White House reverses course, says Obama lived w Kenyan uncle

[Deleted]

news.yahoo.com/white-house-reverses-course--says-obama-lived-with-kenyan-uncle-202020835.html

The White House acknowledged Thursday that President Barack Obama lived briefly years ago with a Kenyan uncle previously targeted for deportation — after initially insisting there was no evidence they had ever met.

Why the stark turnaround? “Nobody spoke to the president” when the question first arose in 2011, press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.

Instead, staff appear to have relied on one of the president’s autobiographical books.

“Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book, and there was no evidence that they had met, there was — and that was what was conveyed,” Carney explained.

That appeared to be a reference to “Dreams From My Father,” which famously includes the warning that some people in the book are composites.

Carney also denied any improper White House meddling in the deportation procedures against the elder Obama, whom he described as “his father’s half-brother.” The uncle, who has lived in the United States for 50 years, won his fight against deportation this week.

"Absolutely zero interference," the spokesman said.



Here’s some background from the Boston Globe:

Onyango Obama’s immigration case raised numerous concerns about a potential conflict of interest after his arrest in August 2011 for drunken driving in Framingham. The arrest revealed his outstanding deportation orders and his relationship to the president.

Shortly after his arrest, he told an officer, “I think I will call the White House.”

The question of the relationship between the two men arose at a recent deportation hearing focused on the uncle. Onyango "Omar" Obama testified that the future president had lived with him in Cambridge for three weeks.

Carney explained: “There were reports that he had said the other day that President Obama, back when he was a law school student, had stayed with him in Cambridge, I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him.”

“The president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school, and that he stayed with him for a brief period of time until his — the president's — apartment was ready,” the spokesman added.

“After that, they saw each other once every few months while the president was in Cambridge, and then, after law school, they gradually fell out of touch. The president has not seen Omar Obama in 20 years and has not spoken with him in roughly 10 years.”

[pixy0stix]

::face palm::

[KateAggie]

So...basically no one talks to the President?

[Deleted]

They literally bought the book.

[lys]

The media was not interested in vetting Obama in the least.

[epphd]

By vetting, you mean asking? If so.. that's on them. Though I don't really see who gives a shit about this and why. Also - how do you "live with" someone for 3 weeks? That's a visit. He didn't sign a damn lease for god's sake and again WHY does this matter at all?

[epphd]

Honest to god if someone asked me where I spent my holidays in college, I would not be able to tell them or I'd get it wrong. Even if they asked POTUS and he said "nope, never lived with the guy" and then came back later and said - "oh, that? Yeah I crashed on his couch while my apartment was being readied" I would not bat an eye.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2013 19:39:51 GMT -5 epphd said:

Honest to god if someone asked me where I spent my holidays in college, I would not be able to tell them or I'd get it wrong. Even if they asked POTUS and he said "nope, never lived with the guy" and then came back later and said - "oh, that? Yeah I crashed on his couch while my apartment was being readied" I would not bat an eye.

Seriously. I did so much shit in college I can't remember.

[sushi]

3 weeks is lived with? Damn.

Why is this an issue?

[sandsonik]

Dec 5, 2013 18:44:23 GMT -5 lys said:

The media was not interested in vetting Obama in the least.

Seriously?  They should have asked if he ever lived with anyone for a week or two while in between apartments? 

And if he had said "yeah, my uncle"  - what then?  Why are you suggesting that's a problem?

[Velar Fricative]

I don't give a shit about this but you know the birthers do. Now he MUST have been born in Kenya if he lied about this!

[jillboston]

Dec 5, 2013 18:44:23 GMT -5 lys said:

The media was not interested in vetting Obama in the least.

Let's see Lys. The media did not bring us George W. Bush's arrest for DUI. Obama's uncle gets arrested (*after* Obama is elected) for DUI after living peacefully in the US for 50 years and Obama is the one who wasn't vetted? Just want to get it all straight.

[KateAggie]

Dec 5, 2013 18:48:38 GMT -5 epphd said:

By vetting, you mean asking? If so.. that's on them. Though I don't really see who gives a shit about this and why. Also - how do you "live with" someone for 3 weeks? That's a visit. He didn't sign a damn lease for god's sake and again WHY does this matter at all?

For me, it's the "he never met him," that's the problem.  If I slept on anyone's couch for 3 weeks, much less a relative, I'm gonna remember at least knowing them.

im also extremely frustrated with the "nobody informed/asked/spoke" to President Obama line that seems to get thrown out anytime things change/don't go as planned.  Either it's a pattern of plausible deniability, or we have a President that is uninformed and removed from his own people.  Whichever it is, it's a problem.

[eliseb0323]

I just don't understand the lying. I don't think it's indicative of anything nefarious, but why not tell the truth that you know your uncle? If I was running for POTUS, I would check out what my relatives were up to and whether or not they were in the country legally. Why say you've never met the guy, when clearly you have? Why not say, yeah, that's my uncle, but I haven't seen him in years? And I don't believe for a minute no one talked to the President when his uncle was arrested to see what his connections to the guy are. There is no way the staff just looked through his books to see if the uncle was mentioned and then concluded Obama didn't know him.

[IIOY]

Dec 6, 2013 8:48:26 GMT -5 eliseb0323 said:

I just don't understand the lying. I don't think it's indicative of anything nefarious, but why not tell the truth that you know your uncle? If I was running for POTUS, I would check out what my relatives were up to and whether or not they were in the country legally. Why say you've never met the guy, when clearly you have? Why not say, yeah, that's my uncle, but I haven't seen him in years? And I don't believe for a minute no one talked to the President when his uncle was arrested to see what his connections to the guy are. There is no way the staff just looked through his books to see if the uncle was mentioned and then concluded Obama didn't know him.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they didn't bother talking to him about this issue and instead consulted his book because it has become painfully clear that this is a President who exists in a bubble, who is stand-offish, and who wants to delegate everything while he is busy giving speeches.

To me, the issue here isn't that he may have spent three weeks living with someone who should or should not be deported and may or may not have lied about it.  The issue is that once again, there was a communication breakdown in which, one again, the President wasn't consulted.  Ordinarily the appropriate response would be a shrug and "move on," but this involves a hot button issue on which conservatives are just waiting to pounce, and the snafu is emblematic of Obama's leadership problems.  The fact that his administration doesn't handle such issues with kid gloves at this point blows my mind.

...Or maybe they are just flat out lying.

[lys]

It matters when he says he did not know his uncle. Why lie? It is an indication of personal integrity and character-both make a big difference in a leader.

[lys]

Dec 5, 2013 21:51:51 GMT -5 jillboston said:

Dec 5, 2013 18:44:23 GMT -5 lys said:

The media was not interested in vetting Obama in the least.

Let's see Lys. The media did not bring us George W. Bush's arrest for DUI. Obama's uncle gets arrested (*after* Obama is elected) for DUI after living peacefully in the US for 50 years and Obama is the one who wasn't vetted? Just want to get it all straight.

Bush was open about his past alcohol issues (and the DUI was a number of years prior to even being a governor.)
Obama did not necessarily hide his pot and coke usage, but it was not front page news fodder as was Bush's DUI.

We had heard of Obama's uncle years in the past and also an aunt who lived here undocumented .  The point is the lying, not the Uncle or other relatives.

[josieposy]

Politicians lie about stuff? No way!!

[ttt]

This is just what gets me about the Obama administration. They keep getting tripped up with this seriously stupid, stupid stuff. Why would you lie about something so trivial? Or not bother to fact-check it? Is it really so hard to take 30 seconds to double check whether what you're about to put out to the public is true or not? Especially when there aren't any serious consequences to correcting yourself? I mean, whether he met him or not is utterly unimportant. But this "scandal" around it is, because it's distracting and entirely avoidable.

Much like, oh I don't know, failing to beta test your @#$&^ing website....

[jillboston]

Dec 6, 2013 10:16:21 GMT -5 lys said:

Dec 5, 2013 21:51:51 GMT -5 jillboston said:

Let's see Lys. The media did not bring us George W. Bush's arrest for DUI. Obama's uncle gets arrested (*after* Obama is elected) for DUI after living peacefully in the US for 50 years and Obama is the one who wasn't vetted? Just want to get it all straight.

Bush was open about his past alcohol issues (and the DUI was a number of years prior to even being a governor.)
Obama did not necessarily hide his pot and coke usage, but it was not front page news fodder as was Bush's DUI.

We had heard of Obama's uncle years in the past and also an aunt who lived here undocumented .  The point is the lying, not the Uncle or other relatives.

Nope. No he was not. He never ever said he had a DUI. He said when I was young and irresponsible I was young and irresponsible. Admitting to an alcohol problem is not the same as admitting to being arrested. He never brought up his own arrest. It had to be dug up. He (and Cheney) were the first President and Vice President felons in office several times over. Those lies are ten times worse than saying whether or not you've lived with some distant aunt or uncle for 3 weeks. But feel free to equate them - only adds to your integrity around here.

[KateAggie]

Transparency...overrated.

[ttt]

My feelings about the Obama administration are like, you know that person, and we all know someone like this, who's super smart, has all these great ideas, is really awesome, but they just can't seem to get their act together? They're always late, they're always blowing great opportunities at work because they forgot to finish projects in time, they accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person, they save up lots of money and then blow it on something stupid, they have this awesome boyfriend/girlfriend and end up losing them because they got drunk and made out with a coworker. And you just want to throttle them because they're SO SMART and it DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS and why do they keep screwing good things up???

[iammalcolmx]

I could see being confused. Doesn't Obama have a ton of relatives?

[iammalcolmx]

Dec 6, 2013 11:47:33 GMT -5 ttt said:

My feelings about the Obama administration are like, you know that person, and we all know someone like this, who's super smart, has all these great ideas, is really awesome, but they just can't seem to get their act together? They're always late, they're always blowing great opportunities at work because they forgot to finish projects in time, they accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person, they save up lots of money and then blow it on something stupid, they have this awesome boyfriend/girlfriend and end up losing them because they got drunk and made out with a coworker. And you just want to throttle them because they're SO SMART and it DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS and why do they keep screwing good things up???

Word

[laurenpetro]

i forgot my uncle lived with us for 2 years.

shit happens.

[gpw]

See? I can't with any of this. Can't with the White House, can't with the ones looking down their nose at the story, can't with the pearl clutchers and can't with it being reported like he covered up some sort of arms deal in the middle east.

[gpw]

Dec 6, 2013 16:41:16 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Dec 6, 2013 16:37:00 GMT -5 gpw said:

See? I can't with any of this. Can't with the White House, can't with the ones looking down their nose at the story, can't with the pearl clutchers and can't with it being reported like he covered up some sort of arms deal in the middle east.

That was Reagan. But yeah.

yeah....I know.  I was trying to to slip him in there.  That one was for you.   

[lys]

Dec 6, 2013 11:47:33 GMT -5 ttt said:

My feelings about the Obama administration are like, you know that person, and we all know someone like this, who's super smart, has all these great ideas, is really awesome, but they just can't seem to get their act together? They're always late, they're always blowing great opportunities at work because they forgot to finish projects in time, they accidentally say the wrong thing to the wrong person, they save up lots of money and then blow it on something stupid, they have this awesome boyfriend/girlfriend and end up losing them because they got drunk and made out with a coworker. And you just want to throttle them because they're SO SMART and it DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS and why do they keep screwing good things up???

That is why such people should not be president. BEING smart is not enough.   Being and doing - What you DO makes the difference.

[IIOY]

Dec 6, 2013 17:19:57 GMT -5 @cse1960 said:

Hell I could not tell you the names of every man I have slept with.

Me neither! My sister in whoredom! ::fist bump::

[litebright]

Sigh. Some people will read the URL or headline and go, "OMG, HE LIVED IN KENYA. THE BIRTHERS WERE RIGHT!!!!!!"

When that's not even the case.