Obama's quiet years in N.Y.C.

[IBE]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Obama's quiet years in N.Y.C.
 BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 Sunday, January 14th, 2007

 You can usually spot future politicians in college.

 They're the backslappers and the organizers, the ones who talk your ear off, appear so sure of themselves and always seem to pop up when a camera starts snapping.

 Barack Obama wasn't one of those guys.

 The Illinois senator, who has become a political superstar and is expected to jump into the 2008 presidential race any day now, spent three years in New York as a young man and graduated from Columbia University - where he barely left a mark.

 "He was not at all a high-profile student, not the sort of guy who is class president, who everyone says is going to have a future in politics," said Stuart Levi, a fellow international relations major from Columbia's class of 1983.

 "It's funny - there are people like that from my class, but he wasn't one of them," said Levi, now a lawyer at Skadden, Arps.

 Obama, who writes in his best-selling memoir of moving to New York from Los Angeles in his junior year after he decided to get serious about his future, was a transfer student who lived off-campus in a series of iffy sublets and spent a lot of time in the library.

 Many of his classmates don't remember Obama. He's not in the yearbook. Columbia couldn't find a picture of him at school.

 "You didn't see him at a lot of events and activities," said classmate Gerrard Bushell, who remembers Obama's arrival mostly because there weren't many black students.

 "I remember him being very quiet. He had a nice smile. A thoughtful approach. You knew he was smart, but you never got a sense that here was someone who wanted to overwhelm you."

 Bushell, who went on to work in city politics, said he was impressed with Obama but didn't foresee his meteoric rise.

 "We knew he had what it took to be successful," he said. "But this is amazing."

 Obama opened his book, "Dreams from My Father," in Manhattan, when he was living in a dump on E. 94th St. that he described vividly.

 "The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle."

 Obama's first night in New York was spent curled up around his luggage in an alleyway on W. 109th St. - because his new landlord was AWOL.

 He claims one of his roommates while in New York was an undocumented Pakistani immigrant named Sadiq, although he warns some of the people in the book are "composites."

 Obama wrote that the wealth and stark racial divisions of Manhattan in the early 1980s had a profound effect on him.

 "I stopped getting high. I ran 3 miles a day and fasted on Sundays. For the first time in years I applied myself to my studies and started keeping a journal of daily reflections and very bad poetry," he wrote.

 "You're becoming a bore," his friends told him.

 He went to socialist conferences at Cooper Union and African cultural fairs in Brooklyn and started lecturing his relatives until they worried he'd become "one of those freaks you see on the streets around here."

He wrestled with his racial identity, and one of the casualties was his year-long relationship with a wealthy white girlfriend. "I pushed her away," he wrote.

 After graduating, he took an analyst job at Business International Corp. to pay off his loans while looking for a grass-roots organizing job. He had an office and a secretary but it bothered him to be the only black executive, he wrote, so he quit.

 Soon after, Obama lit out for a $13,000-a-year job as a community organizer in Chicago - where his destiny awaited.[/url]

[LouiseVargas]

I don't take to heart anything negative you Monkeys say about Barack Obama. He is young, healthy and ever so intelligent and CLEAN. Say what you wish but remember my words, one day he will be president.

[Tibrogargan]

I feel a bit of a fraud posting anything about American politics as I do not understand the philosophy behind either party.  Geez,  I barely understand our two main Australian political parties, but I must say over the years their aims and objects have gradually drawn closer together and now there is very little to choose between them on a party basis.
But back to this subject.  I must say that it is amazing how the personalities come across on the TV and I guess I am a bit sensitive in that way.  My impression of Mr Obama is that he is a very interesting man and will make great progress in politics.  I agree with Louise that he has a good aura about him and it would not surprise me to see him as President in the not too distant future.

[pdh3]

I don't understand why living a quiet life in NYC is considered a bad thing. Bush 43 might have been better off living a quiet life and forgoing the drinkin' and druggin' when he was young. At least give Obama credit for having the intelligence and willpower to get himself on the right path. He certainly didn't have Daddy's money to lean on. He is a self-made man. I can respect that.
If someone doesn't agree with Obama's politics, so be it. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not sure I would agree with all of his ideas. Once he declares his candidacy, I will examine them closely too. But right now, everyone is in a tizzy about him prematurely. Hillary will give him a run for his money, and he may choose to wait.
Personally, I think he'd be a much better leader than Hillary, and would be more electable, but it may not be his turn yet. She has a lot of power in the Democratic party, and she will use it.

[Bobo2]

I don't understand why living a quiet life in NYC is considered a bad thing.

I find it refreshing.  I can't say I know enough about his political views to vote for him (or not) but I am keeping my eye on him.  I agree he will likely be president someday.  

Ever since the live evening televised speech Bush made in from of Congress in the days after 9-11, I cannot stomach Hilary Clinton.  While most of congress and the nation were somber and attentive, Hillary was photographed laughing and talking during Bush's speech.  Politicking with her cronies while our nation was in crisis.  That picture is forever etched in my brain and I will never vote for her.

[mrs. red]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Obama's quiet years in N.Y.C.
 BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 Sunday, January 14th, 2007

 You can usually spot future politicians in college.

 They're the backslappers and the organizers, the ones who talk your ear off, appear so sure of themselves and always seem to pop up when a camera starts snapping.

 
 Obama's first night in New York was spent curled up around his luggage in an alleyway on W. 109th St. - because his new landlord was AWOL.

((((SNIPPED FOR LENGTH)

 He claims one of his roommates while in New York was an undocumented Pakistani immigrant named Sadiq, although he warns some of the people in the book are "composites."

 Obama wrote that the wealth and stark racial divisions of Manhattan in the early 1980s had a profound effect on him.

 "I stopped getting high.[/b] I ran 3 miles a day and fasted on Sundays. For the first time in years I applied myself to my studies and started keeping a journal of daily reflections and very bad poetry," he wrote.

 "You're becoming a bore," his friends told him.

 He went to socialist conferences at Cooper Union and African cultural fairs in Brooklyn and started lecturing his relatives until they worried he'd become "one of those freaks you see on the streets around here."

He wrestled with his racial identity, and one of the casualties was his year-long relationship with a wealthy white girlfriend. "I pushed her away," he wrote.
 After graduating, he took an analyst job at Business International Corp. to pay off his loans while looking for a grass-roots organizing job. He had an office and a secretary but it bothered him to be the only black executive, he wrote, so he quit.

 Soon after, Obama lit out for a $13,000-a-year job as a community organizer in Chicago - where his destiny awaited.[/url]

Well, apparently Barack did do drugs.... see the bold above, and he can't date a woman in his youth because she's white???

sorry folks these are the comments that trouble me... it speaks of a mindset that I am not sure I agree with.. (the gf comment)

Yes, it takes courage to get clean but why is it so wonderful that Obama did that ... and yet Bush is condemned?  sorry y'all it's the same either way IMO...

[LouiseVargas]

Mrs. Red,

I cannot recall any derogatory comments re GW's alcohol and cocaine abuse. It was discussed but he would not talk about it. It is documented that he was an abuser.  Yet he was elected. He was not condemned, it was ignored.

It's wonderful for anybody to get clean, doncha think? Even Barack?

Barack is around 46 and got clean years ago. Bush did NOT begin to try to get clean until his 40s. So who do you suppose has the most brain cells left?

[nonesuche]

I will not vote for Barack and  think those who do are accepting a risk to this country that is naive. Barack is muslim.

[Tylergal]

Obama and apostasy from Islam
Thomas Lifson
Barack Obama was born to Muslim father, married to an American atheist. His father's religion is the reason both his first and middle names, Barack and Hussein, are Islamic in origin.

According to Islamic scripture, one born to a Muslim father is a Muslim. Forever. Because according to Muslim law and tradition, the penalty for leaving the faith is death.

Today, Barack Obama proclaims his adherence to the Christian faith. This would seem to make him a potential target for death, according to at least the more militant adherents of Sharia law.  Apostasy is a capital offense in several Muslim countries.

Dr. Jack Wheeler has noticed this circumstance, and hopes that an enterprising journalist will question Obama about whether or not he feels threatened by his apostasy, and ask him for an outright denunciation of the practice of enforcing the death penalty, and a call for religious freedom in Islamic countries.

    The odds are high that he will answer no to the first and yes to the second. As an oily politician, he will try to squirm out of a clear definitive yes with no wiggle room. But it should not be difficult for a smart journalist to get him to agree without reservation that Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states...  

        Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right includes freedom to change his religion or belief.

    ...applies to Muslims

    Once Obama condemns the Moslem tradition of death for apostasy, then he can be asked:  

    The Koran famously quotes Allah as saying in chapter (sura) 2, verse 256 that there should be ‘no compulsion in religion.' Yet numerous sayings of Mohammed known as hadith which form the basis of Islamic Sharia law quote Mohammed as saying ‘If a Moslem discards his religion, kill him.' So are you telling Moslems that Allah was right but Mohammed was misquoted, and their Sharia law tradition on apostasy is wrong?

    You can see how much fun there is to be had with this.

Wheeler is quite correct that Obama is theoretically under the threat of death. It would be far more than merely amusing to get his views. I would rather not see this circumstance as an opportunity for a gotcha with the media's Democrat golden boy of the moment. It is long past time for non-Muslims to demand that Muslims offer reciprocity in the realm of tolerance for other faiths. The West, over the course of several difficult centuries, has created tolerant societies, from which Muslims greatly benefit on the basis of equality. Yet Muslim theology and practice in several important countries do not offer the same tolerance.

This asymmetry must end. If Barack Obama can help raise this issue, based on his own unique circumstances, I would not seek political advantage, I would support him in it.  But of course, if he refused to make such a call, that would raise many red flags.

Hat tip: Andrew Bostom

[LouiseVargas]

For Nonesy,

I copied this post for you. I posted it on December 11, 2006.  

Mrs. Red also said he was a Muslim but he is not.

Barack Obama is not a Muslim, he is a Christian.

****************
With all the hoopla and media coverage today about Barack Obama in New Hampshire, it was reported by John Gibson on FOX that he is a Christian, not a Muslim. His father was a Muslim from Kenya and his mother was a white Christian from Kansas. He belongs to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

His parents divorced when he was two and the father went back to Kenya. His mother remarried.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes a nearly race-blind early childhood. He writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me –- that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk –- barely registered in my mind."
*****************

[nonesuche]

Louise,

I am confident that the truth of Barack will be exposed and certain what you are posting as the truth is not reality, but that you very much want to believe in Barack. Hopefully this election will be an exercise in critical thinking skills by our voters, our lives may well depend upon it.

[darleenofalabama]

Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Muslim, and anything put out to the contrary is pure propaganda.  He is a Muslim; he doesn't want it known for political reasons.  No patriotic American would vote for a Muslim to lead this country.  And, Nonesuche, my tiara is off to you on this one; I agree with you 100%!!!!  The American voters need to get educated and know who these candidates really are, and the most important thing they need to know is that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim.

[LouiseVargas]

Dear Nonesy,

Yes, I very much want to believe in Obama. I can't explain how passionately I feel and strong I feel that I know a star when I see one.

But I'm with YOU 100% in wanting to know everything about Obama. If it exposes him as a fraud, I'd rather know it sooner than later. He is going to be scrutinized under a microscope. I'm with you ... let's wait for more information.

Love. Louise

[pdh3]

Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Muslim, and anything put out to the contrary is pure propaganda.  He is a Muslim; he doesn't want it known for political reasons.  No patriotic American would vote for a Muslim to lead this country.  And, Nonesuche, my tiara is off to you on this one; I agree with you 100%!!!!  The American voters need to get educated and know who these candidates really are, and the most important thing they need to know is that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim.

Does he belong to a Mosque? Do you see him with a prayer rug, facing Mecca 5 times a day? Has he been to Mecca?  How does one practice the Muslim faith without observing the rituals? His wife does not wear a burka, nor do his daughters. You state that he is a Muslim, but he does not live that lifestyle nor does he observe Muslim Holy Days. Does he read the Koran? You don't know those answers. You are making assumptions based on stereotypes.
Please do not make statements about his true faith until you know all the facts. My father was a Baptist, but I am a Methodist. My brother is a Catholic. I have a Jewish last name, but I am not Jewish, nor is anyone in my family as far back as 200 years. You cannot assume anything about  a man by the name his parents chose to give him.
I have a good friend who is Jewish, and his last name is Hall. He is tall,  has blonde hair and blue eyes:wink:

[darleenofalabama]

My opinions are based on educated facts and I'm firm about them; I state them and they are non-debatable for me.  Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Muslim who does not want that known for political reasons; he has illusions of grandeur politically.  Anyone who does not get educated about his background and naively believes him does so at their own peril, as does anyone who identifies with him.  I am firm in my belief and there will be no debating it for me.  Hopefully, his political enemies and the better-educated American voters will defeat him quickly.

[LouiseVargas]

Darling pdh3,

Your post was very astute. Thank you so much.

And now I'm going to do something to honor you.

I'm standing on a chair, clapping clapping clapping.

[mrs. red]

so those of you that really love Obama.... what about he couldn't stay with his girlfriend because she is/was white???  I am sorry but that is a mindset that is worrisome not to mention the whole Muslim thing..... and do check out the church he attends.... it's not mainstream.....

[mrs. red]

so those of you that really love Obama.... what about he couldn't stay with his girlfriend because she is/was white???  I am sorry but that is a mindset that is worrisome not to mention the whole Muslim thing..... and do check out the church he attends.... it's not mainstream.....

Oh and let me add.... when he spoke to the inner city Chicago church... it certainly wasn't the astute, well spoken Obama of the media.... it smacked of racism... and that is one quality I despise in any human being -

[LouiseVargas]

Mrs. Red,

Are you saying something is wrong with Barack Obama because he wasn't comfortable with a white girlfriend? Maybe there was zero chemistry. Could that be the reason?
**********************
Mrs. wrote: so those of you that really love Obama.... what about he couldn't stay with his girlfriend because she is/was white??? I am sorry but that is a mindset that is worrisome not to mention the whole Muslim thing..... and do check out the church he attends.... it's not mainstream.....

[pdh3]

My opinions are based on educated facts and I'm firm about them; I state them and they are non-debatable for me.  Barack HUSSEIN Obama is a Muslim who does not want that known for political reasons; he has illusions of grandeur politically.  Anyone who does not get educated about his background and naively believes him does so at their own peril, as does anyone who identifies with him.  I am firm in my belief and there will be no debating it for me.  Hopefully, his political enemies and the better-educated American voters will defeat him quickly.

What facts? From where? You cannot state "facts" without proof. How do you know your sources are correct? I could say I know for a fact that he's a snake handler, but without a source that is reliable, no one should believe it.
I am not naive, and I am college educated, and very well read. I resent the implication that I am not quite smart enough, and should get my facts from an unsubstantiated source such as your post.
I will review each Presidential candidate with an open mind, and listen to the plans and ideas brought forth by all of them before making a decision.
I'm not blindly going to follow the rhetoric of any political party.
This pointing fingers at people and calling them "Muslims" reminds me of the Salem Witch Hunts.
Darleen.....does Barack Obama float?