Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Bill McGurn ·
Apr 29, 2011 at 7:36am
Forget the birth certificate. While Donald Trump was taking the air out of the room, there was an interesting article the other day about how Mr. Obama Pere never did earn that degree from Harvard he claimed:
Throughout a tumultuous career as an economist in Nairobi in the 1960s, Barack Hussein Obama, President Obama’s father, claimed to have earned a PhD from Harvard University. But according to federal immigration records, Obama was forced to leave the school by administrators alarmed at his freewheeling personal life and financial difficulties.
It's an interesting story, with Harvard having just issued a statement denying some of the claims made in INS documents of the time.
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Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
That is fascinating. Also fascinating is that it took a weekly independent paper in Arizona to FOIA this information.
Feb '11
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Shouldn't having had a parent who attended the school make a person ineligible for affirmative action admission?
Sep '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
This is just Harvard being culturally insensitive. This would never happen today. Who cares how many wives Barack Obama Sr. had? That's how they roll in Kenya. No reason to deny him a Ph.D.
It's sad that the thesis is lost forever in a "The dog ate my homework" moment:
Obama’s PhD thesis, “An Econometric Model of Staple Theory of Development,’’ which was launched with such high hopes at Harvard, apparently met an unhappy fate as well. Not long after he married his third wife, Ruth Ndesandjo, in 1964, Obama said his thesis papers had been stolen by burglars who had broken into their home.
“The burglars took the television, but in the process Barack said that they took his doctoral papers, which were in a briefcase somewhere,’’ said Ndesandjo, who lives in Nairobi. “At least, that is what he said. He was pretty upset about it because he never went back to it and he didn’t have any copy of it.’’
No doubt the burglers thought the Marxist thesis useful for "wealth redistribution". They hit the motherlode!
Jun '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
"Obama told McCabe that in Kenya, “all that is necessary to be divorced is to tell the wife that she is divorced . . . [Obama] claims to have been divorced from his wife in Kenya in this method,’’ according to the memo. But Obama was not divorced at all, according to his first wife, who was living in Kenya with their two children at the time he married Dunham in February 1961. Grace Kezia Obama, now 70, lives in Bracknell, England, and maintains that she remained married to the elder Obama until his death in 1982."
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Another little-known fact: In Kenya, you may award yourself a Harvard doctorate in economics by telling yourself that you're special, and you deserve it.
Aug '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
If we keep looking, the whole Obama story will unravel like a cheap suit in a tornado. Clearly, Barry was pegged as a darling of the 'progressives' and finely honed to usher in the Brave New Euro-Topia.
Go Trump!
Jun '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Shouldn't having had a parent who attended the school make a person ineligible for affirmative action admission?
Nope. It does not. AA will be with us forever. I think you underestimate the burden that people of color with Ivy league degrees and astronomical salaries and vacation homes struggle under as they face the Euro-centric hegemony that dominates our nation. The mantle of white privlege under which you have operated has made you insensitive to their plight.
Jun '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
My local police blotter is always filled with reports of stolen doctoral theses.
Jul '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Who knows what other riches are buried in the deep shadows that accompany Obama males through life. My bet is neither this nor discoveries to come will percolate through the gatekeeper filter of the alphabet networks and the big city mets. That Arizona newspaper will be drummed out of the swooning ranks of the Compliant Media.
Mar '11
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Franco:
Obama’s PhD thesis, “An Econometric Model of Staple Theory of Development,’’ which was launched with such high hopes at Harvard, apparently met an unhappy fate as well. Not long after he married his third wife, Ruth Ndesandjo, in 1964, Obama said his thesis papers had been stolen by burglars who had broken into their home.
The "loss" of that Thesis is a national tragedy, because it could have led us outa the financial mess we are in, if only Mr Obama II had read it.
This also explains why it took so long to find Mr Obama II's Birth Certificate, and why his college grades and papers are not to be found, either.
As the other Donald would say, these are just the known unknowns... we haven't got to the unknown unknowns, yet.
Edited on Apr 29, 2011 at 10:18amMar '11
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
Gentle friends: May I humbly point out that all this post-birther (a silly concern) confetti feels desperate, like we're trying to find some new scandal about O's past to latch onto? Frankly, I don't give a hoot about his past: his *present* is plenty bad and we should be focusing our intelligence on reversing current policies and fighting the battle on the merits of our competing plans.
Jun '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
I disagree, rosegarden. I think revelations about how Obama was steeped in Marxism, both by his family & his youthful associations, are valuable. I would not call them "post-birther confetti at all. The people and philosophy he embraced in his formative years are very telling, and should have received more coverage during the campaign.
Trump to date has been the only one with the guts to call him on it. Remember wimpy McCain brushing off any of these questions?
Jul '10
Re: Dreams of His (Harvard) Father
I guarantee you that neither Harvard nor any of the other Ivy League universities would collude with the INS today. Quite the opposite; these days they endow illegal aliens with scholarships and celebrate them when their illegal status comes to light.