticed that the communications director is only 26 years old, too.

[GoesTo11]

7. Robert Palmer video

Hilarious.

http://www.clipov.net/pic/robert_palmer+%5Bsimply_irresistible%5D+1988+4-13+deluxe+clear.jpg

[dkf]

4. What an amazing article..

I loved this quote from his brother in law regarding father figures:

Barack was very interested in any man who valued his family and respected his community. And I applaud Barack for where that search took him because it translated into him treating my sisters and nieces the way they should be. And as a brother, that's all I can ask."

[n2doc]

8. kick n/t