Barack Obama

I've talked about Barack Obama before, bit I cannot recall devoting one post to him alone. Well, here goes, but I hope this won't take long.

Who is Barack Obama? OK, I know, he was the 44th President of the United States. But, on a deeper level, do we really know him or anything about him? On looking closely, I've concluded, we know next to nothing.

How many Presidents have had two completely different names? Obama, when growing up in Indonesia was enrolled in school as Barry Soetoro. Then, later when at university we find he has become Barack Obama. Supporters of Obama will say this is a minor issue, but I usually reply; if a Republican candidate had this background and two completely different names, would that candidate get what appears to be a free pass? I don't think so, just look at George W Bush, his every move has been examined and every action pored over.

There is really something very peculiar about Barack Obama. About 14 years ago I was given a copy of his first autobiography. I was really happy to receive it, and started reading with great interest. This book I found to be very well written, not all of it by the same hand though, but certainly 80% of it written by the same person. But then, as I got deeper what I found disturbed me; here was a narrow minded man, a nasty little man, conceited, vain, bigoted and altogether lacking charity. This man had been elected (or appointed, take your pick) to the highest office, and become the most powerful man in the world.

I stopped reading at the halfway stage, to continue would have made me sick. I still wonder how it is that so many readers do not see this lack of character.

When looking at Obama, I concentrate on his three years at Columbia University and then his first fulltime job in New York. We know very little about this period with any certainty. Obama is a mystery. Where are his roommates talking about what he is like, his classmates and any employers he had while working part-time during his studies?  Then, after graduation, he has embellished his record with his first job. Obama describes himself as working for a Wall Street firm, being a manager and having a secretary. None of this is true, and we know that because one of his workmates at the place he did work at, has talked about it. Obama worked a low level job at a business newsletter publisher.

Then, he gets into Harvard Law School, and soon after writes his first memoir. His publisher, in promoting this new young writer described him as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, and born in Kenya. Was this simply further embellishment to make the young writer seem more exotic? Then, as a practising lawyer, who were some of his clients, what were the cases he worked on and did he do court work? There is evidence of his work, but for a graduate of Harvard he seems to have kept a very low profile.

Then, Obama did not hold Wall Street to account for causing the Global Financial Crisis. He was a servant of Wall Street. We are living through it still.

I have seen it said that Barack Obama destroyed modern post-war America. Was this intentional? Rebuilding it will take generations, but it cannot be rebuilt at all until Americans realise that Barack Obama was the worst ever President of the United States.