Jun 19 2006
Barack Obama Is History
Barack Obama, the shining new star in the Democrat party, is an impressive and personable pol. I found him very engaging and very naive – but I grew up outside DC in the powerhouse areas of Norther Virginia. So while Obama is impressive, he is just beginning his testing in the DC arena and has a lot to learn and a lot to prove. He has always seemed to me to be of high potential in a decade from now.
But if what Mac Ranger is posting is true, then Obama stumbled badly very early on. It seems Obama may have been hiding his Muslim background and pulling an ‘Al Gore’ when relaying his family history:
“Fiction: Obama stated in his Convention speech: ‘My father … grew up herding goats.’ The ‘goat herder’ claim has been repeated endlessly. It is a lie. Fact: Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama was a prominent and wealthy farmer. His son, Obama’s father, was a child of privilege, not privation. He was an outstanding student, not a herdsman.
“Fiction: Obama was given an ‘African’ name. Fact: Obama is a Muslim who has concealed his religion. I am a strong supporter of the Muslim community, and I believe Muslims have been scapegoated. Obama has a great opportunity to be forthright. Instead, he has treated his Muslim heritage as a dark secret. His grandfather was named ‘Hussein.’ That is an Arabic-Muslim, not African, name. Hussein was a devout Muslim and named his son, Barack Senior, ‘Baraka.’ Baraka is an Arabic word meaning ‘blessed.’ Baraka comes out of the Koran and Arabic, not Africa.
“Barack Senior was also a devoted Muslim, and also chose a Muslim name for his son, our own Barack Obama, Junior. Again, his name was an Arabic and Koranic.
Being Muslim should not be an issue. In fact, my entire stance on the Dubai Port debacle was people were reacting emotionally and not logically to the story. And now we do not have UAE paid for, state-of-the-art cargo scanners at the foreign ports DPI manages and which send cargo to the US. Reminder: a nuclear bomb doesn’t need to be offloaded at the docks, it just needs to get into some place like Baltimore harbor and detonate to what it needs to do.
Anyway, I digress. Being Muslim should not be an issue, but covering things up and exaggerating is a big problem. It would have been hard for a Muslim to withstand the ire of America in these tough times. But it will be much harder for a Muslim who hid his religion (and who knows what else) in a time when Muslims have lied about their intentions in order to attack us. In fact, this could hurt him right now. The last thing a Muslim politician should be caught doing is hiding the truth. Because once it is clear you are hiding one truth, the obvious next question is what else is being hidden?
A President or Vice President must be trusted to be frank with the American People. Bush has always been honest of forthright with his intentions and reasons (despite all the BS the left has tried to create out of whole clothe). Gore and Kerry both suffered terribly from a lack of credibility and trust in what they said they stood for. Al Gore was revisionists the likes we rarely see in the ego driven world of DC. And Kerry was for, against, behind, and in front of every important issue of the day. Not to mention his own problems with self-aggrandizing his life.
Obama better deal with this now. Even if he is not a practicing Muslim, accuracy in dealing with his heritage is an acid test of credibility. If he has failed this test, it is over for him.
Update: In Barak’s own words here is what he has to say from a 2004 interview.
AJ: I don’t really understand this post. Are you saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim?
He is a member of the United Church of Christ. His family attends UCC services. Why is he raising his children as Christians?
You’re also linking to Andy Martin. You really should look into this guy before you start believing his “exclusive” reports. His opinions are published by Out2.com for a reason.
yea, i’m wondering myself if somebody first broke this story two years ago, why hasn’t it gotten some traction. I don’t personally care one way or the other if it’s true or not. But seems like some news people would have dug into it by now. Guess we’ll know soon.
Gabriel,
I am not saying he is a Muslim or not (which is why you had to ask!). What I did say is being a Muslim, or a Christian from Muslim parents, is going to be tough enough without exaggerating and/or hiding facts about one’s life. The combination of these would destroy his credibility forever, because the bad image of Muslims willing to do anything to kill Americans. Lying is not something Al Qaeda seems all that worried about.
Just making the point that Obama may have killed any chances he had by not being up front and open early on.
Well, if the Andy Martin info is true, it’s appalling to me. But I’m a Republican who would never be among Obama’s voters, whether he’s a Muslim or Christian. In the Dem set, though, remember “The Man from Hope” who was elected twice to the highest office in the land? To this day we don’t have the true facts on Clinton’s linneage, upbringing, or childhood/youth. Clinton’s faith was paraded whenever politically expedient. Same with the Missus. What we have on Clinton is the politically crafted story set to emotionally riveting music — which more than satisfied the media and the necessary number of voters.
After reading the SunTimes piece, here’s my guess: even tho it’s nearly impossible to ferret out Obama’s true beliefs from the article, his words have the perfect ring of multi-culti mish mash designed to offend no one and make the hearts of the Oprahfied masses go pitter patter. Unless someone comes up with a video of Barack in a robe and turban preaching jihad in Arabic, that dog won’t hunt. The man has the “touch” and he has established the perfect electable image on the spiritual/family front.
AJ, I’m disappointed in you. This is a cheap shot, and irrelevant.
I’m sure you would say that, for instance, the Bush families historic ties to Nazi Germany are irrelevant to who the president is today, right? And you would blast any left wing blogger who tried to make the connection, even if that blogger cited the banking connection and other items that could make it appear that the Bushes had Nazi ties. You would dismiss such a person with extreme prejudice. But implying somehow that Obama is hiding his al-Qaida lineage? Come on, man, you’re better than that.
Obama bin Laden?…
Saying that the Illinois Senator is somehow “hiding his Muslimness” in order to mislead the American people … is like saying John Kerry doesn’t want you to know he’s really “part Jew”…
JReid,
Hopefully you know me well enough that if I am wrong, I will be here to post my error and attempt to make things right. If Barack did not hide his family’s ties, then I will be with him to denounce those who attempt to use his parents’ religion against him. You provide me a link to something tangible and I will post it.
AJStrata