Maraniss Gets Testy as New Obama Bio Tanks
As of this writing, the book ranks 1,696 on Amazon's bestseller list.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/maraniss_gets_testy_as_new_obama_bio_tanks.html#ixzz22Arr0FYx
Here’s an interesting review I am reading at Amazon - maybe some of the more knowledgeable here can comment.
http://www.amazon.com/Barack-Obama-Story-David-Maraniss/product-reviews/1439160406/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
A book filled with shoddy research?, July 9, 2012
By Dakkumen (USA)
This review is from: Barack Obama: The Story (Hardcover)
David Maraniss’s book ‘Barack Obama: The Story’ begins in the Introduction by stating that ‘Dreams from My Father’ should fall into the “realm of literature and memoir, not history and autobiography, and should not be read as rigorously factual account.”
If ‘Dreams from My Father’ can’t be read as a rigorous factual account, then how should it be read? As a fiction book? If ‘Dreams’ should be read as fiction, then why does Maraniss freely reference ‘Dreams’ and other Obama biographical books - all of which are based on ‘Dreams’ as a non-fiction book - such as ‘The Bridge’ by David Remnick, ‘A Singular Woman’ by Janny Scott, ‘The Other Barack’ by Sally Jacobs and ‘Obamaland’ by Ron Jacobs?
It quickly became clear, however, that Maraniss’s ‘Barack Obama: The Story’ also falls into this same “realm” - a fiction book passed off as non-fiction. A couple of other books which would then fall into this same “realm” are ‘Fugitive Days’ by Bill Ayers and ‘Death of Innocence’ by John and Patsy Ramsey.
Here are just a few of the many unanswered questions from Maraniss’s book:
1. a) ‘Dreams’ states Ann Dunham was “born at the ARMY BASE where Gramps [Stan Dunham] is stationed.” b) Remnick states in his book ‘ The Bridge’ that Ann Dunham was born @ Fort Leavenworth. c) Maraniss states in his book that Ann Dunham was born @ St Francis Hospital in Wichita.
Who then is guilty of shoddy research: Barack Obama & David Remnick or David Maraniss?
2. Maraniss calculates that in Ann Dunham’s first semester of college she “appeared” to ace to two classes for eight credits and dropped (failed) three classes for a total grade point average of 1.35:
((4x4) + (4x4) + (Xx0 + Yx0 + Zx0))/((4 + 4) + (X + Y + Z)) = 1.35
Hence, (X + Y + Z)) = 15.7.
How could the total credits of Ann’s three dropped classes equal 15.7?
The only possibility is if one of Ann’s classes was a five credit course for which she received a B grade and the other class was a three credit class for which she received an A. Ann’s other three dropped classes would then have to total 12 credits, with a total sum of all the classes equaling 20 credits:
((5x3) + (3x4) + (12x0))/ (5 + 3 + 12) = 1.35
However, Ann’s “partial” transcript specifically says the classes were four credits each. Therefore something is seriously amiss in Ann Dunham’s 1960 college transcript which Maraniss failed to calculate.
Was this the type of calculation Maraniss used when he said he “calculated” (pg 158) that Ann & Obama Sr were having sex in Obama Sr.’s apartment in the fall of 1960?
3. Maraniss states in his book that Obama Sr. wrote his father in Kenya in 1960 about his upcoming marriage to Ann Dunham and that this letter was likely sent by “SPECIAL TRAIN, the Mail Express which ran on Tuesdays and Tursdays, to five designated towns east and west Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, and Kitale.”
Is this the same type of “special” train that Barack & Auma Obama were on when they visited their Grandma in Kenya which somehow left Nairobi traveling to the west and passed through the slum MATHARE:
‘At five-thirty in the evening, our train rumbled out of the old Nairobi train station heading west for Kisumu... My imagination failed me, and I returned to the present landscape, no longer bush but the rooftops of MATHARE stretching into the foothills beyond. Passing one of the slum’s open-air markets, I saw a row of small boys wave to the train.’ (Dreams from My Father Ch 18)
Any train leaving Nairobi to the west passes through the slum of Kibera and NOT the slum Mathare. Mathare is on the east side of Nairobi and has NO trains passing through it.
4. a) Ron Jacobs states in ‘Obamaland’ that Ann Dunham & Obama Sr. were married in late 1960. b) Peter Firstbrook states in his book ‘The Obamas’ that Ann Dunham & Obama Sr. were married on Feb 2, 1961 and that Stanley & Madelyn Dunham were present at the wedding. c) Maraniss states and in his book in his 2008 article titled ‘Though Obama Had to Leave’ that Ann Dunham & Obama Sr. were married on Feb 2, 1961 with NO ONE present at the wedding.
Who then is guilty of shoddy research: Ron Jacobs, Peter Firstbrook or David Maraniss?
5. a) ‘Dreams’ states that: “ At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more and less than a man. He had left Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two years old,.” b) Auma Obama states in her book ‘And Then Life Happens’ that: “Little Barack was two when Barack Sr, left Hawaii.” c) Maraniss states in his book that Obama Sr left Hawaii in 1962.
Who is guilty of shoddy research: Barack Obama & Auma Obama or David Maraniss?
6. Maraniss states in his 2008 article that, in 1961, Ann Dunham was on her way to Boston with baby Barry:
‘Susan Botkin, Maxine Box and John W. Hunt all remember Ann showing up in Seattle late that summer [in 1961] with little Barry, as her son was called. “She was on her way from her mother’s house to Boston to be with her husband,” Botkin recalled. “[She said] he had transferred to grad school and she was going to join him. And I was intrigued with who she was and what she was doing. Stanley was an intense person . . . but I remember that afternoon, sitting in my mother’s living room, drinking ICED TEA and eating SUGAR COOKIES. She had her BABY and was talking about her husband, and what life held in store for her. She seemed so confident and self-assured and relaxed. She was leaving the next day to fly on to BOSTON.”’
Maraniss then implies (by omission) in his book that, in 1961, Ann Dunham was NOT on her way to Boston with baby Barry :
“Barry was not yet a month old when they left Honolulu in late August 1961.” ...And she made her way over to Susan Botkin’s mother house with the baby and spent an afternoon there. ...But there they sat in the living room, drinking ICED TEA and eating SUGAR COOKIES as Ann cradled baby Barry. ...Did Obama make his way up to see Ann and little Barry, who were still in Seattle and would not return to Honolulu until later that year? That is not known. Susan Botkin had a memory of Ann talking about following her husband to Harvard, something she may have known about in spring 1962, ...”
Why does Susan Botkin’s amazingly clear recollection change without explanation (except for the iced tea & sugar cookies) between Maraniss’s 2008 article and his 2012 book?
7. a) Janny Scott states in her book ‘A Singular Woman’ that Ann Dunham & Lolo Soetoro were married on March 5, 1964. b) Maraniss states in his book that Ann Dunham & Lolo Soetoro were married on March 15, 1965.
Who is guilty of shoddy research: Janny Scott or David Maraniss?
8. a) Maraniss states in his 2008 article that Ann Dunham majored in math: “By the time he was 6, Barry Obama was a hyper-aware boy with much to think about. His mother had returned to school at the University of Hawaii and had received a degree in what her family considered an unlikely major — MATH.”
b) Maraniss states in his book that Ann Dunham received her majored in anthropology.
Who is guilty of shoddy research: David Maraniss in 2008 or David Maraniss in 2012?
9. a) ‘Dreams’ claims Obama took a cross-country trip with his mother, Tut and Maya in 1972 and that during this trip he watched the “Watergate hearings every night before going to bed.” (Note: The Watergate Hearings took place in 1973). b) Ron Jacobs claims in his book that the cross-country trip took place in 1972. c) Maraniss claims in his book that the cross-country trip took place during the summer of 1973.
Is Barack Obama guilty of a Maraniss “calculation” and/or who is guilty of shoddy research: Ron Jacobs or Maraniss?
10. Maraniss states in his book that: “Early in the summer of 1982, before Obama’s senior year at Columbia, his mother and sister, Maya, came to New York from Indonesia. Ann was only thirty-nine, Maya TWELVE.”
Since Maya was born on August 15, 1970, is this another example of a Maraniss “calculation”?
11. a) ‘Dreams’ claims Auma Obama called him 1983 in New York telling him that their brother David Ndesdanjo has died:
‘In 1983, I decided to become a community organizer. ...Then one day, as I sat down at my computer to write an article on interest-rate swaps, something unexpected happened. Auma called. I had never met this half sister; we had written only intermittently. ... But two days before she was scheduled to arrive, Auma called again, the voice thicker now, barely a whisper. “I can’t come after all,” she said. “One of our brothers, DAVID...he’s been killed. In a motorcycle accident. I don’t know any more than that.” She began to cry. “Oh, Barack. Why do these things happen to us?”’
b) Maraniss claims in his book that Auma Obama called Barack Obama in New York sometime in the fall of 1984 saying that their brother David Ndesandjo has died.
c) Auma Obama says in her book that she wrote letters to Barack (no call is mentioned) and visited Barack in Chicago in August 1984.
d) ‘Dreams’ has Barack Obama arriving in Chicago in July 1986.
e) David Remnick claims in his book that Barack Obama arrived in Chicago in June 1985.
f) Maraniss claims in his book that Barack Obama arrived in Chicago in July 1985.
g) ‘Dreams’ has Auma Obama visiting Obama in Chicago in either 1986 or 1987 via plane.
h) Maraniss claims in his book that Auma Obama visited Obama in Chicago in 1986 via train.
i) David Ndesandjo died in 1987. Huh?
Who is guilty of horribly shoddy research: Barack Obama, Auma Obama, David Remnick or David Maraniss?
12. a) ‘Dreams’ states Obama visited his married brother Roy in Washington sometime in the spring of 1987:
” that something different was going on with the children of the South Side that spring of 1987; that an invisible line had been crossed, a blind and ugly corner turned. ... The next morning, I flew down to Washington, D.C., where my brother Roy now lived. We had first spoken to each other during Auma’s visit to Chicago; she had told me then that Roy had married an American Peace Corps worker and had moved to the States.”
b) Maraniss claims in his book that Obama visited his brother Roy in December of 1985. c) Auma Obama claims in her book that Michelle and Barack Obama & Ann Dunham attended Roy’s wedding in Maryland in 1990.
Who is guilty of shoddy research: Barack Obama, Auma Obama, or David Maraniss?
13. a) ‘Dreams’ implies that Barack Obama took his mythical first trip to Kenya in 1988. b) Maraniss implies in his book that Barack Obama took his mythical first trip to Kenya in 1988. c) Barack Obama states in an August 28, 2006 speech in Nairobi, Kenya that he first visited Kenya in 1987:
“The first time I came to Kenya was in 1987. I had just finished three years of work as a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods of Chicago, and was about to enroll in law school. My sister, Auma, was teaching that year at this university, and so I came to stay with her for a month.” (NOTE: Obama’s statement also implies that Obama was working in Chicago in 1984.)
d) David Remnick claims in his book that Obama’s mythical first trip to Kenya took place both in 1987 (photos) and also in 1988.
Did Obama’s first trip to Kenya take place in 1987 or 1988? Who is guilty of shoddy research: Barack Obama, David Remnick or David Maraniss?
14. a) ‘Dreams’ claims that Auma took her Volkswagen Beetle to a mechanic during his first trip to Kenya (in 1987 or 1988?). b) Maraniss claims in his book that Auma’s Volkswagen Beetle broke down during the first Kenya trip and that “Auma and Barack had to push it to the curb until some young men came to fix it.” c) Auma Obama claims in her book that her Volkswagen Beetle broke down when Barack and Michelle visited Kenya in 1990: “One day [in 1990], when we were driving along the three-lane Uhuru Highway, Barack next to me, Michelle in the backseat, I suddenly found myself forced to stop abruptly and get us all out of the Beetle. ...”Get out! It’s on fire!” I shouted.” d) ‘Dreams’ claims Michelle and Barack went to Kenya in 1992 after their engagement.
Did Auma Obama’s Volkswagen Beetle break down (or was only taken to a mechanic) in 1987, 1988, 1990 or 1992? Who is guilty of horribly shoddy research: Barack Obama, Auma Obama or David Maraniss?
15. a) ‘Dreams’ claims Obama that he first met Mark Ndesandjo on his first trip to Kenya (in 1987 or 1988?). b) Maraniss claims in his book that Mark Ndesandjo was in Ruth’s house during Obama’s first Kenya trip (in 1987 or 1988?) with Ruth recalling: “I have a sitting room. I was sitting on the couch. My husband was in his chair. I thought Mark was in the other chair.” c) Obama states in an CNN in 2009 that he first met Mark in 2007: “I met him [Mark] for the first time a couple of years ago.”
Did Barack Obama first meet Mark Ndesandjo in 1987, 1988, or 2007? Who then is guilty of shoddy research: Barack Obama or David Maraniss?
16. a) Maraniss claims in his book that a poem titled ‘Pop’ is about a nickname for Frank Marshall Davis’s and, at the same time, about Stanley Dunham:
“But the essence of the work [”Pop” poem] points in another direction, toward Frank Marshall Davis, the old black poet of Honolulu. ..Pop, or Pops, was a nickname ... Stan or Frank, Stan and Frank - the same in the end.”
b) David Remnick claims in ‘The Bridge’ that the ‘Pop’ poem is about Stanley Dunham.
c) Jack Cashill wrote back in early 2010 that the ‘Pop’ poem was about Frank Marshall Davis: ‘What I Learned from Obama’s Pop’ (AmericanThinker - March 7, 2010)
Who or what is the ‘Pop’ poem about? Answer can be found in Jack Cashill’s book ‘Deconstructing Obama’.
Maybe in Maraniss’s ‘Barack Obama: The Story - Part 2’, we’ll learn the answer to another question which no one - including Obama “biographers” Ron Jacobs, David Remnick & Janny Scott - has yet been able to correctly answer: When were Barack & Michelle Obama married?
Out of the possible dates - late summer 1992, October 1992, October 3, 1992, October 10, 1992, early October 1992, and October 18, 1992 - listed for Barack & Michelle’s wedding, which one is David Maraniss going to pick out of a hat?
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