An article written by Obama's father in 1965 Kenya

[Adelante]

This is apparently one of the pointers to Marxism they are using against Obama. But Politico does a surprisingly good job of debunking here:

Long-lost article by Obama's dad surfaces

-snip

Greg Ransom, a blogger who unearthed the journal at UCLA's library, calls the article "the Rosebud" that provides the missing key to Obama's memoir. Ransom wrote about its contents recently in a posting with the provocative headline, "Obama Hid His Father's Socialist and Anti-Western Convictions From His Readers."

But Kenya expert Dr. Raymond Omwami, an economist and UCLA visiting professor from the University of Helsinki who has also worked at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said Obama Sr. could not be considered a socialist himself based solely on the material in his bylined piece.

Omwami points out Obama Sr.'s paper was primarily a harsh critique of the controversial 1965 government document known as the "Sessional Paper No. 10." Sessional Paper No. 10 rejected classic Karl Marx philosophies then embraced by the Soviet Union and some European countries, calling instead for a new type of socialism to be used specifically in Africa.

The government paper rejected materialism (i.e., "conspicuous consumerism"), outlined the nation's goals to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and disease, and also laid out important decrees regarding land use for economic development. Obama Sr.'s response covers these issues, frequently focusing on the distribution of real estate to farmers. Since most Kenyans could not afford farmland in line with market forces established earlier by white British farmers, Obama Sr. argued that strong development planning should better define common farming space to maximize productivity, and should defer to tribal traditions instead of hastening individual land ownership.

In other words, Obama Sr.'s paper was not a cry for acceptance of radical politics, but was instead a critique of a government policy by Kenya's Ministry of Economic Planning & Development, which applied African socialism principles to the country's ongoing political upheaval.

"The critics of this article are making a big mistake," says Omwami, who read the document and the associated internet debate at the request of Politico over the weekend. "They are assuming Obama Sr. is the one who came up with this concept of African socialism, but that's totally wrong. Based on that, they're imbuing in him the idea that he himself is a socialist, but he is not."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9610.html

[papau]

1. I don't care about Dad or Preacher's thoughts - just don't like the talking differently in private

[Hepburn]

17. How exactly did he "talk differently" in private if...

...people were allowed to bring in tape recording devices to replay his remarks for others?

Duh.....:eyes:

[Adelante]

19. All candidates do, though

They talk to donors according to what the concerns are at present. They answer questions posed by volunteers about what the ground is like. I don't accept that he's talking different in private than in public. It's just a more directed audience. I imagine a tape might surface of Hillary saying things privately to donors in a way she wouldn't issue as a public statement, although less comprehensively stated, still reflecting her thinking. If that were picked over and broadcasted and challenged concertedly, well, she'd be Obama this week.

[Unsane]

2. The Governator's dad was a fucking NAZI

literally

[JoFerret]

4. I don't see the relevance

Nothing criminal about being a socialist.

Why are you bringing this up. Will we be hearing about Bill in a minute? What's the relevance?

[Unsane]

7. "Nothing criminal about being a socialist."

In American politics it is a death sentence.

Unless you represent Vermont.

[JoFerret]

14. Well - NO evidence

Obama has any such "tendency". (To me that is understandable given the state of US politics - but most regrettable.)

I just thought the piece was an interesting tidbit. It has no actual relevance to the candidate or his campaign. Just to his fairly distant personal history.

[Unsane]

24. I agree.

I'm just refuting your notion that "there's nothing wrong with being socialist." In American poitics there is.

[JoFerret]

3. I wish he had inherited

His father's "socialism" if that is actually true.
Would be a damn sight better than what we see now.

And his mother's atheism too. Enough with the second coming crapola and religiosity.

[babylonsister]

5. Obama--Busted!

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/04/15/obama-busted.aspx

Obama--Busted!

Chris and Jason's feeble protests notwithstanding, it looks like Obama is in fact a closet Marxist. The right-wing nut-o-sphere has apparently sussed this out on the basis of an academic paper Obama's father wrote back in 1965 (via Politico)--see, for example, this barely coherent parsing of the paper from the blogger who unearthed it. Absolutely pathetic.

According to the development expert Ben Smith and Jeffrey Ressner consulted for their Politico piece, the paper is an artifact of an esoteric debate about the right way to implement a set of Kenyan economic reforms back in 1965--and absolutely can't be understood outside of the historical/economic/political context in which it was written. In other words, no one with more than well-below-average intelligence or a shred of integrity would conclude from it that Obama Sr. was an ardent Communist. And no one who met a quarter of those criteria would make the additional, preposterous leap between this paper and the worldview of Barack Obama the presidential candidate. Sadly, that doesn't appear to include the right-wing hacks spreading this nonsense. I await the forthcoming Bill Kristol column...

--Noam Scheiber

[Adelante]

6. Thanks, sis!

:hi:

[blogslut]

8. Political viewpoints are genetic?

Who knew?

I suppose it's good Politico debunked the slant of the blogger that found the article but I still don't trust Politico.

Regardless, in case the right wing forgot, Barack Obama barely knew his father. It's like saying that because my Grandfather, who died before my third birthday, was a anarchist, that makes me an anarchist.

Actually, my grandfather was a baptist preacher. Yet, my parents took us to a Methodist church and I am now, an agnostic. :)

[Adelante]

11. It's loony toons, for sure nt

[Hepburn]

18. Yeah....

....I am an RW Nixon lover like my total Repubbie parents were. It's genetic...!

:sarcasm:

[Vinca]

9. My father was a Republican - worse than a Marxist IMHO.

What's the point of articles such as this except to shill for an opposing candidate?

[Adelante]

12. Did you read the entire article?

That's not what it does.

[NashVegas]

10. I Suspect The Same Could Be Said of His Mother

Due to references I've seen that said she was a "fellow traveler," a tag for those who flirted with communism.

This should be a bigger hassle to counter in the GE. Right now, his opponent's husband took part in a Vietnam War teach-in, IIRC. Not a winning issue for HC.

[cooolandrew]

13. I don't even get why it would so bad if he was. Still if the article debunkd it debunks.

[Adelante]

15. No, it wouldn't, I agree

It was immediately post-independence Africa and everybody who wrote was writing about these very topics. However, it will be twisted and used against Obama in the GE, so I'm just as happy to have an expert on the record explaining it. You know, for those LTTEs we will be writing to local newspapers and national media. So this is good.

[Hepburn]

16. Jay-zus H. Christ....

...they are now going after his dead father? WTF?

Talk about bullshit!

[Adelante]

20. Well, they went after his kindergarten records

:D

[EFerrari]

21. The through line is interesting, though. Apparently his father

was brilliant even if he wasn't successful.

And Sr. didn't introduce Marxism to the government he was writing about - he was critiquing its applications.

[K Gardner]

22. Too bad for them Barack didn't know his father aside from one short

period of time the elder visited him in Hawaii.

[babylonsister]

23. It doesn't matter; Kristol, Rove, Faux, are attaching the marxist

label to Obama anyway...

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/15/rove-obama-marxist/

[Pawel K]

25. And this applies to Obama why? He never knew his father, this fucking media has no shame