A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidential hopeful HASN'T said about his father... By the Daily Mail dated 01/27/2007 click here for the original article, excerpts to follow....
It is a classic story of the American dream made real: an impoverished Kenyan goatherd rising to become a brilliant Harvard-educated economist. On the way he fights racial prejudice at home and corruption at work, survives the heartbreak of a broken relationship and, despite it all, leads the fight to rid Africa of its colonial legacy.
This extraordinary story is told by US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama as he recalls the life of the man who inspired him to political success - his father. Mr Obama's book, Dreams From My Father, is flying off the shelves of US book stores, exciting and astonishing readers in equal measure.
As the Daily Mail (London newspaper) concluded, "for all Mr. Obama's reputation for straight talking and the compelling narrative of his recollections, they are largely myth."
"We have discovered that his father was not just a flawed individual, but an abusive bigamist and an egomaniac, whose life was ruined not by racism or corruption, but by his own weakness,” the Daily Mail wrote. "And, devastatingly, the testimony has come from Mr. Obama's own relatives and family friends."
The Daily Mail suggests Obama chose to present his father in a favorable light as an electoral tactic. "Indeed, by offering up a conveniently plotted account of his personal history in this way," Churcher wrote, "he [Obama] might even have made a pre-emptive strike on those sure to pose the awkward questions that inevitably face a serious contender for the White House."
Regardless of the motives, in "Dreams from my Father" Obama never states precisely how many wives his father had, or how many half-brothers and -sisters he has from different mothers, whether married to his father or not. Obama blames racism for breaking up his parents' marriage, not his father's polygamist ways which began when he first left Africa, before he ever met Obama's mother in Hawaii.
This extraordinary story is told by US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama as he recalls the life of the man who inspired him to political success - his father. Mr Obama's book, Dreams From My Father, is flying off the shelves of US book stores, exciting and astonishing readers in equal measure.
As the Daily Mail (London newspaper) concluded, "for all Mr. Obama's reputation for straight talking and the compelling narrative of his recollections, they are largely myth.""We have discovered that his father was not just a flawed individual, but an abusive bigamist and an egomaniac, whose life was ruined not by racism or corruption, but by his own weakness,” the Daily Mail wrote. "And, devastatingly, the testimony has come from Mr. Obama's own relatives and family friends."
The Daily Mail suggests Obama chose to present his father in a favorable light as an electoral tactic. "Indeed, by offering up a conveniently plotted account of his personal history in this way," Churcher wrote, "he [Obama] might even have made a pre-emptive strike on those sure to pose the awkward questions that inevitably face a serious contender for the White House."
Regardless of the motives, in "Dreams from my Father" Obama never states precisely how many wives his father had, or how many half-brothers and -sisters he has from different mothers, whether married to his father or not. Obama blames racism for breaking up his parents' marriage, not his father's polygamist ways which began when he first left Africa, before he ever met Obama's mother in Hawaii.
Family members and acquaintances believe that the real cloud over Mr Obama's life has been the discovery that his father was far from the romantic figure that his mother tried to portray.
A family friend said: "He is haunted by his father's failures. He grew up thinking of his father as a brilliant intellectual and pioneer of African independence only to learn that in Western terms he was basically a drunken lecher."
This ugly truth, say friends, has made Mr Obama ruthlessly determined to use every weapon that he has to succeed, including the glossily edited version of his father's story. "At the end of the day Barack wants the story to help his political cause, so perhaps he couldn't afford to be too honest," said Ochieng.
In the final analysis, Obama embraces the myth, presenting his father as a victim who suffered because, as Zeituni explains in the autobiography, his "heart was too big" – not that he was a bureaucrat of modest achievement who could not overcome a fight with alcohol that ultimately cost him his life.
A family friend said: "He is haunted by his father's failures. He grew up thinking of his father as a brilliant intellectual and pioneer of African independence only to learn that in Western terms he was basically a drunken lecher."
This ugly truth, say friends, has made Mr Obama ruthlessly determined to use every weapon that he has to succeed, including the glossily edited version of his father's story. "At the end of the day Barack wants the story to help his political cause, so perhaps he couldn't afford to be too honest," said Ochieng.
In the final analysis, Obama embraces the myth, presenting his father as a victim who suffered because, as Zeituni explains in the autobiography, his "heart was too big" – not that he was a bureaucrat of modest achievement who could not overcome a fight with alcohol that ultimately cost him his life.
No comments:
Post a Comment