The Great Barry [Mark Steyn]

National Review ^ | 5/19/2012 | Mark Steyn

[Servant of the Cross]

It used to be a lot simpler. As E. C. Bentley deftly summarized it in 1905:

        Geography is about maps
        But Biography is about chaps.

But that was then, and now Biography is also about maps. For example, have you ever thought it would be way cooler to have been born in colonial Kenya?

Whoa, that sounds like crazy Birther talk; don’t go there! But Breitbart News did, and it turns out that the earliest recorded example of Birtherism is from the president’s own literary agent, way back in 1991, in the official bio of her exciting new author: “Barack Obama, the first African-American president of The Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”

So the lunatic theory that Barack Obama doesn’t meet the minimum eligibility requirements to be president of the United States was first advanced by Barack Obama’s official representative. Where did she get that wacky idea from? “This was nothing more than a fact-checking error by me,” says Obama’s literary agent Miriam Goderich, a “fact” that went so un-“checked” that it stayed up on her agency’s website in the official biography of her by-then-famous client up until 2007: “He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister.”

And then in April 2007, someone belatedly decided to “check” the 16-year-old “fact” and revised the biography, a few weeks into the now non-Kenyan’s campaign for the presidency. Fancy that!

When it comes to conspiracies, I’m an Occam’s Razor man.

[Servant of the Cross]

He invented himself, just like Gatsby.

[livius]

This was a brilliant article. Granted, all Steyn’s articles are at least shining, but this one was brilliant.

[Servant of the Cross]

Steyn ping.

[The people have spoken]

[Elizabeth Warren]’s the whitest white since Frosty the Snowman fell in a vat of Wite-Out.

[Travis McGee]

"I wasn't born in Kenya, honest.

(I just pretended to be, to get into Columbia and Harvard.)"

[pgyanke]

When it comes to conspiracies, I’m an Occam’s Razor man. The more obvious explanation of the variable first line in the eternally shifting sands of Obama’s biography is that, rather than pretending to have been born in Hawaii, he’s spent much of his life pretending to have been born in Kenya.

I'm an Occam's Razor man myself. I think the far more obvious explanation is that Obama WAS born in Kenya (as all of his Kenyan relatives--including his grandmother--agree) and only recently expunged this history in his run for office. Until he spoke to the Dem convention in 2004, he wasn't on the radar... and his biography was Kenyan. When he was touted as a "clean, articulate black man" to carry the banners of socialism, his biography needed a rewrite.

[pgyanke]

Where did she get that wacky idea from? “This was nothing more than a fact-checking error by me,” says Obama’s literary agent Miriam Goderich...

Except, as has been noted, this information has always been submitted by the aspiring author. She may not have "fact-checked" but she was not the originator of the information... "Barry" was.

[Joe 6-pack]

Indeed. I love Steyn’s work, but his Occam’s razor could use some sharpening.

[garjog]

“Mrs. Warren’s fictional Cherokee ancestors in Oklahoma were renowned for their ability to spear the fast-moving Oklahoma crab. It’s in the state song: “Ooooooklahoma! Where the crabs come sweepin’ down the plain . . . ”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6VDBQZZ5r0&feature=related

[ElayneJ]

“...raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago.” Wait - Raised in Chicago??

[Snickering Hound]

Growing up attending the very exclusive and expensive Punahau school in Hawaii with a bunch of honkies doesn't exactly put you as down for the struggle as being born in Kenya.

[Noob1999]

I hate to say this, but I wait for Mark Steyn to take over from Rush, as Mark is so lighthearted and funny, yet he get’s his points across wonderfully.

His written words are treasures!

[Tawiskaro]

For the heck of it, I searched for "obama harvard" at the New York Times archives online. The February 6, 1990 story of him being elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review contains this statement:

"His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii."

This is a digital story, not a digitized image of the print version. I'd like to compare it to the microfilm copy at my local library.

I wonder if any scrubbing occurred here. Fwiw.

--twk

[Intolerant in NJ]

So the lunatic theory that Barack Obama doesn’t meet the minimum eligibility requirements to be president of the United States was first advanced by Barack Obama’s official representative...um - since apparently Obama was asked to provide the info for the original bio, it would seem that the idea that Obama doesn't meet the minimum eligibility requirements to be president of the United States was first advanced by - Obama.......

[Neil E. Wright]

Hmmmm ... tried to read the whole article at NRO .... and keep getting a 404-Error .... Not Found .....looks like it was scrubbed already.

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country." –Benjamin Franklin

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