Sarah Obama
Over at the Barackryphal blog, they’re wondering exactly when and how that “born in Kenya” story got started. As for me, I have this fantasy of meeting Sarah Obama and asking her when she learned that she had a new grandson.
Turns out that this is known, and the information traces back to the Chicago Tribune in an article from March 27, 2007 long before anybody was doing that “born in Africa” stuff.
Six months after they wed, another letter arrived in Kenya, announcing the birth of Barack Hussein Obama, born Aug. 4, 1961. Despite her husband’s continued anger, Sarah Obama said in a recent interview, she “was so happy to have a grandchild in the U.S.”
The Internet is so polluted with Obama conspiracy dittosites that it’s extremely difficult to tease out this old stuff.
That Chicago Tribune article has a far more interesting tidbit: It turns out that there is a sitting Congressman, Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii 1st district) – who knew and socialized with Obama’s father and mother at UH, from before the time of Obama’s birth. See video athttp://www.house.gov/abercrombie/
with Abercrombie’s recollection of Obama’s childhood (“little Barry”)
So we have someone who is a contemporaneous witness to Obama’s birth — and not only that, this person is in Congress.
Here’s what the Trib article said:
The self-assured and opinionated Obama [the father] spoke with a voice so deep that “he made James Earl Jones seem like a tenor,” said Neil Abercrombie, a Democratic congressman from Hawaii who was part of those regular gatherings.
While Obama was impatient and energized, Stanley Ann, whom Abercrombie described as “the original feminist,” was endlessly patient but quietly passionate in her arguments. She was the only woman in the group.
“I think she was attracted to his powerful personality,” Abercrombie said, “and he was attracted to her beauty and her calmness.”
Six months after they wed, another letter arrived in Kenya, announcing the birth of Barack Hussein Obama, born Aug. 4, 1961.
—-
Although he didn’t say it at the time, Abercrombie privately feared that the relationship would be short-lived. Obama was one of the most ambitious, self-focused men he had ever met. After Obama was accepted to study at Harvard, Stanley Ann disappeared from the University of Hawaii student gatherings, but she did not accompany her husband to Harvard. Abercrombie said he rarely saw her after that.
“I know he loved Ann,” Abercrombie said, but “I think he didn’t want the impediment of being responsible for a family. He expected great things of himself and he was going off to achieve them.”
Here’s another video of Abercrombie discussing his memories of Obama’s parents and “little Barry’s” childhood.
http://www.house.gov/abercrombie/video/081203_race_and_politics_p2.wmv
He doesn’t talk specifically about the birth itself, but there’s no reason to, since it is clear from context that there was nothing unuual about the placeof birth.
Expelliarmus writes:
“we have someone who is a contemporaneous witness to Obama’s birth […]”.
Asyet unproven.
Hitandrun
Why should we be looking around in fringe areas for people to substantiate Mr Obama’s US birth when a $10 or $12 fee to the Honolulu Department of Records would release the most definitive proof that could be obtained? They could provide a photocopy of the typewritten birth certificate with the name of the attending doctor and the location of his birth. Thousands of dollars spent by Obama to avoid doing just that screams that this issue has validity.
It’s $10, and it’s already been spent with the result posted on a zillion web sites. The photocopy adds nothing to the eligibility question.
At least you said “thousands” and not “millions” like some others. But the amount is irrelevant. There’s never been any case defended by Obama that would have been resolved by showing the photocopy you mention. That’s the fallacy. If Berg claims Obama became an Indonesian citizen (as he did in Berg v. Obama) and Obama files a brief asking for the case to be dismissed, the cost of the legal defense is falsely assigned to Obama trying to hide his birth certificate.
Doc writes, “it’s already been spent[…]”
Really? When?
No certified photocopy of the original vault birth document has been publicly adduced. Were this record in fact an authentic properly attested hospital-generated CteOLB, the eligibility issue would be resolved for most concerned, though perhaps not for the few still vocal scoundrels and dead-enders, marginalized beyond recovery.
Doc, your excuses for Mr Obama’s failure to release such confirmation are quite weak.
Hitandrun
“No certified photocopy of the original vault birth document has been publicly adduced.”
You know this to be an absolute fact?
The certification posted on various web sites is legally valid and serves as prima facie evidence of Obama’s Hawaiian birth. It is a specious argument to claim that more is required– it certainly isn’t required under any law or under the US Constitution. “Prima facie” evidence means that once that document is produced, the burden shifts to anyone who challenged it to provide evidence that it is inaccurate or fraudulent.
And as to all those lawsuits? The plaintiff always bears the burden of proof, by a preponderance of evidence, in a civil case.
The Certification is “prima facie” evidence. The image posted on various web sites is not. Should Obama ever be required to provide proof of his birth place, this document would be all that he would need to give the court unless the other side could prove it false (e.g. a forgery) which is not something I think possible.
To darn funny….mention of granny in Kenya comes up and BACK! to the old B.C. story everyone goes. Would someone PLEASE break that Record, it keeps playing over and over!
But even funnier is how when a story comes out in ref. to ole Granny that has a positive twist to it about ole Barry how you guys JUMP onto that story with conviction. Nope, none of those negative ones hold an once of water, NONE of them, but these positive stories Heck YEAH!! We LUV THEM!
What granny story holds water for you? The tape won’t hold water.
It was clarified at the end of the tape that he was born in Hawaii.
The one affidavit isn’t even signed with a true name.
Ron McRae is not credible, and it would lead one to believe the guy he sent wouldn’t be credible either.
I had never seen the Granny letter story before, so I wrote about it. I just finished a huge article on the old birth certificate stuff, so I believe the fairness doctrine is alive and well here.
I’d note that the grandmother from Kenya traveled to the US for the inauguration and that there was media contact at some level. It is not as if she was hidden away or shielded from media attention. She was sitting on the platform at the inauguration. She even met and talked to John McCain – and who knows how many other Republicans. See: http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144005766&cid=4
Yes.
Hitandrun
No you don’t.
Doc and Expelliarmus,
A court could easily conclude a reasonable possibility exists of a foreign birth locale for Mr Obama, in view of the Granny tape and Kenyan official interview (though both may be of questionable reliability), sufficient to compel limited discovery of the vault document so as to insure it is properly attested hospital-generated confirmation of the CnOLB. Regardless of whether Mr Obama can be legally compelled to release it along with any supporting hospital birth documentation (if needed), it would have been wise and politic for Mr Obama (and Mr McCain) to have long ago voluntarily released these records and put this matter to rest for most concerned. Mr Obama has chosen not to do so, thereby fueling paranoid fantasies of his illegitimacy as President and encouraging those who preach and practice sedition. None of this was necessary. Your Catch-22 arguments will not hold.
Round and round,
Hitandrun
Read it again, Bog.
The key word is “publicly”, which includes you and me. I haven’t seen it. Have you?
My answer stands.
Stay well,
Hitandrun
Hit,
No, I don’t need to see it. The short form is sufficient plus backed by the State of Hawaii officials verification.
Hitandrun, have you actually listened to the whole grandmother tape? Listen to the thing and then tell me if you think a court would be impressed.
Jerome Corsi (The Obama Nation) was all over Kenyan Obama relatives when he researched his book. There’s not a peep about an African birth in there. Indeed Corsi quotes Sayid Obama as saying President Obama’s first time in Kenya was in 1986.
If you mean the Kenyan Ambassador…
Now the [false] claims about the grandmother tape says Obama was born in Mombasa, but the falsely interpreted ambassador tape implies that the birth place is where his grandmother still lives (no where near Mombasa).
Courts don’t allow parties to go on fishing expeditions with discovery. Assuming anyone could get past the standing & jurisdictional issues, the burden of proof would lie with the plaintiff to present sufficient, legally admissible evidence to overcome the presumption created by the COLB. Hearsay is not admissible; they would need the grandmother’s in-court testimony, under oath, subject to cross-examination. Given that she lives in Kenya, the court might allow a videotaped deposition. Obviously, from the tape that we do have, the Kenya-birth story wouldn’t stand up under such circumstances.
Just in support of Dr Conspiracy’s comment above — Mombasa is on the EAST coast of Kenya- the grandmother lives in a rural village near the WESTERN border of Kenya, near Lake Victoria. In 1961, Mombasa did not have an international airport — at the time, the only international airport in Kenya was in Nairobi, which is roughly halfway between Mombasa and the grandmother’s village (near Kisumu).
The distance between Mombasa and the grandmother’s village (straight line) is roughly 450 miles. A pregnant woman hoping to board a plane to Hawaii would likely have stayed in Nairobi, which was then a city twice as large as Mombasa with much better medical facilities, rather than travel 275 miles AWAY from the airport to Mombasa.
Excellent info for the geographically challenged with census data and a good popup map of Kenya at this web site: http://www.citypopulation.de/Kenya.html
I also note that the only person who could possibly swear that Sarah Obama was the person on the other end of the phone (the Bishop in Kenya) signed the affidavit with a fake name.
All this is just a smoke screen to cover up the fact Mr. OBAMA was not born in the USA and is therefor not eligible to occupy the Office of the President. Plain and simple.
prove your statement