Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of Barack Obama, the Illinois freshman senator and hot young Democratic Party star. But after reading his autobiography, I have to say that Barack engages in some serious exaggeration when he describes a job that he held in the mid-1980s. I know because I sat down the hall from him, in the same department, and worked closely with his boss. I can’t say I was particularly close to Barack – he was reserved and distant towards all of his co-workers – but I was probably as close to him as anyone. I certainly know what he did there, and it bears only a loose resemblance to what he wrote in his book.
Here’s Barack’s account:
Eventually a consulting house to multinational corporations agreed to hire me as a research assistant. Like a spy behind enemy lines, I arrived every day at my mid-Manhattan office and sat at my computer terminal, checking the Reuters machine that blinked bright emerald messages from across the globe. As far as I could tell I was the only black man in the company, a source of shame for me but a source of considerable pride for the company’s secretarial pool.
First, it wasn’t a consulting house; it was a small company that published newsletters on international business. Like most newsletter publishers, it was a bit of a sweatshop. I’m sure we all wished that we were high-priced consultants to multinational corporations. But we also enjoyed coming in at ten, wearing jeans to work, flirting with our co-workers, partying when we stayed late, and bonding over the low salaries and heavy workload.
Barack worked on one of the company’s reference publications. Each month customers got a new set of pages on business conditions in a particular country, punched to fit into a three-ring binder. Barack’s job was to get copy from the country correspondents and edit it so that it fit into a standard outline. There was probably some research involved as well, since correspondents usually don’t send exactly what you ask for, and you can’t always decipher their copy. But essentially the job was copyediting.
If the GOP is going to “Swift Boat” Obama, it’s going to be about this sort of thing. Kerry was condemned for his perceived exaggeration. The Dems do not fully understand how the process worked to untrack Kerry. People do not trust people who make stuff up as they go along.
It is interesting that we don’t hear any positive comments from normal people who worked side by side with Obama.
Nor do we hear from all the people in the community he organized.
I guess the democrats will refer to them as the “Silent Majority”.
Blasphemy John!
It doesn’t matter if he lies, has no experience, has never accomplished anything that would recommend him to the office of the Pres.
HE is the chosen one.
How dare you question what he says or writes.
No soup for you!
Obama is an all right guy. He is just a lightweight. Obama is fading because the attention on Sarah Palin’s qualifications is causing people to take another look at Obama’s curriculum vitae and what they see is a former “community organizer” with 140 working-days in the Senate and zero executive experience. He is an unqualified lightweight and the only reason the party elders selected him over Hillary is because of the color of his skin. Obama is the recipient of a great affirmative action award.
Back in May Obama cockily proclaimed he would debate Sen. John McCain “anywhere, anytime.” But in June, Obama said no to McCain’s challenge to have 10 one-on-one town hall meetings. If Obama had agreed to McCain’s proposal for 10 town hall-style debates we would be hearing a lot more substance instead of this silly name calling. However, Obama was afraid to engage McCain in ten debates on issues of substance because he knew that he would look untested, inexperienced and uninformed. He was correct, beauty contestants usually don’t do so well when they have to rely on their brains instead of their looks.
Swift. And boaty approach: “I know these things and can say them with 100% candor because I and I alone know the whole truth.”
We’ve seen it before. Take it with a grain.
Why not just go directly to Ann Coulter – the way the linked site recommends?
Statistics compiled by the FDA proves that Barack Hussein Obama contains more than the recommended amount of crap allowed by law.
Ant the truth rears its ugly head
but the blind masses if the liberal side of democratic party don’t see this and the are going to lose and my money is on lose badly because they “chose poorly” as the quote from Indiana Jones comes to mind
I feel sorry for you Americans. What crappy choices you have for this election.
“People do not trust people who make stuff up as they go along.” — You mean like McCain or Palin???
Obama’s a politician. Why is it news that he bends, stretches and twists the truth like taffy? Is that concept new to someone over the age of two?
My question is, why does McCain seem to fly under your radar with a “misremembered” half-truth or bold-faced lie every other day?
Obama is a stooge, but McCain is scary in the extreme. And this sort of thing doesn’t even rise to the level of mildly interesting in the context of world and/or political events going on.
This is a load of crap. That incredibly stupid graphic was debunked ages ago. JCD, shame on you for perpetuating such myths.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp
As for the meat of the story, there simply isn’t any. This is pure hearsay and crap.
Also, what the hell is “Sweetness and Light”? A blog? Are we trusting blogs as news sources now? Please John, I come to this blog for real stories. Was it such a slow news day that this qualified?
#11 Scott, please tell me you are being sarcastic with the above statement.
Are you really bitching that you can’t get your news from a blog because they quote a blog?
If we’re going to debate about someone’s opinion piece, would anyone mind if I derail this conversation onto opinions of real issues?
Here try this Op Ed piece Making America Stupid.
PAY ATTENTION SCOTT. The graphic doesn’t say Obama is muslim. In fact, it says quite the opposite.
Congrats, John, for finally opening your eyes on this stuffed shirt.
read this.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082802852.html
apparently the Democrats have no problem with this situation.
ROTFLMAO
Once AGAIN…McSame and his puppet Palin are SUCH jokes we can’t discuss any issues. Here on one of the worst weeks in Wall Street history, are we discussing their tax plans or Wall Street reforms? Nope, just how Obama is a secret Muslim who eats babies and wants to kill whitey. LOL
Whatever…if the Republicans keep the debate away from all issues, they just MIGHT win. So this is a good strategy. On the other hand, if the topic ever switches to issues…they’re toast. So I expect a LOT more lies from McCain (like Obama called Palin a big, and wants to teach sex to 5 year olds). McCain has lost all honor is is not fit to be President. He’s too old, too mean, and too much of a liar.
#16 “On the other hand, if the topic ever switches to issues…they’re toast.”
Very true. That’s why I was stunned when Obama went back on his promise to openly debate McCain on the issues. I think his campaign execs made a major error.
This election is the Dems to lose. Something they seem to be working very hard to do.
#19 “I think you should kill yourself so you don’t cost Obama the election.”
Thanks, I knew I was influential but I had NO idea.
I used to date Spencer Abraham…whee! Now I can run for office, too!
Now if only you could judge a man’s values by his religious affiliations… Unfortunately you can’t, this world is too full of hypocrits. I seriously doubt that these arguments will be all that useful for the GOP, added to the risk that they could backfire. On the other hand I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how gentlemenly these candidates have behaved up till now, but the clock is ticking, and NOVEMBER is so close, it’s just a matter of time before the white gloves come off.
#22 IGNORE THE CARTOON IT ISN’T THE STORY.
What you’ve listed above are minor discrepancies or non-issues hyped up to create yet another McCain-Palin lie.
Obama will have to lie NON-STOP 24/7 UNTIL NOVEMBER to catch up with McCain and Palin.
And there still would be a difference:
The McCain-Palin lies matter for America
It’s not just conservatives who see through Nobama’s tissue-thin resume and sociopathic lying, democrats are catching on too:
http://wewillnotbesilenced2008.com/
Holy smokes the American people have a painful learning curve.
Don’t you see the Republican pattern? They GOP pulled this exact same stunt in 2000 and 2004.
The Republican campaign LIED, BOLDLY LIED and SHAMELESSLY LIED AGAIN. If they got caught, they quickly moved on to ANOTHER LIE.
Then they accused the Democrat of being the chronic liar.
Rather than investigating, the media and the blogs reported it as, “both sides say the other is lying.”
These conservative scoundrels won in 2000 and 2004 with these dirty Swiftboating tactics and they think they can pull it off again.
#13
regarding the editorial, McCain has said it over and over: nuclear power. Why the writer thinks the government would have to buy/own/nationalize the nuke plants is not clear. He’s creating his own straw dog there.
#25 But in the end, they will get in line with all the other sheeple and vote along party lines.
Obama has nothing to worry about from groups like that.
#26
Take the knot out of your panties. Instead of blaming republicans, read the article – it was written by a self-admitted fan and supporter of Obama and corroborated by a number of the co-workers at Business International. Oh, let me guess, they are all paid operatives of the ‘vast right wing conspiracy’, right? If Obama had been man enough to go to town hall debates with McCain, maybe people wouldn’t be wondering who he is, other than an Ivy League presidential aspirant, with no experience, a nearly invisible resume and no notable accomplishments, besides winning an uncontested senate seat.
So, do I hear people saying that the swiftboaters story in 04 was not true?
Drinking the kooliad to the end.
Really, John? Obama was “introduced to Islam” by his father — who moved away when Obama was *2 years old*?
He was indoctrinated into Islam as a *2-year-old*?
Jesus, John, would you please do some basic fact-checking before you post?
[What are you talking about??? Read the story rather than look at the pretty picture. Cripes. No WONDER!!]
I still don’t understand: How does this anonymous source know that Obama was referring to that copyediting/research job when he talks about the consulting house job in his book?
I don’t get it. Somebody please explain…