I grew up in the 1950’s when people actually did call one another communists. And in the 1930’s and 1940’s we actually had communists in intellectual circles. It was an interesting idea to be explored back then, before the communist experiments around the world showed where that particular philosophy led. But, by jingo, there’s communists in the wood pile again. Here’s a quote from one of the more vociferous anti-Obama web sites, TheObamaFile.com:
Barack Obama was born of Communist activists, mentored by a communist writer and activist, spent his college days hanging around radical activists, worked as a radical community organizer learning the radical tactics of Alinsky, kept contact with radicals through the years, attends a radical church, and today lends his political skill to the international goals of radical activists, and has radicals working on his campaign.
So let’s plow through this. First, the quote talks about “communists” and “radicals”, which aren’t the same thing. So I’ll just talk about the Communist part. [This article is incomplete at this point.]
Obama’s Mother was a Communist
I’m not sure how relevant this would be if it were true, given how little time Obama spent with his mother.
Obama’s Father was a Communist
I’m not sure how relevant this would be if it were true, given that Obama hardly knew his father.
Obama was mentored by a Communist
I am your father
The alleged communist mentor is Frank Marshall Davis. If memory serves me right Internet Powerhouse Andy Martin believes that Davis is more than Obama’s mentor; he is his father. [Sorry, a scene from Star War forced itself into my mind.]
So was Frank Marshall Davis a Communist?
That rather depends on who you believe. Davis was certainly accused of being a communist (along quite a long list of other people) by the now infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) back in 1950 (11 years before Obama was born). The accusation was based on articles he wrote for the Hawaii Record newspaper, accused of being a Communist “front organization,” something which the newspaper did not admit.
It’s fair to call Davis a “radical” but then lots of people were “radicals” back in the 1960’s (you had to be there). It was time when African Americans were building a new identity flush with the freedoms granted by the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. There was a lot of anger about the Vietnam War. This was the time into which Obama was born.
The Weekly Telegraph reports on the relationship between Davis and the Dunham family in a somewhat lurid article entitled Frank Marshall Davis, alleged Communist, was early influence on Barack Obama. The article says that the poet (Marshall) met Barack Obama when the boy was 10 years old and living with his grandparents in Hawaii (Marshall and Obama’s grandfather were friends and played Scrabble and got drunk together). Obama mentions Marshall (as “Frank”) in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, including one big page full on page 97 about Obama’s leaving for college.
Obama discusses his relationship in the pamphlet Unfit For Publication, which may be downloaded from his web site and on page 9, quotes from Dreams:
It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela. And if later I saw that the black men I knew- Frank or Ray or Will or Rafiq- fell short of such lofty standards; if I had learned to respect these men for the struggles they went through, recognizing them as my own-my father’s voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man!”
Conclusion: Frank Marshall Davis and Barack Obama were friends, but Obama did not always agree with Davis. There is some suggestive evidence that Davis could have joined the Communist Party of the USA during World War II, but not that he had a continuing or active membership. In any case, that doesn’t make Barack Obama a Communist nor Frank Marshall David his “mentor”.
For a very detailed discussion on the relationship between Davis and Obama as well as claims of Davis’ communist connections, see Redbaiting Barack Obama by Mark Davis, Frank Marshall Davis’ son.
As the son of Frank Marshall Davis, I have been fighting a right-wing disinformation campaign, spearheaded by Cliff Kincaid’s “Accuracy In Media” (AIM), that misrepresents the Davis-Obama relationship in an apparent attempt to exaggerate Obama’s radical background. The AIM website is the source of the falsehoods regarding my father. The campaign consists of a series of small lies fabricated to support the big lie that “His values, passed on to Obama, were those of a communist agent who pledged allegiance to Stalin” (see http://www.aim.org/aim-column/media-excuse-obamas-false-advertising/).
If AIM had actual proof of my father’s radical influence, there would be no reason to fabricate evidence. Frank Marshall Davis was almost lynched as a young boy. I cannot allow Cliff Kincaid to repeat history.
Fortunately, Uncle Sam trained me to recognize and refute such lies. I am a retired Air Force Intelligence Officer, with specific CIA training in Deception Analysis at “The Farm” in 1989. Their “specific misrepresentation” is documented at http://web.archive.org/web/20111026085018/http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/Kaleokualoha/gGxdvX, and I invite your readers of integrity to review my proof of AIM’s deliberate misrepresentation. Please refute my analysis, if possible. I believe you will find that the case for AIM disinformation is ironclad.
Thanks very much for coming by and sharing your comments and the link to your article. FYI Footnote 42 in your article (the AP story) no longer works.
http://drorly.blogspot.com/2009/01/hugo-chavez-columbian-leftist-rebels.html
Obama is a marxist. And while you may not see it, marxist rebels with uranium do.
First Obama was a Socialist, then a Communist and now they say he is a marxist.
I wish they would make up their minds.
Yet another alias for Obama.
http://drorly.blogspot.com/2009/01/letter-from-reader-carol.html
More allegations/associations from Doc Orley:
http://drorly.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-information-for-us-attorney.html
Why does it take so long to be moderated?
Because I have a day job.
Dr. C,
Very good reason. I do too but it is from my home. Lucky me!
I also sleep…from time to time, and probably not enough.
This just confirms what I’ve long suspected, that our president is TOTALLY RADICAL!
Thanks for the update. I replaced that link with one from USA Today on the same story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-08-02-896985881_x.htm
I believe that would be “TOTALLY RAD, MAN!”
(Sorry, had to inject a moment of levity).
Regarding Bill Steigerwald, note at the bottom where it says “Bill Steigerwald is the Tribune-Review’s associate editor” with an email address & phone number to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
That paper is owned by Richard Mellon-Scaiffe. It is the local right-wing paper. Smaller paper than the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mellon-Scaiffe also used that paper to get at Bill Clinton in the 90’s.
“…the paper that specifically hired a “journalist” to write stories for the Tribune-Review challenging the conclusion that Foster’s death was a suicide…”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/26/03055/1450/751/484376
http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2004/06/18/hunting/
I think my sister knows one of the Steigerwalds. I’ll have to ask her. Bill’s brother, Bob, is (or was) the local sports reporter. But, I don’t know if he still is.
I downloaded that disinformation document of Rumsfeld’s that was declassified. I saw where he justified the illegal disinformation to US Citizens by saying that Foreign News would pick up domestic news stories. Amazing.
Bill Steigerwald was asked numerous times to substantiate his claim that Frank Marshall Davis was a lifelong member of the CPUSA (http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_571431.html), but he continues to stonewall. I guess that’s what happens when you are caught with your hand in the liar jar . . .