SubscribeObama’s (Non) Granny Decries (Non) Tricks
From an outraged Associated Press:
Obama’s grandmother decries tricks
By KATHARINE HOURELD Associated Press Writer
03/05/2008
KOGELO, Kenya—American shock jocks, dirty tricks masterminds and political bloggers: Beware the wrath of an 86-year-old Kenyan villager.
A frown replaces the dimpled beam of Sarah Hussein Obama, grandmother of Barack Obama, when asked on Wednesday about recent attacks on her grandson that include the spreading of rumors that he is secretly a Muslim and the repeated use of his middle name—Hussein—by a radio host at a rally for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
“Untruths are told that don’t have anything to do with what Barack is about,” she said in the local Luo language, her gray hair smoothed neatly under a headwrap. “I am very against it.” …
Each twist and turn of the race is closely scrutinized, said Barack Obama’s half-sister, Auma Obama. The family gathered in his grandmother’s house on Tuesday night to watch the results come in on a television donated by a family friend, she said—the grandmother’s own simple house does not have one of its own.
“Barack’s done extremely well and we’re very proud of him,” Auma Obama said when asked for a reaction to the losses on Tuesday. “This is like a football match. The game continues.” …
“Bringing such pictures that are trying to imply that not only is he a foreigner, he is a Muslim, is wrong, because that is not what he is,” scolded Sarah Obama.
The photo was taken when Barack Obama was presented with the outfit while on a visit to his late father’s native Kenya. Clinton campaign officials have said they did not condone any such dirty tricks.
Obama’s grandfather had converted to Islam from Roman Catholicism and taken the name Hussein, Sarah Obama said, but his children had inherited only the name, not the religion. Each person should be able to choose how they worshipped, she said.
“In the world of today, children have different religions from their parents,” she said. She, too, is a Christian.
Barack Obama has visited his Kenyan relatives three times in Kogelo, and his grandmother has gone to the U.S. twice. She says they are close, although they have to speak through an interpreter.
Sarah Obama was the second wife of the candidate’s late grandfather, so she is not his biological grandmother. But Auma Obama said: “By our definition, in our culture, she is his grandmother,” she said.
Mrs. Obama certainly has no complaints against the Associated Press, who did their best to sit on the photographs (at least three that we know of) that show her (not really) grandson in ‘Muslim garb.’
But exactly what “tricks” is she decrying?
Are those photographs (which we helped uncover) not authentic? Is his middle name not Hussein? Is not his family Muslim? (The claim that his non-grandmother is Christian is new.)
Heck, the AP even had the “audacity” to use her middle name: Sarah Hussein Obama.
Perhaps Mrs. Obama should get a job with our watchdog media. She would seem to have their patter down perfectly.
“By our definition, in our culture, she is his grandmother,” she said.
And of course by the media’s standards one can define words to mean anything you want — even the word “grandmother.” But most of all, nothing you say has to be true as long as you say it with enough self-righteous outrage.
“In the world of today, children have different religions from their parents,” she said. She, too, is a Christian.
Hey, never mind what the New York Times reported back in April:
A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith
By JODI KANTOR
April 30, 2007Sarah Hussein Obama of Kenya, Barack Obama’s stepgrandmother, is a lifelong Muslim. “I am a strong believer of the Islamic faith,” she says.
Again, it would seem that Mrs. Obama has a very fluid concept of what is true and what isn’t.
Still, as we said, she would make a great journalist — or Democrat politician, which amounts to pretty much the same thing.
Moreover, just to give an idea of how close Mr. Obama is to his (non) grandmother and his ancestral roots, behold this exchange from the March 5, 2007 edition of the New York Times:
Obama on the Issues (and his Grandfather’s Wives)
By Nicholas D. Kristof
March 5, 2007
Q. And your grandfather was Sunni?
A. No, I have no idea because my grandfather, I mean he grew up in traditional Luo culture. But fascinating, how he became Muslim was he actually was a cook for with the British army. And they then took him overseas. He initially converted to Christianity, and so I think was a Christian probably as long as he was a Muslim. And then at some point I think they may have gone to Saudi Arabia, I mean the stories are somewhat vague, he converted to Islam because I think he liked the — he was a very stern character and I think he just liked the idea that somehow, I think in the end Christianity seemed a little soft to him, the whole turn-the-other-cheek thing. So it appealed to his temperament more. I mean this is the story, I never met him, but this is the stories that I get.
Q. He had multiple wives?
A. Oh, yeah. Well, ultimately he only had two.
Q. Simultaneous though?
A. Let me think. You know, actually — no, no, I mean the Luo were polygamists, as were a lot of cultures at that time. So he would have viewed nothing wrong with having multiple wives, but I actually think he ended up having — no, I take — I think he would have had — I’m trying to just remember if they were consecutive or overlapping. His first wife, who was actually my blood grandmother, was — actually my, the woman who I call granny I see is actually a step-granny, so that’s actually his second wife. These things get a little fuzzy.
Bear in mind that his supporters inside and outside of our watchdog media often cite Mr. Obama’s knowledge of his African ancestry as one of the reasons he will make such an ideal leader of the free world.
In fact, that is the whole point of Mr. Kristof’s article. And yet he doesn’t really know anything about his grandfather or even how many wives he had.