Who is Barack Obama? Part 1

Katiebird has been asking this question for a while now. In particular, what, if any, full-time job has he ever had?  Katie even suggested a series comparing the life work of Clinton vs. Obama. I think that is a great idea, and I’ll do my best to do so. But I have discovered that it is hard to do since there is little from Obama’s bio to compare to Clinton. In fact, I think there are a lot of important questions that should have been asked and answered a long time ago. I thought I’d do my best to look into a few of them. This isn’t an easy task since the media refuses to look into his past in even the slightest detail. And the Obamanuts cry racism every time you start to dig a little deeper.

First let’s take a look at Obama’s official congressional bio:

OBAMA, Barack, a Senator from Illinois; born in Honolulu, Hawaii, August 4, 1961; obtained early education in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Hawaii; continued education at Occidental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; received a B.A. in 1983 from Columbia University, New York City; worked as a community organizer in Chicago, Ill.; studied law at Harvard University, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review, and received J.D. in 1991; lecturer on constitutional law, University of Chicago; member, Illinois State senate 1997-2004; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004 for term beginning January 3, 2005.

We will probably never know much about his early life, so let’s focus on his education and professional life. It says that he “continued his education” at Occidental College in Los Angeles. The only reliable info on what he did while there was on Occidental’s own website and only stated that:

Obama attended Occidental for two years before transferring to Columbia University, where he completed his undergraduate degree in 1983.

It seems that Obama played basketball for the Division III Occidental Tigers, and was the team’s leading scorer in 1979. I am not sure if he was recruited to Occidental or if he decided to play ball after he got there. Probably the most in-depth account of his time there comes from a January 29, 2007 article in the LA Times:

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is usually described as an alumnus of Columbia University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and of Harvard Law School.

But the Illinois Democrat began his undergraduate education at Occidental, and the 1,825-student liberal arts college in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles isn’t shy about claiming him as an alumnus for his two years there (1979-81) on full scholarship. Perhaps, some think, it’s where his political and oratory skills were nurtured.

Despite the somewhat awkward facts that Obama transferred from Occidental and that his official website biography doesn’t even mention the campus, old friends and former teachers at the well-regarded 120-year-old school proudly described him as a serious scholar and a good athlete who helped the JV Tigers basketball team to an undefeated season.

Though some express surprise at his current prominence, classmates recall a slim, good-looking teen with a moderate Afro, a taste for Casa Bianca’s Hawaiian-style pizza (pineapple and ham) and a role in protesting college investments in firms doing business in South Africa during the apartheid era.

This article, by the way, is no longer available at the LA Times website, which is curious. I also wonder whether his scholarship was academic based or sports based. Obama himself has admitted that his grades in high school were less than spectacular. Anyway, I think Obama’s motivation for attending the school is interesting. In his own words:

In his 1995 autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama recounted how he was accepted into “several respectable” colleges but chose Occidental “mainly because I’d met a girl from Brentwood while she was vacationing in Hawaii.”

Make of that what you will, but to me it seems about right coming from someone who refers to professional women as “sweetie”.

Obama left Occidental to study at Columbia University. That move as well is shrouded in mystery. Again, from the same article above:

Anne Howells, a retired English professor, said she wrote Obama a recommendation for his Columbia transfer — even though he sometimes turned in assignments late.

“He wanted a bigger school and the experience of Manhattan,” she said. “I thought it was a good move for him.”

In his e-mail, Obama confirmed that he transferred partly “because Occidental was so small, I felt that I had gotten what I needed out of it and the idea of being in New York was very appealing.” But another reason was that he had many older friends who were graduating. College spokesman Jim Tranquada said privacy rules forbid releasing grades, but that Obama left in good standing.

As a professor myself I find that quote by Howells a bit cryptic. How can she have written a recommendation for a student to an Ivy League school and the only thing she can remember is that he “turned his assignments in late”? You’d think she’d have something a little more inspirational or even substantial to say about a former student.  Especially one who she recommended to Columbia, and who is also running to be this country’s next president.  I am curious about his grades as well.  I would think it would be quite difficult to transfer from a small liberal arts college to a prestigious Ivy League institution without impeccable grades and academic credentials.  Yet all the school says is that he left in “good standing”.  Obama himself refuses to realease any of his transcripts to the public

Another professor quoted in the above article was contacted later by reporters to help concoct their fluffed up bio of Obama from the period, but again, not much there. Either that, or what they found didn’t fit the narrative they were trying to create:

Mr. Boesche said that some of the reporters who call him up for an interview are disappointed, to judge from the fact that his quotes don’t always make the grade.

He estimates that around 10 different reporters have contacted him looking for stories; he hasn’t appeared in all of them.

Finally there is this quote, which I think sums up Barry’s first few years as an undergrad. And before anyone accuses me of bringing up prior drug use, it is a fact to which he has admitted. I hardly judge him for having smoked pot in college. I’m sure a lot of us probably did too. But this is the man who is running for President, and this is how people he went to college with remember him (from the LA Times):

A woman who knew Obama at Occidental but did not want to be identified said she remains surprised that “Barry” might run for president. “It was just different times then. People sat around and smoked dope and talked about how they would reform the world. But you never thought they would,” she said.

I hope that when people that I studied with remember me, it is for my actual accomplishments rather than late night bull sessions about “reforming the world”.  But that’s neither here nor there, because I am not running for President.

Up next:  “Who is Hillary Clinton? Part 1″  in which we will explore Senator Clinton’s undergraduate career.  Then after that “Who is Barack Obama? Part 2″  where I will try to determine just exactly what Obama got his BA in from prestigious Columbia University.