Posted on 04/16/2008 9:20:05 PM PDT by operationchaos
Obama's Mother and Food Stamps, A Poor Upbringing?
Following Obama's recent dumb comment about small town Americans clinging to guns and religion, he defended himself by claiming that the notion of elitist is absurd because of his poor upbringing. He claimed that his mother was on food stamps, so how could he be an elitist in his upbringing? For a while, that bothered me a good deal. Why? We all know that Obama has repeatedly lied in the past on certain issues, and will do again in order to get by. Do we dare to take his word at face value?
The real issue here is about his upbringing, and whether it was in fact a poor one. I did a little amateur research on the Internet (may God bless Al Gore, the "inventor" of Internet! Just kidding) to find out more about his mother living on food stamps. What kind of circumstances did lead his mother to apply for welfare checks?
Here is the Time article written by Joe Klein in 2006, long before Obama decided to run for president. Back then, he was seen as the rising star within Democratic Party, and he didn't worry about critics breathing down his neck.
Here is the key excrept from the article:
"For example, I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D."
This is what Obama said. He went to a fancy private school, and his mother was studying for a Ph.D. So, please do tell me was his upbringing a poor one? Please. I'm begging, no, make it daring, you to tell me otherwise.
What kind of fancy private school did he attend? Punahou Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii. The tuition at that school today costs over $15,000. I don't know how much it was back in Obama's days, but I gather it was an expensive school. So, how could he attend this school if his mother were on food stamps? Where did his mother get that kind of money? Scholarship? I don't know.
But that's not the real issue here, again I do emphasize Obama's claim that he grew up in a poor household. I suppose it depends on what definition of poor you use. If Obama didn't get his favorite toy, did that mean he is automatically poor? Of course not. Equally valid is the fact her mother was studying for her Ph.D, that meant she had money to pay for tuition and fees. Did that mean she wasn't actually poor as Obama may have claimed though for a while they did live on food stamps?
The real truth here is that Obama lied to us. He owes us an honest explanation of his upbringing. It may be that his mother and Obama did face tough times, but to claim that they were poor is really stretching the truth, don't you all think so? Obama is indeed an elitist for two reasons: he attended a "fancy prep school" and his mother studied to receive her Ph.D. He grew up in a well educated and liberal household. If at any point during his childhood, he did not entertain the notion of elitist, fine, but right now, he is acting like an elitist, period.
I went to a private school that based it’s tuition on the parents income. So there was a mix of us “poor” kids and some wealthy.
What I find even more confusing is that, from all I’ve heard, his mother wasn’t even there. She was in Indonesia and had dumped him on his grandparents, who most certainly were not on food stamps. He himself said in one of his books that she was a bank executive.
Good deductive thinking and welcome to Free Republic.
I know several Punahoe grads - it is not at all an inexpensive school, and anyone who goes there would not consider themselves poor.
My late father’s “lunch” at his one room school (when he was able to go—he was the oldest and had to work on the farm) was a piece of cornbread with lard slathered on it.
That was when there was food. Top that, Barry!
It all depends on what the definition of “poor “ is.
And then we have Obama’s wife...
Michelle went to Princeton and Harvard.
But she grew up in “working class family” in the Southside of Chicago?
Enquiring minds want to know just what her definition of “working class” is.
Poor is having the kids sell strawberry plants on the road in front of the house so the mortgage payment would be made.
Obama has NO CLUE what poor is.
I’d have to know more actual facts about his life than speculating. I went to a private middle school for a few years when my mom and I were poor. She wound up paying the tuition off on a multi-year plan over time. We would need to know more hard facts and particulars to claim Obama’s really lying about this. It’s not as clear cut as others he’s said. Plus, who knows if HE really knows the full financial details of what his mom was going through then. I don’t fully know everything my mom had to do with the budget during this time in my life.
I knew lots of PhD students who had very little income (a few thousand dollars a year) and received assistantships to cover their tuition.
Poor Obama ping
Why are the taxpayers feeding people getting their PhDs?
Get a job you elite snobs!
If that is accurate about his mom being a bank executive, I don’t think he fits the definition of what I think of as “poor”.
A lot of liberals grew up poor cos no maid.
From what I know, Obama’s grandparents paid for his tuition.
I knew a man who grateful for the dirt he had to eat, his neighbor had to suck on rocks. But he was also grateful because everyone in his family had their own rock to suck unlike when he was a child and had to share a rock with ten brothers and sister.
It wasn’t his mom that was a bank executive. It was his typical white racist grandmother........
Did he have to walk uphill to school (both ways)in 10 feet of snow, all year round? If not, he’s a wussy! LOL
Stanley Ann, Barack’s mother, was working on her Phd. (Anthropology) and returned to Indonesia for that purpose. Barack (I believe he was ten years old) did not want to go back there, instead choosing to remain in Hawaii with his grandparents and, one presumes, with his mother’s approval.
I would assume the food stamp episode occurred after her divorce, trip to Hawaii and application to a graduate program while Barack still lived with his mother.
It is plausible.
and lard!!!
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