Can the Democrats tell the truth?
The Obama campaign is painting Clinton as a serial exaggerator after her Bosnian Sniper incident, helping bring peace to Northern Ireland, how she was instrumental in passing SCHIP and the Family and Medical Leave Act - while Obama is still trying to change the subject after his reversal on whether he knew about or heard any of his mentor's rants. Now the Washington Post reports Obama has exaggerated the Kennedys role in bringing his father to America.
Quote:
Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala. a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.
The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which "history replays itself" and by how "two generations of two families -- separated by distance, culture and wealth -- can intersect in strange and wonderful ways."
It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.
Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton acknowledged yesterday that the senator from Illinois had erred in crediting the Kennedy family with a role in his father's arrival in the United States. He said the Kennedy involvement in the Kenya student program apparently "started 48 years ago, not 49 years ago as Obama has mistakenly suggested in the past."
Or in other words, "I owed my 'very existence' to the Kennedys before I didn't owe my 'very existence' to the Kennedys?
Today, my paper printed an article about Obama's bowling adventure on Saturday (he reportedly scored a 37) "as part of his new emphasis on low-key, face-to-face campaigning," in which he was quoted as saying he wanted to "take time for the retail politics that I enjoy and think helps people know me better.. . We'll probably save the rallies toward the end of the campaign."
Immediately below that article was one entitled "Obama's Penn State Rally Draws 20000."
Well, Sunday is later than Saturday. Seriously folks... race, gender and party aside is this what you want in a president, someone who either can't tell the truth or can't distinguish fact from fantasy?
