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You have Sarah Obama, one of Obama's grandfather's other wives, saying that Barack Obama was a "son of the village," and McRae claims this means he was born in the village, because of cognate Indian roots. Since when is Lao an Indo-European language? He could be right, but I'd be stupid to take his word for it without looking the words up for myself.

Then, without citing any more evidence McRae expands this to having her present at his birth in Kenya, perhaps in Mombasa. Mombasa is on the other side of the country, so if he was "born in the village" he wasn't born in Mombasa. McRae didn't explain his conclusion or clear up the contradiction.

Then you have that very confused phone conversation. I'd hold off on any conclusions until I come across a good Lao speaker-interpreter. McRae isn't a trustworthy source, and his interpreter's English isn't all that good.

"Son of the soil" is like "son of the village": it's a phrase that can be used metaphorically as well as literally. John Kennedy was a "Son of Old Ireland," but he wasn't born there (Bill Clinton was also a "son" of the village in Ireland that the Clinton family came from, even though the Clintons were actually his step-father's family).

As for the ambassador, this looks like one of those "Borat" things. An interviewer tries to catch a politician off-balance. The politician catches the prankster trying to make him say something silly. But he can't dodge all the tricks. Just because he doesn't fall into one trap, doesn't mean that when he does misspeak it's the truth.

[ckilmer]

I agree with your concerns about McRae. However, the Kenyan National Assembly on Nov 5, 2008, the day after Obama was elected Over and over again made references to Obama being a "son of the soil" of Kenya and a Kenyan.


Obama's own flacks deny that obama was born in Kenya but do acknowledge that he had a dual citizenship up until 1982

from obama's own site factcheck.org(this is cached as the original was taken down) by way of fightthesmears on his dual citizenship at birth

“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children.

Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.”(Someone will want to cache the above web page because it will be taken down eventually. Ah here is the cached version.) Here is a better cached versionHere's a third Kindly cache these too.

Here is the problem with fighthesmears narrative: We already have recorded that Obama's wife michellle said Obama's mother was "very young and very single" when obama was born. British law at the time of obama's birth only gave citizenship from the father to the son in the case that the father is married to the mother:ie the son is legitimate. See wikipedia 2.4.3Since obama's parents were NOT married -- how did obama get his British/Kenyancitizenship? Its not unreasonable to think that he got his British/Kenyan because he was born there--and not because of his parentage. As to the famous newsclipping in Hawaii that states that bama was born there in 1961--there is evidence to suggest that the house named as the place where Obama was born -- was lived in by someone else besides his parents. Once again, Just one piece of evidence could easily be dismissed. It is the accumulation of evidence that is troubling.
It is well established that Obama did travel to Indonesia and Pakistan in 1981. In a tape of his speech at this April 6, 2008 San Francisco Fundraiser, Obama discloses his trip to Pakistan (40:17) when he was in college. On what passport did he travel?

A last arguement for baraks people might be that of course the Kenyans would have an interest in claiming that obama was a "son of the soil" both as a matter of pride and as a matter of bucks coming their way. However, if Obama was not born in Kenya -- then why wouldn't Obama release his original long form birth certificate. Instead of just releasing his long form birth certificate he has paid his lawyers 1 million dollars from campaign contributions since Sept 08 to squash the suits brought on the issue. On top of that according to the LA Times since the election -- the Kenyans feel that Obama has gone out of his way to snub/ignore/distance-himself them. The Kenyans are putting up reasons like perhaps they are insufficiently perfected for him to notice them--but here in the USA we have seen Obama throw a number of embarrasing people from his past under the bus. Obama is going to Africa. Will he visit Kenya? Nope.