Debunking Jerome ‘Bigot’ Corsi’s Smear Attack Book: ‘The Obama Nation’

Chapter 2: Factual Inaccuracies In Corsi’s Book (Continued)

LIE: Zulfan “Adi said neighborhood Muslims worshipped in a nearby house. When the muezzin sounded the call to prayer, Adi remembered seeing Lolo and Barry walk together to the makeshift mosque.” [p 56]

REALITY: ADI “WAS NOT CERTAIN” WHEN PRESSED ABOUT HIS RECOLLECTIONS

Former Classmate Who Said Obama Attended Services With Lolo Soetoro “Told The Tribune He Was Not Certain About That When Pressed About His Recollections.” The Chicago Tribune reported, “Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama’s who has been cited in news reports as saying Obama regularly attended Friday prayers with Soetoro, told the Tribune he was not certain about that when pressed about his recollections. He only knew Obama for a few months, during 1970, when his family moved to the neighborhood.” [Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07]


LIE: “Obama always acknowledged his stepfather was Muslim, though he did his best to downplay Islam as an important force in his stepfather’s life.” [p 58]

REALITY: LOLO WAS A NOMINAL MUSLIM

Lolo Soetoro Was A “Nominal Muslim” Who Enjoyed Bacon. “The grandparents who helped raise Mr. Obama were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists. His mother was an anthropologist who collected religious texts the way others picked up tribal masks, teaching her children the inspirational power of the common narratives and heroes. His mother’s tutelage took place mostly in Indonesia, in the household of Mr. Obama’s stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, a nominal Muslim who hung prayer beads over his bed but enjoyed bacon, which Islam forbids.” [New York Times, 4/3/07]

Obama: Lolo Soetoro “Followed A Brand Of Islam That Could Make Room For The Remnants” Of Other Faiths. Obama wrote, “Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths.” [Dreams, p. 37]


LIE: “As a vice president, Madelyn Dunham would have earned enough to be well off, even if not rich.” [p 71]

REALITY: DUNHAMS LIVED MODESTLY

Obama’s Grandparents Rented A Two Bedroom Apartment In Honolulu. The Chicago Tribune reported, “At age 11, Obama was sent to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. They lived in a modest two-bedroom Honolulu apartment in order to save money for Obama’s tuition to attend the Punahou Academy, an elite private school.” [Chicago Tribune, 10/22/2004]



LIE: “Still, Obama has yet to answer questions whether he ever dealt drugs, or if he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or where his drug usage extended into his law school days or beyond. Did Obama ever use drugs in his days as a community organizer in Chicago, or when he was a state senator from Illinois? How about in the US Senate?” [p 77]

REALITY: OBAMA HAS MADE CLEAR REPEATEDLY THAT HE STOPPED USING MARIJUANA IN COLLEGE, WHICH PEERS HAVE AFFIRMED

Obama Said He Inhaled Pot, But Said He Hadn’t Done “Anything” Since He Was 20. “When I was in high school, I tried pot,” said Obama. “And I won’t say that I didn’t inhale. I did inhale.” He said some of the behavior extended to college. “By the time I was 20, I don’t think I indulged again,” he said. The graduate of Harvard Law School also admits there was a time “I drank six-packs of beer in a single night.” Any other illegal drugs? “I haven’t done anything since I was 20 years old,” he said. “That’ll suffice.” [State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), 11/9/03]

Scott: In New York, Obama “Stopped Getting High.” Janny Scott wrote in the New York Times, “Senator Obama, an Illinois Democrat now seeking the presidency, suggests in his book that his years in New York were a pivotal period: He ran three miles a day, buckled down to work and “stopped getting high,” which he says he had started doing in high school.” [New York Times, 10/30/07]

• Obama’s Roommate In New York Said He Refused Offers Of Drugs. The AP reported, “While Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine during high school in Hawaii, he writes in the memoir that he stopped using soon after his arrival in New York. His roommate had no such scruples. But Siddiqi says that during their time together here, Obama always refused his offers of drugs.” [AP, 5/15/08]

• Smith: “I Invested A Fair Amount Of Time In An Obama-In-New York Piece…The Conclusion May Be That Obama’s New York Life Was Much Less Interesting That A Few Lines In His Book Suggest.” Ben Smith wrote, “I invested a fair amount of time in an Obama-in-New-York piece earlier this year, and eventually gave up and wrote a short blog item. (I didn’t think “Impressive, charismatic pol was once impressive, charismatic young man” made much of a story.) I think the conclusion may be that Obama’s New York life was much less interesting than a few lines in his book suggest.” [Politico, 11/6/07]


LIE: “But the key role Frank Marshall Davis plays in the autobiography is not to provide Obama with words from his poems as a voice for Obama’s black rage. Instead Davis is the mentor Obama seeks for wisdom and advice, for instance when he has a crisis with his grandmother that was so traumatic Obama still mentions it today.” [p 87]

REALITY: OBAMA MEMOIR CHARACTERIZED FRANK DAVIS MARSHALL AS A FIGURE FROM HIS YOUTH WHO “FELL SHORT” AND WHOSE VIEW OF RACE WAS “INCURABLE”

Obama Wrote Of Frank As Someone Who “Fell Short” Of The “Lofty Standards” Of “Martin And Malcolm, Dubois And Mandela.” “Yes, I’d seen weakness in other men—Gramps and his disappointments, Lolo and his compromise. But these men had become object lessons for me, men I might love but never emulate, white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela. And if later I saw that the black men I knew— Frank or Ray or Will or Rafiq— fell short of such lofty standards; if I had learned to respect these men for the struggles they went through, recognizing them as my own—my father’s voice had nevertheless remained untainted, inspiring, rebuking, granting or withholding approval. You do not work hard enough, Barry. You must help in your people’s struggle. Wake up, black man!” [Dreams From My Father, Pg. 96]

Obama Wrote That “The Relationship Between Black And White, The Meaning Of Escape, Would Never Be Quite The Same For Me As It Had Been For Frank, Or For The Old Man, Or Even For Roy.” “The relationship between black and white, the meaning of escape, would never be quite the same for me as it had been for Frank, or for the Old Man, or even for Roy.” [Dreams From My Father, Pg. 277]

Obama Recounted Frank’s Diatribe About What Would Happen To Him In College And Then Described Frank As “Incurable” And Living In The “Sixties Time Warp That Hawaii Had Created.” ““What had Frank called college? An advanced degree in compromise. I thought back to the last time I had seen the old poet, a few days before I left Hawaii. We had made small talk for a while; he complained about his feet, the corns and bone spurs that he insisted were a direct result of trying to force African feet into European shoes. Finally he had asked me what it was that I expected to get out of college. I told him I didn’t know. He shook his big, hoary head…’Leaving your race at the door,” he said. “Leaving your people behind.” He studied me over the top of his reading glasses. “Understand something, boy. You’re not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained. They’ll train you to want what you don’t need. They’ll train you to manipulate words so they don’t mean anything anymore. They’ll train you to forget what it is that you already know. They’ll train you so good, you’ll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that shit. They’ll give you a corner office and invite you to fancy dinners, and tell you you’re a credit to your race. Until you want to actually start running things, and then they’ll yank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you’re a nigger just the same…It made me smile, thinking back on Frank and his old Black Power, dashiki self. In some ways he was as incurable as my mother, as certain in his faith, living in the same sixties time warp that Hawaii had created.” [Dreams From My Father, Pg. 96-97]

Davis: “I Cannot Support The African American Extremist Postulate That All White Are Our Enemies. Unless You Have Allowed Yourself To Become Completely Dehumanized By American Racism, You Value And Retain Your Proven Friends, No Matter What Their Color.” An article on Frank Marshall Davis wrote, “Although involvement with the labor movement was Davis’s opportunity to work for better wages and conditions for both African Americans and whites, perhaps most significant about this period in Chicago was that Davis and other African American intellectuals had a chance to mix freely in interracial situations, thereby opening doors for those who came after. Davis understood more than ever that the problems in America caused by class inequities were intricately woven with racial inequities. The Chicago Renaissance was a period when it was possible for interracial friendships to form and new levels of communication to occur. ‘I felt equal to my white peers. Around them I could not sniff the offensive odor of condescension. You see, I like people despite being basically a loner, but experience had taught me never to immediately trust anybody white ... and in a determined effort to become cosmopolitan, I participated in all... I still have warm personal feelings for those with whom I worked. This is a big reason why I cannot support the African American extremist postulate that all whites are our enemies... Unless you have allowed yourself to become completely dehumanized by American racism, you value and retain your proven friends, no matter what their color (1992, 248-249).’” [Western Journal of Black Studies, 12/22/02]