Out of Bloomberg

Obama Snubs Nato Chief as Crisis Rages

271 Mar 24, 2015 7:20 PM EDT

By Josh Rogin

President Barack Obama has yet to meet with the new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and won't see Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week, even though he is in Washington for three days.  Stoltenberg’s office requested a meeting with Obama well in advance of the visit, but never heard anything from the White House, two sources close to the NATO chief told me.
The leaders of almost all the other 28 NATO member countries have made time for Stoltenberg since he took over the world's largest military alliance in October. Stoltenberg, twice the prime minister of Norway, met Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa to discuss the threat of the Islamic State and the crisis in Ukraine, two issues near the top of Obama's agenda.
Kurt Volker, who served as the U.S. permanent representative to NATO under both President George W. Bush and Obama, said the president broke a long tradition.  “The Bush administration held a firm line that if the NATO secretary general came to town, he would be seen by the president ... so as not to diminish his stature or authority,” he told me.
America's commitment to defend its NATO allies is its biggest treaty obligation, said Volker, adding that European security is at its most perilous moment since the Cold War. Russia has moved troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine, annexed Crimea, placed nuclear-capable missiles in striking distance of NATO allies, flown strategic-bomber mock runs in the North Atlantic, practiced attack approaches on the UK and Sweden, and this week threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Denmark’s warships.
“It is hard for me to believe that the president of the United States has not found the time to meet with the current secretary general of NATO given the magnitude of what this implies, and the responsibilities of his office,” Volker said.
Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, declined to say why Obama didn’t respond to Stoltenberg’s request. “We don’t have any meetings to announce at this time,” she told me in a statement. Sources told me that Stoltenberg was able to arrange a last-minute meeting with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
According to White House press releases, Obama didn’t exactly have a packed schedule. On Tuesday, he held important meetings and a press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House (Ghani will meet with Stoltenberg while they are both in town). But the only event on Obama’s public schedule for Wednesday is a short speech to kick off a meeting related to the Affordable Care Act. On Thursday, he will head to Alabama to give a speech about the economy.
Stoltenberg is in town primarily for the NATO Transformation Seminar, a once-a-year strategic brainstorming session that brings together NATO’s leadership with experts and top officials from the host country. The event is organized by the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Atlantic Council.
“The focus of this year’s seminar is to think through how best to update NATO’s strategy given real threats in the east and the south, against the backdrop of a dramatically changing world,” said Damon Wilson, a former NSC senior director for Europe who is now with the Atlantic Council. “The practical focus is to begin developing the road map to the next NATO summit, which will take place in Warsaw in July 2016, a summit which will presumably be the capstone and last summit for the Obama administration.”
Last year, the seminar was hosted in Paris, and then-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen got a separate bilateral meeting with President Francois Hollande of France.
Last Friday, at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum, Stoltenberg talked about the importance of close coordination inside NATO in order to first confront Russian aggression and then eventually move toward a stable relationship with Moscow.
“The only way we can have the confidence to engage with Russia," he said, "is to have the confidence and the strength which is provided by strong collective defense, the NATO alliance."
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski told the Brussels Forum that there has been a worrisome lag between NATO’s promises of more defensive equipment for Poland and what has actually arrived, a blow to the alliance's credibility. “It’s very important and necessary for everyone to have the conviction, including the potential aggressor to have this conviction, that NATO is truly determined to execute contingency plans,” he said.
The White House missed a perfect opportunity to reinforce that message this week in snubbing Stoltenberg. It fits into a narrative pushed by Obama critics that he would rather meet with problematic leaders such as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who will get an Oval Office meeting next month, than firm allies. The message Russian President Vladimir Putin will take away is that the White House-NATO relationship is rocky, and he will be right.
To contact the author on this story:
Josh Rogin at joshrogin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor on this story:
Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net

Obama Hasn’t Changed Since Columbia University

Mar. 17, 2014 12:57pm

Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne’s latest book is: The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon. It hit #1 in bookstores, and is currently the 6th bestselling political hardcover in America for the past year. Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, successful entrepreneur, small business defender, business speaker, Capital Evangelist, and media personality- appearing on over 5000 interviews in the past 5 years. Wayne’s web site: ROOTforAmerica.com.

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SHARES

I told you so. Thirty years ago Obama, my Columbia University Class of ’83 classmate, was rarely seen. Thirty years later he can’t be bothered to attend national security meetings about a crisis that could lead to World War III. Some things never change.

You might ask, “What do Obama’s college days have to do with his Presidency today?”

The answer is everything. By college, a person’s personality, attitude and behavior is usually fairly well set. That’s why Obama’s Columbia days tells us so much about his behavior as President today.

What do I know about Obama at Columbia? Nothing. I never met him. As I’ve reported countless times, I was a political science major and Pre-Law at Columbia from 1979-1983. Even though I thought I knew everyone in the political science department, neither I nor any of my friends at Columbia ever met, or saw Obama there.

(AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign, File) 

At the 30th class reunion last May, I tracked down legendary Columbia History professor and Presidential Historian, Henry Graff. For 46 years, all the American political leaders who attended Columbia were in Professor Graff’s classes. Not Obama. Graff never met him, never saw him, never heard of him.

The problem is, Obama defenders and the media (I know, they’re the same) interpreted what I said wrongly. I never said Obama didn’t attend Columbia. I said he was never in class. I said while it was strange only one or two students, one professor, and one foreign exchange student (who was his roommate off campus) claim to have ever seen him at Columbia, they prove he most probably attended the university. I’m sure he wouldn’t be the first college student to rarely, if ever, attend classes. I said he was like “the ghost of Columbia.”

What it means is simple. Barack Obama is exactly the same today as he was as a student at Columbia thirty years ago: arrogant and egotistical. He’s either too lazy, or thinks he’s too smart to have to actually do the work expected of him. Nothing has changed in 30 years.

I’m sure he was rarely ever in class at Columbia because he had more important things to do. Besides, he already knew everything. Obama has always believed Obama is brilliant and better than the rest of us. What more could Columbia teach him?

President Barack Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine, March 1, 2014.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

It’s the same today. He rarely attends important meetings. In the past two weeks he’s skipped two national security meetings focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a crisis that could lead to World War III. Yet our President chose not to attend.

Do you think this is conservative propaganda or exaggeration? Hardly. Obama’s absence from both national security meetings was reported by many media, including Reuters.

Why did Obama skip the first meeting? He chose to attend a White House Film Festival. Just like his days at Columbia University, Obama had more important things to do.

Even if Obama isn’t impressed by Russia invading Ukraine, certainly he finds America’s jobs crisis important, right? Wrong.

Obama could find no time to meet about the sky high unemployment in America either. Even leftistHuffingtonPost.com reported in July 2012 that Obama had not convened a meeting of his Jobs Council in six months.

Politico updated the report in January 2013 – Obama never bothered to convene one meeting of his own Jobs Council in a full year, even with unemployment and under-employment at crisis levels.

Even more remarkable, within two weeks of that story, Obama closed down his Jobs Council – with 12 million Americans still counted officially as unemployed.

President Barack Obama waves to a group of on-lookers while golfing at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013. (AP) 

With over 92 million working-age Americans not working, and men suffering the lowest workforce participation rate since record-keeping began, Obama thought it unimportant to even continue having a Jobs Council?

So what was important in Obama’s life? Golf & fundraisers.

PolitiFact.com, the non-partisan fact checker, confirmed our president golfed 10 times and attended 106 fundraisers during just the original six-month period where he could find no time, or interest, to attend even one meeting of his own Jobs Council. Can you imagine the updated numbers for the full year?

And, where was he the night of the Benghazi attack? Both Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey testified Obama was absent that night.

Four brave Americans died while Obama was “absent.” What could be more important than a U.S. embassy under attack with American lives at stake? What could be so important that Obama never checked in to ask a question or discuss a rescue attempt from 5:30 p.m. EST until the next morning (when everyone was dead)?

Just like his college days, Obama believes he’s too gifted to do the actual work of president. He’s just too busy to have to worry about unemployed Americans. He’s just too important to have to bother to check in every night. Those are all things only “the little people” have to do.

In this Aug. 11, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama reacts as he misses a shot while golfing on the first hole at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. (Credit: AP) 

History will show that George W. Bush, the man the leftist media painted as “arrogant, elitist, and out of touch,” played 29 rounds of golf as president, until quitting in August of 2003 out of respect for the troops in harm’s way.

Meanwhile Barack Obama, “the man of the people” has played 163 rounds of golf and counting, while America is at war…while Russia threatens World War III…while the economy is in shambles…while millions have given up hope of ever working again…while record numbers of Americans are living in poverty…while black unemployment is double that of white…while food stamps, welfare, disability and all entitlements soar to record levels.

Nothing has changed since Columbia University. Not Obama’s personality, not his attitude, not his behavior. We have a president who thinks of himself as too smart…too gifted…too important…too busy…to give a damn about his job, or the economy, or the American people.

Either that…or he does care. And he’s not in our corner. I’ll let you decide.

Wayne’s latest book is: “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon.” 

–

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

President or Editor of Harvard's Law Review: there is a big difference.

Barack Obama was the first African-American PRESIDENT of the Harvard Law Review. Charles Hamilton Huston was the first black member of the Harvard Law Review. That's a major distinction.

Please read this NY Times column which was written in February 1990.

"First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review 

By FOX BUTTERFIELD, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES 
Published: February 6, 1990 

LEAD: The Harvard Law Review, generally considered the most prestigious in the country, elected the first black president in its 104-year history today. The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School. 

The Harvard Law Review, generally considered the most prestigious in the country, elected the first black president in its 104-year history today. The job is considered the highest student position at Harvard Law School. 

The new president of the Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side before enrolling in law school. His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii. 

''The fact that I've been elected shows a lot of progress,'' Mr. Obama said today in an interview. ''It's encouraging. 

''But it's important that stories like mine aren't used to say that everything is O.K. for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don't get a chance,'' he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment. 

What a Law Review Does 

Law reviews, which are edited by students, play a double role at law schools, providing a chance for students to improve their legal research and writing, and at the same time offering judges and scholars a forum for new legal arguments. The Harvard Law Review is generally considered the most widely cited of the student law reviews. 

On his goals in his new post, Mr. Obama said: ''I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective. I'm fairly opinionated about this. But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.'' 

Therefore, Mr. Obama said, he would concentrate on making the review a ''forum for debate,'' bringing in new writers and pushing for livelier, more accessible writing. 

A President's Future 

The president of the law review usually goes on to serve as a clerk for a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals for a year, and then as a clerk for an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Mr. Obama said he planned to spend two or three years in private law practice and then return to Chicago to re-enter community work, either in politics or in local organizing. 

Professors and students at the law school reacted cautiously to Mr. Obama's selection. ''For better or for worse, people will view it as historically significant,'' said Prof. Randall Kennedy, who teaches contracts and race relations law. ''But I hope it won't overwhelm this individual student's achievement.'' 

Change in Selection System 

Mr. Obama was elected after a meeting of the review's 80 editors that convened Sunday and lasted until early this morning, a participant said.

Until the 1970's the editors were picked on the basis of grades, and the president of the Law Review was the student with the highest academic rank. Among these were Elliot L. Richardson, the former Attorney General, and Irwin Griswold, a dean of the Harvard Law School and Solicitor General under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. 

That system came under attack in the 1970's and was replaced by a program in which about half the editors are chosen for their grades and the other half are chosen by fellow students after a special writing competition. The new system, disputed when it began, was meant to help insure that minority students became editors of The Law Review. 

Harvard, like a number of other top law schools, no longer ranks its law students for any purpose including a guide to recruiters. 

Blacks at Harvard: New High 

Black enrollment at Harvard Law School, after a dip in the mid-1980's, has reached a record high this year, said Joyce Curll, the director of admissions. Of the 1,620 students in the three-year school, 12.5 percent this year are blacks, she said, and 14 percent of the first-year class are black. Nationwide enrollment by blacks in undergraduate colleges has dropped in recent years. 

Mr. Obama succeeds Peter Yu, a first-generation Chinese-American, as president of The Law Review. After graduation, Mr. Yu plans to serve as a clerk for Chief Judge Patricia Wald on the of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 

Mr. Yu said Mr. Obama's election ''was a choice on the merits, but others may read something into it.'' 

The first female editor of The Harvard Law Review was Susan Estrich, in 1977, who recently resigned as a professor at Harvard Law School to take a similar post at the University of Southern California. Ms. Estrich was campaign manager for Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts in his campaign for the Presidency in 1988. 

Correction: February 7, 1990, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final 

Because of an editing error, an article yesterday about the election of Barack Obama as president of the Harvard Law Review misidentified the United States court on which Patricia M. Wald is Chief Judge. It is the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, not for the Federal Circuit. "

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DC1631F935A35751C0A966958260

*************************************************


The following is from the Harvard Law Review website:

"The first black member of the Review was Charles Hamilton Houston, LL.B. cum laude 1922, S.J.D. 1923, who served on Volume 35. The second black member was William Henry Hastie LL.B. cum laude 1930, a member of the Board of Volume 43, who later became Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Other black members of the Board have included William T. Coleman, Jr., J.D. magna cum laude 1943 ('46), later Secretary of Transportation, and current Harvard Law School Professors Christopher F. Edley, Jr. (Volume 90) and David B. Wilkins (Volume 93). As the Review enters its second century, it has just elected its first minority President. Raj Marphatia of Volume 101."

http://www.harvardlawreview.org/Centennial.shtml

The man who used to walk on water does not even float !!

America and the world/ The Economist

The man who used to walk on water

How Barack Obama can get at least some of his credibility back

Nov 23rd 2013 |From the print edition

                                                                                                     

AN AMERICAN president’s most important power is not the veto pen or the ability to launch missiles. It is the bully pulpit. When a president speaks, the world listens. That is why Barack Obama’s credibility matters. If people do not believe what he says, his power to shape events withers. And recent events have seriously shaken people’s belief in Mr Obama. At home, the chaos of his health reform has made it harder for him to get anything else done. Abroad, he is seen as weak and disengaged, to the frustration of America’s allies.

Not all the barbs aimed at Mr Obama are fair. Our special report this week on American foreign policy notes that he inherited two miserable wars. He began his first term during the worst recession in 80 years. And the Republicans who shut down parts of the federal government last month and flirted recklessly with default bear much of the blame for Washington’s disarray. But the excuse that it is all someone else’s fault is wearing thin. Under Mr Obama, America seems rudderless and its power is being squandered. A more engaged president would handle the Republicans—and the rest of the world—with more skill.

The debacle of Obamacare has gravely weakened the president (see article). In the days before October 1st, when the online health-insurance exchange opened, he seemed blithely unaware that anything was amiss. Using it would be “real simple”, he told voters in Maryland on September 26th; it would work the “same way you shop for a TV on Amazon”. Alas, it did not. Millions tried to log on; few succeeded. The website was never properly tested, it transpires. Although this was Mr Obama’s most important domestic reform, no one was really in charge. Crucial specifications were changed at the last moment. Contractors warned that the website was not ready, but the message never reached the Oval Office. Big government IT projects often go awry, but rarely as spectacularly as this.An exchange you can believe in

The Economist supported Obamacare when it passed Congress in 2010. We worried that the law was too complex (see article) and did too little to curb medical inflation, but it extended health insurance to the millions of Americans who lack it. The basic idea is sound: everyone must have insurance or pay a penalty. The cash-strapped receive big subsidies, and insurers are barred from charging more to those who are already sick. A more modest version of this reform works quite well in Massachusetts. A man with little interest in details and a disdain for business, Mr Obama tried to impose a gigantic change on the whole country all at once and far too casually.

The longer it takes to fix the website, the greater the chance that Obamacare will fail. Insurers have set their premiums on the assumption that lots of young, healthy people would be compelled to buy their policies. But if it takes dozens of attempts to sign up, the people who do so will be disproportionately the sick and desperate. Insurers could be stuck with a far more expensive pool of customers than they were expecting, and could have no choice but to raise prices next year. That would make Obamacare even less attractive to the young “invincibles” it needs to stay afloat.

To make matters worse, this sorry saga has caused American voters to doubt Mr Obama’s honesty. Time after time, when selling his reform, he told voters that if they liked their health insurance, they could “keep that insurance. Period. End of story.” Policy wonks knew this was untrue. Mr Obama’s number-crunchers quietly predicted that up to two-thirds of people with individual policies would be forced to change them, since the law would make many bare-bones plans illegal. But ordinary Americans took their president at his word; many were furious to learn last month that their old policies would be cancelled.

The poisonous politics of health care point to another common complaint about Mr Obama: that he gives great speeches but fails to build relationships. Abroad, he has cool relations with foreign heads of government. The leaders of allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia scorn him. Europeans grumble that they are ignored when they want to be heard and spied on when they want to be left alone. Latin Americans feel neglected. Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia has made China feel threatened, without reassuring other Asians that America will be there in a crisis. Many doubt Mr Obama’s word—remember his “red line” over the use of chemical weapons in Syria?—and lament his inability to get things done.

At home, he seldom schmoozes with his political opponents—or even with his own side. Past presidents put in far more effort to charm and bully lawmakers, business moguls and anyone who could help them. Lyndon Johnson was famous for blackmailing congressmen to do the right thing, which is a hard art to practise if you barely know them. Mr Obama remains aloof—he has no regular breakfast or lunch even with the main Democrats in Congress. You cannot slap backs and twist arms if you are not in the same room.

Forget the Nobel halo—and roll up your sleeves

There is a personal tragedy in this: a talented man who too often does not follow through. As Bill Clinton is reputed to have said, Mr Obama got all the hard stuff right, “but didn’t do the easy stuff at all”. Assuming that he still has the stomach for the fight, what can Mr Obama do to win back that lost credibility?

At home, the priority is simply to get his health exchange fixed. His announcement last week that people who have lost their old insurance will be allowed to get it back is a sham: he has given insurers neither the time nor the incentive to recreate the policies he previously ordered them to ditch. He should stop making empty promises, get rid of the aides who filter out bad news and roll up his sleeves.

Can he get any more done? Immigration reform is still just possible. He now says he is open to tackling it piecemeal, rather than in a comprehensive bill, which raises the chance that it will happen. An even bigger prize would be a long-term fix for America’s finances, with Republicans accepting some tax rises and Democrats tolerating cuts to entitlements. He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg.

Fixing those problems would require Mr Obama to discover both Clintonian skills of triangulation and some Republicans who don’t hate him. As with other second-term presidents, foreign policy may offer more opportunity. The Obama brand is less tarnished abroad. And American power is sold short by a lot of people—including, sometimes, Mr Obama. With its matchless armed forces, a web of alliances and omnipresent soft power, the United States is still the world’s indispensable nation—as it has shown in the rescue efforts in the Philippines (see Banyan). When Mr Obama ordered a strike against Osama bin Laden, he proved that he can be decisive; when he patiently built the case with China and Russia for imposing sanctions on Iran, he was persuasive.

So Mr Obama can get things done when he puts the effort in. Our special report lays out the opportunities that a more committed and confident president could seize. In many regions, such as Latin America, just a little bit of attention could yield impressive results. Free-trade deals could tie in allies across the Atlantic and the Pacific. Having over-reached in Asia and with a string of domestic problems, China needs Mr Obama to keep the world stable. If Mr Obama can build a better relationship with China, he will advance both countries’ interests. An immediate test is Iran: an interim agreement to halt its nuclear programme would be a first step towards re-engaging America in the Middle East. But only if Mr Obama works at it and sells a deal to Israel and his Arab allies.

Mr Obama may not be able to walk on water. That is now painfully clear, perhaps even to him. But America’s first black president still has it in his power to leave the Oval Office famous for what he did, not just what he was.

From the print edition: Leaders

Obama - not a man of faith, period.

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal,  rather than religion-specific values.  What do I mean by this?  It requires that their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason.  I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons,  to take on example,  but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice,  I cannot simply point to the teachings of my  church or evoke God’s will.  I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of ll faiths,  including those with no faith at all. 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546298,00.html,  Book Excerpt: Barack Obama,  October 15, 2006

Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community by Michelle LaVaughn Robinson

INTRODUCTION  (pages 1-4)

The purpose of this study is to examine various attitudes of Black Princeton alumni in their present state and as they are perceived by the alumni to have changed over time. This
study tries to examine the following  attitudes of alumni: the extent to which they are comfortable interacting with Black and with White individuals in various activities; the extent to which they are motivated to benefit the Black community in comparison to other entities such as themselves, their families, God, etc.; the ideologies they hold with respects to race relations between the Black and White communities; and feelings they have toward the Black lower class such as a feeling of obligation that they should help improve the lives of this particular group of Blacks.

As a future Black alumnus, this study is particularly interesting because often times I take my own attitudes about such issues for granted;. never pausing to reflect upon how
my experiences at Princeton may somehow have caused my attitudes to change. This is important for Blacks in contemporary society because as more Blacks begin attending predominately White universities it will be helpful to know how their experiences in these universities affect their future attitudes. In years to come if their attitudes do change,is it possible, for example, that they will become more comfortable interacting with Blacks or with Whites in various activities? Will they become more or less motivated to benefit the Black community? If there is a change in their attitudes to what might it be attributed? Will they feel any obligation as a member of the Black community to help other Blacks in particular who are less fortunate than themselves?

Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my
present and future resources to benefit this community first  and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me far  more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. I have found  that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some  of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really  don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second.

These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation
into a White cultural and social structure that will only
allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant. This realization has presently, made my goals to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community more desirable.  At the same time , however, it is conceivable that my  four years of exposure to a predominately White, Ivy League  University has instilled within me certain conservative values. For example, as I enter my final year at Princeton, I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White  classmates–acceptance to a prestigious graduate or professional school or a high paying position in a successful corporation. Thus, my goals after Princeton are not as clear  as before.

Is it possible that other Black alumni share these feelings? Do most alumni experience a change in their attitudes; and, if so, how are they likely to change? This  study will try to provide some answers to these questions.   However, before discussing the findings, it will be necessary to define the variables of the study and explain the  methods used to measure these variables.

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Full text given below . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

Least we forget:

Here is the full quote from May of 2008:

MICHELLE OBAMA, speaking Puerto Rico: "Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."

A similar statement was presented on 7/23/14,  saying much the same thing as the above:  

“Part of people’s concern is just the sense that around the world the old order isn’t holding and we’re not quite yet to where we need to be in terms of a new order that’s based on a different set of principles, that’s based on a sense of common humanity, that’s based on economies that work for all people. … But here in the United States, what people are also concerned about is the fact that although the economy has done well in the aggregate, for the average person it feels as if incomes, wages just haven’t gone up; that people, no matter how hard they work, they feel stuck.”

http://www.politico.com/morningmoney/0714/morningmoney14734.html

Obama's 2008 campaign given largest fine in US history.

Fox News is reporting that  Barack Obama's 2008 campaign has been fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for a failure to report a set of donations received during the final days of the campaign.

The fines are among the largest ever levied on a presidential campaign by the FEC and stem from a series of missing filings for nearly 1,200 contributions totaling nearly $1.9 million. Campaigns are required to file the reports during the final weeks of the campaign.   Obama campaign spokeswoman Katie Hogan said the 2008 campaign had more than 3 million donors and "the very few outstanding questions have now all been resolved."

 

The fines were first reported by Politico.

Editor’s notes:  truth be told,  these are largest fines ever levied against a presidential campaign.  The fact of the matter is this:  Obama received nearly two million dollars of illegal campaign donations and covered them up by,  somehow,  “loosing” them in a swamp of  poor accounting practices,  an intentional strategy,  by the way.  

Years ago,  the president of our Little League was stealing money.  Two of us decided to go after this guy.  We found that he had stolen more than $12,000 from the league.  We forced him out of the league but could not prosecute because  --  according to the local D.A. – his accounting books were so disorganized that nothing could be proven,  one way or the other.  

Obama is the King of Plausible Deniability.  It is the first thought he has, when deciding to race to the edge of anything that could be seen as “illegal.”  The rule,  in his Administration,  is this:  “At all cost,  protect the King.”  The rule is played out by members of his staff and the Parrot Media.  

Understand that this story was a major headline on the news portals I use to gather information, for precisely one day.  This morning,  when I decided to research the matter,  the story had been “taken down,”  but not washed from the Net.  

Keep in mind that while his spokespeople argue that these reporting problems have been resolved,  still,  the FEC fined this president close to $400,000 for -  in affect - being dishonest.  

More than this,  another 400 million dollars,  all donations of $50 or less,  were never reported,  as well.  But,  in this case, Obama could hide behind certain legalese.  McCain voluntarily reported all donations,  even when he was not required to,  as in the case of "$50" donations.  

It is a safe bet, that Obama's funding raising for 2012 was equally as dishonest,  but accompanied with a additional experience on how to play the system.  That is what so many entitled people do,  you know  . . . . . .  play the system.  

I have been saying this for years:  "We have a crook for a president,"  and now,  I have concrete proof.  

Oh well.   

Obama classmate has favorable opinion of our first cocaaine using president.

O’Reilly Factor correspondent Jesse Watters spoke to the President’s former classmate, Bernice Bowers, who attended the Punahou School in Honolulu with Barack Obama. She shared her memories of “Barry” as a student, her feelings about his friends and family, elaborated on the school’s unique curriculum and weighed in on the infamous birth certificate controversy. 

WATTERS: Okay, so you went to school with President Barack Obama?

BOWERS: Yes. I was lucky enough to be one of his classmates from fifth grade on.

WATTERS: And, he was known as Barry back then?

BOWERS: Right. Barry. And, he really had a great personality, but was one of us... He was one of many kids. He didn’t necessarily stand out from an academic stand point that we knew of, but he’s actually quite bright and tried to hide it beneath a veneer of cool. He was actually extremely good in terms of English and history and politics and economics, but again had a very very casual way about him.

WATTERS: And he still does have that casual feel. Now, in terms of the classes that you went to… What classes do you remember him being in and participating in?

BOWERS: I think AP U.S. History was one of the strongest memories I had of him, because we used to type our papers together in this little corner office in the library. He would take file cards and type his entire paper just from these file card notes. But, again, he was very understated. And, he’s also changed a lot. While all of us who grew up and knew him want to think that he’s the Barry that we know. We also have seen and clearly understand that he transformed quite dramatically in college and in graduate school and since then. 

WATTERS: So, socially, President Obama. Who did he run with? What was his crowd like?

BOWERS: He, again, had people who were just like him. Really cool. And, really good people. The types of kids who would really go out of their way to help a new kid or help people feel comfortable. And, you know, he still is extremely close to those people and a lot us who are his classmates actually knew him socially, but not the way his tight group does. And, they still do. And, that’s what makes us, just as Americans, I think, really appreciate him as a president because he still is very bonded with those same people and very loyal to them.

WATTERS: Now, he recalled struggling a lot with his racial identity when he was in school. Did you see that struggle? Or, was there a lot of racial situation that permeated through the school?

BOWERS: I think that when you look at Hawaii in general, you’ve got so many different racial groups and we all were struggling, I think, with different types of angst that we didn’t even recognize in each other. And, that’s the one thing that I think almost to a person, we were kind of surprised at. It made us re-look at our whole high school experience, but honestly, I think we’ve always known that Hawaii is this mixture of races. But, African Americans were not widely populating our schools. They were mostly located in the military families. So, that was really an eye-opener for us because African Americans in our school really blended in with the rest of us and it made us more sensitive to the fact that they really were a very small minority of the population. 

BOWERS: Our school was really a mixture of Asian and White and mixed kids. So, I would say though, that there were very few African Americans in that mixture.

WATTERS: Okay. Okay. And, did Barack Obama have a lot of girlfriends? Because he doesn’t talk about it in his book. He said he actually struggled to get dates. Do you recall that?

BOWERS: I think he really was one of those guys that, you know, so many people really, really liked as a person. And, I think that socially a lot of us were really not very adept at, you know, dating, or things like that. So, I’d say that if he ever asked someone I’m sure they would’ve gone with him in a heartbeat. But, seriously, he was just a really great person. And I think, again, he’s changed so much since those days. I can’t say as a classmate that I intimately know him or… But I can say that he was a great, great person. From the very beginning. And, he’s evolved tremendously into a great president. 

WATTERS: Now, do you remember him dating? Now, if you he had asked you out would you have said “yes”?

BOWERS: (Laughs) Again, any of us would’ve said “yes”. But, honestly, he was really one of those people who you wanted to know, you wanted to be around, he had this very great way and gracious way about him and he was also really, you know, sort of, balanced in a lot of ways. He had a self-knowledge and a maturity that I think we might not have recognized at the time, but… Certainly, when you look at his poetry, when you look back at the stuff that he said or did there is very much a very mature soul there.

WATTERS: He loved to play basketball. And, I know he played on the varsity. Was that a big part of who he was? An athlete?

BOWERS: Yes. I mean, especially at Punahou, where athlete scholars are really nurtured and highlighted. He was very proud of that and we were very proud of him for that. 

WATTERS: And, he said he experimented with pot and sometimes cocaine, was that an issue in the school? Were drugs something that was predominant then?

BOWERS: I especially think that the late 70s in Hawaii, drugs were available and I think whenever you have a private school, where kids might have more access, you’re gonna see more of it.

WATTERS: And, politically back then, did you see any trace of his democratic leanings or any sort of liberal leadership?

BOWERS: Well, you know, we had an incredible background at Punahou because we had an instructor who wove global understandings and perspectives of all countries throughout our entire curriculum. His name was Siegfreid Ramler. And, he had been an interpreter in the Nuremburg trials and so he wanted to make sure that everything we did whether it was in Christian ethics or history or literature really wove together all these perspectives of different religions and different countries and histories. And, I would say that we all really benefited in having a global view that way. And, I’d say when we first started to hear Barack’s policies and the President’s stance on different issues, it made us so proud to hear a global voice. And that’s what we saw growing up, we were very lucky to have that. 

WATTERS: So, you’re saying that the curriculum lend itself to more of a global view, a world view that you think Obama is encompassing in his policies today?

BOWERS: Well, I certainly think that he and his family really embodied that in the beginning. Whether Punahou added a lot to it or not, but I can say that in particular the Punahou curriculum in the 70s was extremely focused on building global citizens. That was the goal.

WATTERS: And, the clique that he rode with, were those mostly comprised of athletes? Black? White? Asian? Describe his crew.

BOWERS: I’d say you know you’ve got a real mixture because there was no way you could have a group in Hawaii which wasn’t basically a mix of ethnicities and also athletes and folks who might not have been so athletic, but who were, you know, very active in class. 

WATTERS: And, do you remember anything about his family life? Because I know his father left and he was with his mother and his grandparents. 

BOWERS: There were several memories I think that we all had that were very strong and one was when his father came to speak to the 5th grade class. Everybody was really in sort of in awe of him. He came in a suit. He came from the East/West center. He not only very professorial, but we all thought that here was, he felt like an ambassador or a statesman, that made a big impression I think on all of us. I know his grandparents were extremely supportive of him, and really were the ones, you know that we saw on campus. But, I’d say more than anything, his close-knit group of friends, really close-knit group of friends, knew his family much more than any of us ever did. 

WATTERS: What do you remember that his father spoke about to the class?

BOWERS: It was actually about Kenya. And, you know, it imbued the sense of, again, this world-view that there is a world outside of the United States and a different perspective that started to resonate with what we were being taught.

WATTERS: Now, last question. There was that controversy about his birth certificate. When you heard that, how did that make you feel when everybody was talking about that? 

BOWERS: I thought it was the most ridiculous debate I had ever seen. Because all of us were born in Hawaii at that time, we have the same birth certificates… If you happen to have kept the original one, which is a very thin extremely blackened out piece of paper with, you know, it’s very fragile, and what was even funnier was that our classmates, we have twins in our class, they were born right before then, literally their numbers in that hospital were right before his. Their mother knew the doctor who delivered him. So, we all felt that that was an extremely useless debate and wish that American hadn’t gone there. 

WATTERS: Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. And, aloha? 

BOWERS: Aloha

WATTERS: Thank you very much