Ten-part report
raises questions about narrative of Obama's early life
“In
2003, only a third of students recommended his courses. It went steadily down
in the last five or six years that he was there. He was among the lowest-ranked
professors."
Published
September 20, 2012
FoxNews.com
This
photo released by Obama for America shows Barack Obama teaching at the
University of Chicago Law School.
(Diagramming
Saul Alinsky concepts from “Rule for Radicals”)
Neighborhood activist: "They
(Obama and Valerie Jarrett) were never interested in poor people. They would
sell poor people a bill of goods"
(Note: In
interview on September 20 on the Chris Plante Show on WMAL, Executive Editor
Mark Tapscott discussed the exclusive neighborhood in which Obama lived in
Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as his legal representation of a slum landlord who
had illegally evicted the poor residents of a slum building in Chicago in
below-zero degree winter weather. Obama’s representation of the accused
landlord resulted in a $50 fine for the landlord, according to Tapscott.)
A newly
published report raises questions about some established narratives in the
early life of President Obama, suggesting the president's upbringing was
one of privilege and not hardship.
The
Washington Examiner published a 10-part report
detailing Obama's path to the White
House. Some of the information appears to conflict with the narratives the
Obamas and the Democratic Party have pushed, most recently at the party's
convention in Charlotte.
At the
convention, Michelle Obama said they "were both raised by families who
didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions."
Examiner
Executive Editor Mark Tapscott questioned that.
"I'm sure
he had a difficult childhood given the circumstances with his parents, but from
a financial standpoint and social standpoint and so forth , it was not an
underprivileged childhood," Tapscott said.
The Examiner
reports that the Indonesian neighborhood, Menteng, where Obama's mother and
step-father raised the young Barry Soetoro was the most exclusive in
Jakarta.
Later sent to
live with his grandparents in Hawaii where his grandmother was a bank vice
president, Obama attended the exclusive Punahoe school. He later went on to
Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
In his first job
as a Chicago community organizer, Obama rejected more lucrative offers.
But while he
worked in the city's impoverished Southside, he lived in exclusive Hyde
Park.
Of his 12 years
as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Time Magazine said in
2008: "Within a few years he had become a rock star professor with hordes
of devoted students." But student evaluations obtained by the
Examiner tell a different story. In 2003, only a third of students recommended
his courses.
"It went
steadily down in the last five or six years that he was there. He was among the
lowest-ranked professors," Tapscott said.
Nor did the
future president leave any record of scholarly writings, while similarly
credentialed colleagues had a prolific presence in law journals.
"He showed
up to class, he gave his lectures and he was gone," Tapscott said.
The Examiner
found sharp contrasts between Obama's memory of his legal work, and the record
of it.
In "Dreams
From My Father," he wrote: "In my legal practice, I work mostly with
churches and community groups, men and women who quietly built grocery stores
and health clinics in the inner city, and housing for the poor."
But a document
filed with the Illinois Secretary of State shows the young lawyer represented
some well-heeled clients. In one case, he represented
a politically connected preacher and real estate developer, Bishop Arthur
Brazier, who had failed to provide heating and running water to 15 apartments
in the dead of winter. Obama's client had all the tenants forcibly
removed from the building, yet paid only a $50 fine under Obama's legal
counsel.
For all of his
critics on the right, community organizer Obama left many colleagues on the
left disheartened, by allegedly selling out to the Chicago establishment.
The late radical
journalist Robert Fitch, who specialized in urban politics, said: "What we
see is that the Chicago core of the Obama Coalition is made of blacks who've
moved up by moving poor blacks out."
D'Anna Carter, a
neighborhood activist, singled out the president's closest aid, Valerie
Jarrett, for criticism. Jarrett was CEO of Habitat Co., a low-income real
estate firm that made millions of dollars in part by leveraging federal
programs like the Low Income Housing Tax Credit with subprime lending to poor
people.
"They were
never interested in poor people. They would sell poor people a bill of
goods," Carter said.
Some argue that
President Obama won office on his strength as a reformer - he did vow to
"fundamentally transform America." But the Examiner found as a state
senator he rejected overtures to reform the Chicago machine.
"He made it
pretty clear he wasn't interested in risk-taking or challenging the Chicago
machine's lock on a lot of mechanics of government in Cook County in
Chicago," said one frustrated former colleague, former state Sen. Steve
Rauschenberger.
Mayor Richard J
Daley -- the last of the big city bosses -- built that machine by rewarding
allies with patronage positions. Today, Obama's choice of aides suggests an
unbreakable bond to that machine. Closest aide Valerie Jarrett, campaign
adviser David Axelrod, and former chiefs of staff Rahm Emanuel and Bill Daley
all cut their political teeth in the Daley machine.
The legendary
Chicago Tribune writer Mike Royko once penned this advice to mayoral candidate
Richard M. Daley, the son of the big city boss: "Reward your friends and
punish your enemies." It is a phrase the president once used to describe
how Latinos should think about elections.
In a 2010
interview, Obama urged Latinos to say: "We're gonna punish our enemies and
reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."
To that end, The
Examiner says 31 Obama campaign bundlers received clean-energy loans and grants
totaling more than $16 billion. The auto bailout favored the United Auto
Workers -- over secured creditors -- and eight of the 10 states getting the
most contracts from the stimulus program were heavily Democratic.
