jreeves
Senior Member
- Feb 12, 2008
- 6,588
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Our friend Michael Dobbs, the Fact Checker at the Washington Post, takes a look today at the claim by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, wrapping up his existence in the hagiography of Camelot.
The basic notion is this: the Kennedy family, led by then-Sen. John Kennedy, D-Mass., funded an airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States.
Among those 81 Kenyan students -- Barack Obama Sr., who then met and married a young woman named Ann Dunham, from Kansas.
And on August 4, 1961, Barack Obama, Jr., was born.
As Obama said to voters in Alabama last year: "What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, 'You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.'
"So the Kennedys decided, 'We're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is,'" Obama continued. "This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child."
Interesting considering, the airlift that brought Obama SR. to the US was organized in 1959. Kennedy's airlift happened in 1960.... Why did he lie about this?
The basic notion is this: the Kennedy family, led by then-Sen. John Kennedy, D-Mass., funded an airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States.
Among those 81 Kenyan students -- Barack Obama Sr., who then met and married a young woman named Ann Dunham, from Kansas.
And on August 4, 1961, Barack Obama, Jr., was born.
As Obama said to voters in Alabama last year: "What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, 'You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.'
"So the Kennedys decided, 'We're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is,'" Obama continued. "This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child."
Interesting considering, the airlift that brought Obama SR. to the US was organized in 1959. Kennedy's airlift happened in 1960.... Why did he lie about this?
