Kansas, Or A Seattle Suburb? (Obama trying to hide mother's Seattle [leftist] roots?)

Sound Politics (Washington State) ^ | May 8, 2008 | Jim Miller

[Stoat]

Kansas, Or A Seattle Suburb?

When Bill Clinton was presenting himself to the American public in 1992, he was described as "The Man from Hope", Hope, Arkansas, that is.  His supporters even made a movie with that title.  The Clinton campaign called him the Man from Hope for two reasons, to take advantage of the town's name, and to imply that Clinton had the wholesome values many of us associate with small towns.

There is just one thing wrong with calling Clinton the Man from Hope; it isn't completely true.   Clinton was born in Hope in 1946 and lived there (in the care of grandparents) until 1950, but he grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a very different place.  Hot Springs was famous, or, if you prefer, infamous, for its vices, famous enough to attract visitors like Al Capone and Bugs Moran.  Hardly anyone would think those visitors had small town values.

But Clinton got away with it during 1992, though reporters familiar with Arkansas (and Clinton's personal history) must have know that he was being deceptive.

The Obama campaign is pulling a similar trick with his mother.

Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas.  Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army.  Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

That leaves out a lot.  Stanley Ann Dunham was born in Kansas in 1942, but her family moved to the Seattle area in 1955, and in 1956 settled in a Seattle suburb, Mercer Island, where they moved sharply to the left.  There's a good description of their time in Mercer Island in this long Chicago Tribune article.   Some excerpts:

Obama's mother spent 8th grade through high school here.  Four of those five years were spent on Mercer Island, a 5-mile-long, South America-shaped stretch of Douglas firs and cedars, just across from Seattle in Lake Washington.
. . .
At Mercer High School, two teachers -- Val Foubert and Jim Wichterman -- generated regular parental thunderstorms by teaching their students to challenge societal norms and question all manner of authority.  Foubert, who died recently, taught English.  His texts were cutting edge: "Atlas Shrugged," "The Organization Man," "The Hidden Persuaders," "1984" and the acerbic writings of H.L. Mencken.
. . .
"If you were concerned about something going wrong in the world, Stanley would know about it first," said [fellow student] Chip Wall, who described her as "a fellow traveler. . . . We were liberals before we knew what liberals were."

(Or as I would say, leftists.)

Sociologically, Mercer Island was already a long way from small town Kansas, especially for those who fell under the influence of teachers like Foubert and Wichterman.  But Obama would prefer that we not know about that part of his mother's life, even though it was the formative part.

It is not hard to see why Obama wants to conceal this part of his mother's life, just as it is not hard to see why Clinton wanted to call himself the Man from Hope.  In each case, the man wants to claim some connection to small town values, the one directly and the other through his mother.   Clinton got away with it in 1992, and Obama may do the same this year.

The deliberate deception tells us something about both men.  In particular, it tells us that both men are bold liars, willing to deceive even when they know that their deceptions can be detected by anyone who takes a little time to check.  (And both men rely on the forbearance of "mainstream" journalists, some of whom must know the truth.)

Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.

(The Dunhams didn't go directly from Kansas to Seattle.  After World War II, her family moved to Texas, and from there to Seattle.  So, with the same lack of accuracy, one could say that Barack's mother grew up in Texas.  But I doubt that his campaign will ever make that claim.

Incidentally, I fell for this trick myself, believing for some time that the Dunhams had lived in Kansas most of their lives and then moved to Hawaii to retire.

This is the fourth post in my "Strange Obama" series.  You can find the earlier posts here, here, and here.)

Two corrections:  Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, was born in 1942, not 1940, as I originally wrote.  And her family also lived in California after leaving Kansas, and before moving to the Seattle area.

[Stoat]

Thanks to Orbusmax for the link

Orbusmax ™ Northwest News - 'Around The World In 80K'

[wideminded]

"If you were concerned about something going wrong in the world, Stanley would know about it first," said [fellow student] Chip Wall, who described her as "a fellow traveler. . . . We were liberals before we knew what liberals were."

(Or as I would say, leftists.)

Chip Wall is a Marine and served in Vietnam.

[angelsonmyside]

Thank you for the post.

[SatinDoll]

Being picky here, but I would never call H.L.Mencken and Ayn Rand (who wrote Atlas Shrugged) inspirational to liberal thinking.

[Stoat]

Thank you for the post.

You're quite welcome, and I'm delighted that you've found it to be worthwhile  :-)

[Stoat]

Being picky here, but I would never call H.L.Mencken and Ayn Rand (who wrote Atlas Shrugged) inspirational to liberal thinking.

I wouldn't either.  I believe that the author is wanting to illustrate the 'cutting edge' nature of that public school course, particularly in the context of that era.

There are innumerable ways to frame the leftist nature of Seattle and it's suburbs...if that was the author's intent in that particular paragraph, he certainly could have done so more effectively.

[aruanan]

Being picky here, but I would never call H.L.Mencken and Ayn Rand (who wrote Atlas Shrugged) inspirational to liberal thinking.

There is more to the Left than being doctrinaire Marxists. Some are eclectic "free thinkers" that dabble in anything iconoclastic. Look at Shirley McClaine and Barbra Streisand. They're both liberal/left, but they're not left in the same sense that Hillary and Barack are, though none of them want to acknowledge any power greater than themselves that isn't something they've designed and have control over.

[dr_lew]

I was gonna say ...

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

Sorry, but Mercer Island is hardly the bastion for liberalism that Seattle proper is. And they mention two teachers that, for one, are not described as liberal at all, (Ayn Rand....please) and, far more importantly, are not even mentioned as having actually taught Obama’s mother, just that they worked at the same school she attended.

[21twelve]

Correct about Mercer Island. There was a long article in the Seattle Times - perhaps three to four weeks ago? Said how she didn’t quite fit in, and would catch the bus and hang out in Seattle downtown scene quite a bit. Also talked about how she was very much a free spirit, was going to do great things, independent woman type things.

Her classmates were very surprised when they found out that she had married so soon after school.

I’ll hang out my prejudiced shingle a bit here, but from the tone of the article - I figured perhaps in her liberal minded view of the world, what could be more free-spirited, radical, and independent (and “progressive”) than marrying some black guy from a third-world country?

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

what could be more free-spirited, radical, and independent (and “progressive”) than marrying some black guy from a third-world country?

You are exactly right.

[Stoat]

Sorry, but Mercer Island is hardly the bastion for liberalism that Seattle proper is.

Certainly not these days, as stratospheric property values have squeezed out any hippies that might have been shacking up there (perhaps they moved to Fremont or Belltown  :-))  I think that Mercer Island is probably most famously known as the home of Michael Medved and Bill Gates these days.

From the article:

Sociologically, Mercer Island was already a long way from small town Kansas

**********************

 And they mention two teachers that, for one, are not described as liberal at all, (Ayn Rand....please) and, far more importantly, are not even mentioned as having actually taught Obama’s mother, just that they worked at the same school she attended.

All true, but I think that the author (how I hate to put words into people's mouths) may have been wanting to illustrate the overall ambiance more than anything, as evidenced by the quote from Chris Wall:

........who described her as "a fellow traveler. . . . We were liberals before we knew what liberals were."

I think that the bigger picture here is that "if" the premise of the article is true i.e. the Obama camp is wanting to distance the candidate from the perception of 'being from a left-wing family' they are acting on the current (and quite accurate) perception of Seattle being hard-left.  They are probably thinking that for people on the other side of the country who haven't spent time in the area to differentiate such a fine point....that Mercer Island isn't has hard-left as Seattle even though it's only a few minutes' drive away...is asking a bit much, particularly considering how poorly-informed so many voters are these days.

They probably think that it's a whole lot easier to simply try to make the case that "his mother is from smalltown Kansas" rather than "his mother spent her formative years in a ' not quite so Left' suburb of The People's Republic of Seattle.

In our age of 20-second soundbites, they probably judge the "Kansas" story to be a whole easier one to sell.

[sionnsar]

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[SW6906]

Stoat, my friend, I hate to point out an error, but Bill Gates doesn’t live on Mercer Island, he lives in Medina (or is it Clyde Hill?), just South of the 520 bridge in Bellevue. Paul Allen, IIRC, lives on Mercer Island...... ;o)

[steel_resolve]

This ping list is a little too busy for me, can you take me off? Thanks!

[RainMan]

Just a couple of corrections. I have no idea about Medved, but Gates lives in Bellevue, not Mercer Island.

Being a lifelong resident of the region, I can also say that MI was NEVER a hippie haven. Even in the 60’s, it was eliteist. It was the richest community in what at the time was a relatively poor region. The MI political scene was republican, but it was Rockefeller Republican. It was the poor little white kids who wanted to use mommy and daddy’s money to save the world in the morning, and then go play tennis in the afternoon. Actually ... not a lot has changed since then except MI is now considered just slightly upper middle class.

[GATOR NAVY]

I can also say that MI was NEVER a hippie haven. Even in the 60’s, it was eliteist.

That's what I remembered. We moved to Kirkland from Seattle in the late '60s. That whole lakefront Bellevue/Mercer Island area was very upper middle class, way above what Kirkland was at the time.

[kellynla]

I don’t care if Obama was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Jerusalem and his parents’ names were Joseph & Mary. LOL

And he turned out to be an anti-American racist Leftie.

And that is all that matters!

[Stoat]

I can also say that MI was NEVER a hippie haven.

And I never said that it was.

When I said:

stratospheric property values have squeezed out any hippies that might have been shacking up there

I suppose I could have said "any remaining hippies" or "any hippies that might have been hiding under a rock there", but it appears that my attempt at tongue in cheek humor pertaining to property values has been taken literally here, instead of as it was meant..... a wry comment about how hippies could never live there.   I'm a lifelong Washington resident also, and my hope had been that such a ludicrous concept, hippies in Mercer Island, would be obvious to those familiar to the area.  I should have used more smiley faces :-) or LOL's to make it more obvious....sorry!

I have no idea about Medved, but Gates lives in Bellevue

Michael Medved frequently mentions his home on Mercer Island on his radio show, and Bill Gates lives in Medina, which is not far from Bellevue, and just a short distance across the water from Mercer Island.    Sorry again.

Yahoo! Maps, Medina, WA

Bill Gates' house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, I stand corrected on all of these vital points.  :-)

[Stoat]

Stoat, my friend,

Thank you for your kind words, my friend  :-)

I hate to point out an error, but Bill Gates doesn’t live on Mercer Island, he lives in Medina (or is it Clyde Hill?), just South of the 520 bridge in Bellevue.

You're right, I blew it

Bill Gates' house - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Paul Allen, IIRC, lives on Mercer Island...... ;o)

You're probably right, but at this point I don't really care anymore....an offhand comment of mine in the context of a poorly-delivered attempt at tongue in cheek, wry humor has generated far more attention than I had intended.

I'll view this as a reminder to be particularly diligent at fact-checking when posting late at night and to avoid attempts at humor  :-)