Wednesday, October 17, 2012

I was raised by a single mom

Barack Obama tried to show his empathy for single moms by saying in last night's debate:
I was raised by a single mom who had to put herself through school while looking after two kids.
Obama is apparently referring to about a year in about 3 years near 1974 when his mom finished her MA graduate degree in anthropology. You can find the full story on Wikipedia.

For the big majority of Obama's childhood, his mom was married to either her first husband (1961-63) or her second husband (1964-on), or he was living with his grandparents and attending a fancy private school.

I had thought that Obama was abandoned by his father and step-father, but he was not. His mom left both men, and she did it shortly after giving birth in both cases.

Obama also said:
OBAMA: My grandmother, she started off as a secretary in a bank. She never got a college education, even though she was smart as a whip. And she worked her way up to become a vice president of a local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling.
She attended Univ. of Washington and UC Berkeley. I guess she never got a degree, but it is false to say that she never got a college education.

Obama's personal life story was his main claim to fame, before being elected President. Why would he lie about his background? Does he not know that his grandmother went to college? Does he think that people are really going to buy this "single mom" story? I would think that genuine single moms would be annoyed at being compared to a woman like his mom.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Does he think that people are really going to buy this "single mom" story?"

Of course... Why wouldn't he? The media takes everything he says at face value and talks about it like it's the word of God... So of course, the idea that anyone would check anything he says is as foreign to him, as actually working...

Anonymous said...

Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.[8][9] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[10][11] and separated when Obama's mother moved with her newborn son to Seattle, Washington, in late August 1961, to attend the University of Washington for one year. In the meantime, Obama, Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. His parents divorced in March 1964.[12] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[13] He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[14]

In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[15] After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central Jakarta.[16] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and Besuki Public School from one and half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School home schooling by his mother.[17]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.[18] Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[19] Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to begin anthropology field work.[20] His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a Ph.D. in 1992, before dying in 1995

George said...

Yes. According to that, Obama only lived with that "single mom" for a year or so when he was about 10. They he "chose" to live with his grandparents instead. And his mom was not really single. She had a husband, but had run out on him.

Anonymous said...

Where does it say anything about how his mother had run out on his stepfather ? Is that just the way you view it ?

Anonymous said...

Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.

Is this the one year or so he lived with the single mom ? From 1972 to 1975 ? When he was 11 to 14 years old ?

George said...

I guess Obama did live about 3 years with his mom, not 1 year. She left her husband in Indonesia at that time.

Anonymous said...

Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. They also include teacher-training schools, community colleges, and institutes of technology. At the end of a prescribed course of study, a degree, diploma, or certificate is awarded.

His grandmother did not receive a college education. She was never awarded a degree, diploma or certificate.

Anonymous said...

Young Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961.[20] When his father left Hawaii to pursue his education, Barry and his mother stayed behind.[20

Is this what you mean by his mother ran out on his father ?

George said...

No, Obama's mom was the one to leave Hawaii to attend college in Seattle, leaving her husband behind. I was surprised to learn that myself, but that is what Wikipedia says.

Obama's grandmother never got a college degree. If he had said that, then I would have no quarrel with him. But she did attend 2 different colleges.

Anonymous said...

She returned to Indonesia in 1977 for her Masters' fieldwork and Obama stayed in the United States with his grandparents.

Also, from wikipedia, it says his mother didn't leave Hawaii till 1977, when Obama was 16.

I don't know what is true or not.

Anonymous said...

Helps Raise Barack Obama

Young Barack Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961.[20] When his father left Hawaii to pursue his education, Barry and his mother stayed behind.

This is from wikipedia, too. Under Stanley Ann Dunham.

Again, I'm not sure what to believe.

George said...

I must admit that it seems bizarre that an 18-year-old wife and college student would give birth in Hawaii, and then move to Seattle a couple of weeks later to attend a different college. She took the baby but not the husband. That is waht the sources say. I have never heard this explained. It is one of many strange oddities about Obama's past.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you'd think that there would be just one version of the events and they'd be alot clearer.