The sadly obligatory “Obama’s father was a communist” post
posted at 5:44 pm on April 7, 2008 by Allahpundit
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1. Obama advocated the communal ownership of land and the forced confiscation of privately controlled land, as part of a forced “development plan”, an important element of his attack on the government’s advocacy of private ownership, land titles, and property registration. (p. 29)
2. Obama advocated the nationalization of “European” and “Asian” owned enterprises, including hotels, with the control of these operations handed over to the “indigenous” black population. (pp. 32 -33)
3. Obama advocated dramatically increasing taxation on “the rich” even up to the 100% level, arguing that, “there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay” (p. 30) and that, “Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.” (p. 31)
Unless socialism is hereditary and/or the biographical details about Obama are all wrong and his father had some huge influence on him growing up, there’s nothing here except a few boilerplate quotes in his autobiography about being an idealist like his pops was. I don’t even like holding people to what they wrote in their own college theses; now we have to worry about congenital bolshevism? There’s plenty of material to suggest Obama himself is hard left without weakening the argument by holding him responsible for his father’s views. What am I missing here?
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He was there two years, right?
I don’t think there was time to teach him about Lenin.
Mortis on April 7, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Nothing. My dad’s a socialist. So what?
aengus on April 7, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Shocka? Nah
Iblis on April 7, 2008 at 5:52 PM
I concur.
I grew up outside of Boston with grandparents that lived (and still do) in Cambridge.
Then I joined the Army under Reagan.
And woke up.
Mortis on April 7, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Why not?
TheBigOldDog on April 7, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Because college kids are idealistic morons who tend to shift rightwards as they get older and encounter reality. I don’t hold the same beliefs I had in college. Why should Hillary Clinton?
Allahpundit on April 7, 2008 at 5:54 PM
His mother married a communist –> his mother raised him —> He became a hardline leftist.
Isn’t it a meaningful connection?
Aristotle on April 7, 2008 at 5:55 PM
He did write a book about his Father didn’t he?
jp on April 7, 2008 at 5:55 PM
I like this.
Some people might read this and accidently think these were Barak’s words, not his father’s.
Obama must be defeated by any and all means.
pseudonominus on April 7, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Same here.
SouthernDem on April 7, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Agreed that it really doesn’t matter, although if Hillary’s or McCain’s pops was an avowed communist, you’d hear plenty about it. New guy on the block, though, so stuff like this is fair game.
Vizzini on April 7, 2008 at 5:56 PM
I thought the idea was that he wrote a book talking about how he sought to emulate his father, yada yada, and it turns out his father wants 100% taxes.
Or something like that.
DaveS on April 7, 2008 at 5:57 PM
True enough.
Vizzini on April 7, 2008 at 5:57 PM
Don’t you think they should explain if their thinking has changed and if so, why? Wouldn’t that be very informative?
TheBigOldDog on April 7, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Interestingly, I believe I began a heavy rightward shift during college … But part of the reason for that was because all the other college kids seemed to be idealistic morons. So I definitely see where you’re coming from there.
I gotta agree with you – if we’re going to talk about how he’s the most liberal Senator in the whole Senate there’s better ways to do so.
apollyonbob on April 7, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Then it shouldn’t be hard to find a quote where he says, “And thus did I come to embrace my father’s political philosophy.” Where is it?
I’m not trying to do Obama a favor. I’m suggesting that independents who don’t know his record are going to hear this and think it’s nuts that conservatives are holding him to his father’s record. Forget that. Focus on his own record, which, I hasten to remind you, is that of the most liberal senator in Congress.
Allahpundit on April 7, 2008 at 5:59 PM
The link you provided does a little more than say “Obama’s father was a communist.” It seems to show a pattern in Obama’s behavior to seek out the socialists in his education.
Is that what the article you linked does?
VolMagic on April 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM
I have no objection to asking them about their thesis, but I think it’s an easy question to deflect. “I was young and didn’t have real-world experiences yet,” etc. McCain’s been talking about youthful misbehavior for the past couple of weeks. No one’s going to get too hung up about this stuff.
Allahpundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Then stick to that pattern. Why drag his father into it?
Allahpundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
You worry too much.
TheBigOldDog on April 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Good point. However, your views are probably not closely aligned with astronomical taxes, deciding which companies are good companies, providing universal socialized health care, opposing gun rights, becoming the most liberal U.S. Senator, etc.
I don’t know; I’d probably have an issue with Stalin’s son running for president, regardless of Stalin Jr’s less-far-left views. t
amerpundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Being fair in assessing irrelevant stuff like this is important to thinking clearly about Obama. You don’t need to score every available point against Obama to show he is an empty suit without accomplishments, and holds harmful views.
Right_of_Attila on April 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Fair enough.
VolMagic on April 7, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Then let them answer the question and let people draw their conclusions. That’s what “holding them to it” means. You seemed to suggest that even asking the question(s) was wrong.
TheBigOldDog on April 7, 2008 at 6:04 PM
There are better ways to show that Obama is hard left.
apollyonbob on April 7, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Obama’s Dad? Good Lord, who the heck cares?
Unless Obama turns into a mass serial killer who cannibalizes people… and come to find out it is a genetic thing with his family…. then I would wonder.
Other then that, who doesn’t have some relatives who aren’t flakes, socialist, marxists or heck I will even going with communist? Heck I have more liberals in my family then I care to mention!
upinak on April 7, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Yep. This goes right up there with “Obama’s a Muslim”. I mean, I’m far from a fan of the Messiah’s, but this stuff isn’t fit for the tabloids. Someone *cough* Hillary *cough* is gettin’ desperate.
JetBoy on April 7, 2008 at 6:05 PM
Wow. I didn’t know his father was a communist. Doesn’t this schmuck have anything going for him?
JiangxiDad on April 7, 2008 at 6:05 PM
ZZzzzzz….snore.
Dave Rywall on April 7, 2008 at 6:05 PM
what these tidbits do help to reveal is BO’s checkered background.
think about all the vetting that candidates go through. but the msm likes this guy and many of these strange, mixed influences go unreported, overlooked.
if it wasn’t for the new media, we’d be slam-dunk-sunk.
jimmer on April 7, 2008 at 6:06 PM
The cumulative effect…
CliffHanger on April 7, 2008 at 6:06 PM
Hey – Bush’s daddy didn’t get Saddam, so GW was just itching to get revenge…takin’ care of the father’s business…
/leftist off
:-)
Good Lt on April 7, 2008 at 6:07 PM
It wouldn’t be a big deal, except that he still holds many communist beliefs!
Nothing to see here, move along…
SouthernGent on April 7, 2008 at 6:07 PM
Whatever.
Jaibones on April 7, 2008 at 6:08 PM
I don’t think we’re suggesting this is a whole new front of attack. It is worth mentioning on conservative blogs, however, that a figure important enough in Obama’s life to have a book by an adult Barack Obama whose title references him was, if not explicitly, constructively a communist who didn’t think Kenyan socialism went far enough. That Obama didn’t mention that tidbit of information poses the reasonable question of “why?,” and admittedly little more than that. But it’s a question worth asking.
Vizzini on April 7, 2008 at 6:09 PM
What exactly is your statute of limitations on deeply held beliefs, AP? 10 years? 15? 22.9?
And yes, I still believe politically what I did when I was in college, in high school and before that. Why? I was raised that way. Independent confirmation of one’s world-view does not necessarily come from radical skepticism, i.e. one does not have to reject what has come before in order to confirm its veracity.
People who become liberal in their 20s do so because they leave reason behind, not because they’ve somehow gained a “heart,” the common adage notwithstanding.
spmat on April 7, 2008 at 6:10 PM
And then he joined Rev. Wright’s church…
So wise, this one.
Good Lt on April 7, 2008 at 6:10 PM
And one that certainly would be if Obama’s name was replaced with “McCain” or “Clinton”.
amerpundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:11 PM
My dad counted….literally counted and kept a notebook….of how many blacks appeared in a baseball game, basketball game, football game. Years and years and years of notebooks. Everygame he ever watched. Why did he do it? You know why. There is no sugar to put in that tea.
Do I keep similar notebooks?
Only about lefties.
Limerick on April 7, 2008 at 6:11 PM
Obama says he is a collectivist … Maybe it is hereditary?
I wonder how many know what communism is anymore.
tarpon on April 7, 2008 at 6:11 PM
I’d be more interested in hearing about his Step Father… the one who Raised him in Indonesia? or wherever…
Romeo13 on April 7, 2008 at 6:11 PM
Me too but I went to film school where nobody cared about or ever talked about politics so it was just a private thing.
aengus on April 7, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Nothing, AP, nothing really.
Sure, it does suggest questions about how much he took after his father, but if those questions aren’t already being asked sans this “revelation”, then somebody hasn’t been paying attention.
Got you beat there. I used to be a socialist myself. I suppose that I should be questioning my conservatism, then – lol.
You are, of course, right.
Misha I on April 7, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Nothing. It’s great that you anticipate the possible stupid arguments of the future and attempt to head them off at the pass!
thuja on April 7, 2008 at 6:14 PM
Killed in WWII I believe. I’d also take issue with a member of the undead running for president!
aengus on April 7, 2008 at 6:16 PM
Yes, well, I was exaggerating a bit there. And yes, the undead thing would be problematic, too.
amerpundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:18 PM
His dad is just one piece of the puzzle – by itself, it means nothing. Add the rest of his comments, add Michelle’s “proud for the first time” comment, add Wright, add “typical white person”, add the flag pin refusal, add the hand-over-heart thing, look at his voting record, etc. All of these pieces fit each other and they all form the same picture. Nothing I’ve seen points that he is NOT the hard leftist that he doesn’t want us to know about. The real question, is how effective will the in-the-tank media be in hiding this from the rest of the nation. I’m no McCain fan, but I’ll vote for him to cancel out a hippies vote, if for no other reason.
JC in CA on April 7, 2008 at 6:19 PM
It seems rather far fetched, and naive, to expect any form of first-order manifesto-esque shopping list of beliefs in todays ‘nuanced’ (aka duplicitous) political world.
I think you need to expend greater effort looking for inferences. Perhaps there is text betraying the aspects of his father that inspire him. Perhaps not.
Given his hard-left bias, I’d be surprised to unearth nothing.
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 6:23 PM
When Obama abandons all his campaign promises he’ll be more like his daddy than ever. I just don’t want to see any whining on here when it happens!
SouthernGent on April 7, 2008 at 6:24 PM
amended for clarity
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 6:24 PM
If he threw his dad under the bus like he did his grandmother, would it be a “meh” then too?
Typical donkeycrat.
Haunchie on April 7, 2008 at 6:25 PM
I don’t think people care what Obama’s father was doing. Heck, JFK’s father was a Nazi. That didn’t hurt him.
SoulGlo on April 7, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Well, I guess we could just ask Osamabama what his views are. I’m sure he’d give straight answers.
davidk on April 7, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Why did he keep the name of a man who abandoned him?
Something odd there.
profitsbeard on April 7, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Don’t go there.
Vizzini on April 7, 2008 at 6:35 PM
Do you think the fact that his father, grandmother, half-siblings, etc. are all African has any effect on his world view? A lot of people trumpet that connection as a reason that he would make a good President.
But you don’t think his father’s political viewpoints can have any affect on him?
exhelodrvr on April 7, 2008 at 6:35 PM
What??? You’d have a problem with Nancy Pelosi runnin for President?
Romeo13 on April 7, 2008 at 6:36 PM
Allahpundit in response to me:
I agree with you… I just thought that the logic behind the post–flawed, though it may be–was a bit clearer than you let on in your post. ;-)
DaveS on April 7, 2008 at 6:39 PM
his Dem party affiliation won’t do?
Ron Reagan Jr. won’t be writing any books about his father, he wouldn’t even attend the USS Reagan ceremony.
jp on April 7, 2008 at 6:40 PM
My father’s a collidge perfesser commie socialist.
We don’t shout about politics much.
misterpeasea on April 7, 2008 at 6:42 PM
like obama, i was raised by card-casrrying commies.
as was DAVID AXELROD – obama’s managerl (i am SURE oabam knows this!).
AND OF COURSE… obama’s momma was a commie, too.
Me and axelrod and obama all were raised in a world where marxism was the very AIR you breathed. how you were told to see everything.
it has a HUGE influence on you.
it took me YEARS of hard work to break free.
and i had to leave many friends behind.
IT’S HARD.
obama NEVER left anyone behind.
he’s belonged to a marxist/black liberation theology church for 20 years. one which explicitly rejects bourgeois values. very Marxist.
HE NEVER LEFT.
remember: he titled his memoir after his father.
therefore, i think it’s VERY relevant.
his Marxism is not a passing fling or mere flirtation; it goes to the very core of who he is.
it’s in his genes – in a figurative sense.
the air he breathes, figuratively.
reliapundit on April 7, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Pretty weak- Obama’s father left when he was 2 years old.
That said- he sure seems to have been surrounded by radicals and far leftists most of his life, mostly by choice.
Hollowpoint on April 7, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Stalin’s son was shot down over Korea.
Iblis on April 7, 2008 at 6:49 PM
The reason this is important is that Obama wrote two books, Dreams From My Father: A Story of RACE and INHERITANCE and Audacity of Hope where he says flat out:
HE BASED HIS PHILOSOPHY ON HIS FATHERS BELIEFS.
He wrote that as a mature man. As a sitting Legislator and Senator.
I take OBAMA AT HIS WORD that he embodies his Father’s Communism.
whiskey_199 on April 7, 2008 at 6:53 PM
Dreams from My Father by Barack H. Obama, Jr.
Who the father was and what the father dreamed don’t matter?
AZCoyote on April 7, 2008 at 6:53 PM
Zombie Reagan would like a word with you.
doubleplusundead on April 7, 2008 at 6:53 PM
This’ll just be another thing to add to the long list of crazed attacks wing nuts like to ring off whenever someone mentions or defends Obama..
“He’s a secret muslim, black seperatist, racist who won’t wear a flag lapel pin or put his hand over his heart during the national anthem because he hates america….and his dad was a communist!”
crr6 on April 7, 2008 at 6:59 PM
The point of his father’s views is not to claim the same views are held by Obama himself. The next step in this process should be to have Obama questioned about what his father believed and what his own beliefs are. For example, he should answer ‘What is the highest tax rate you think is acceptable?’
abw on April 7, 2008 at 7:01 PM
I’m willing to forgive his father’s communism if he and his cronies will drop the once and for all BS about I owe him for my great great great grandfather’s slaves that he fed, clothed, and cared for as his family.
ThackerAgency on April 7, 2008 at 7:01 PM
What do you think the available evidence, from his own hand, suggests?
Can it all be discounted with a wave of the hand, or does it have anything meaningful to say?
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 7:02 PM
ThackerAgency on April 7, 2008 at 7:01 PM
I suspect that a Pres. Obama would be under alot of pressure from those reparations groups to make some sort of financial payment to them in some way.
jp on April 7, 2008 at 7:06 PM
So, Allahpundit, what was YOUR thesis?
Blake on April 7, 2008 at 7:08 PM
It can be discounted with a wave of the hand unless you find me a quote from Obama or a public policy/piece of legislation Obama himself has sponsored which indicates he’s any of those things. Which you can’t do.
crr6 on April 7, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Didn’t write one.
Allahpundit on April 7, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Check to see if Obama becomes like Toad of Toad Hall when he has a drink and goes motoring in his motor car. If so he is a chip off the old block.
BL@KBIRD on April 7, 2008 at 7:12 PM
The apple does’nt fall far from the tree.
Johan Klaus on April 7, 2008 at 7:12 PM
wait but isn’t Obama a Muslim and Muslims can lie to infidels according to the Koran??? So really he’s a secret capitalist1!!1!!
crr6 on April 7, 2008 at 7:13 PM
A Book Called: “Dreams from My Father”
Doesn’t that mean he’s carrying on his fathers dreams?
eski502 on April 7, 2008 at 7:25 PM
You think it would be that obvious? Are you as wilfully myopic with politicians of certain, ahem, contrary persuasions?
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 7:27 PM
The leftist democrats are socialist, not communist; yet.
Johan Klaus on April 7, 2008 at 7:28 PM
Socialism is Communism’s more politically astute cousin.
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 7:30 PM
crr6 on April 7, 2008 at 7:13 PM
You can’t have it both ways. Either he is lying he is not. Which is it?
Johan Klaus on April 7, 2008 at 7:31 PM
Flapping your gums about his leftist credentials won’t do you any good here.
JiangxiDad on April 7, 2008 at 7:32 PM
Who the heck cares>?
Tell that to all the democrats who attempted to character assassinate candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger by bringing up lies and half truths about his father.
Because they sure as hell ‘cared.’
wise_man on April 7, 2008 at 7:36 PM
While it’s nothing to get hysterical about, it’s another important clue into the invisible man whose policies are hardly mainstream, and who just by coincidence has had Marxists for Mentors his entire life, and who chooses to attend a Marxist ‘church’ (Wright or no Wright).
Did Obama not know of his father’s views after writing an entire freaking book about him? Other than talking about his father’s arrogance, does he condemn his father’s pro-Odinga hard line Communist views? Any denunciation anywhere? Or is he just a clueless and innocent lamb?
Buy Danish on April 7, 2008 at 7:38 PM
LimeyGeek on April 7, 2008 at 7:30 PM
I’ll second that.
Johan Klaus on April 7, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Red Herring.
RushBaby on April 7, 2008 at 7:41 PM
A person is known by the company he keeps.
Johan Klaus on April 7, 2008 at 7:43 PM
Apple. Tree. Lack of separation.
My father was a conservative. I’m a conservative. I come from a culture that was persecuted horribly under the Left. And Obama IS Left. From his “Black Liberation Theology” to his socialized healthcare to his confiscatory tax policies, he is a nationalizer and a socialist. His father’s views are entirely relevant to me, especially when he wrote a “tome” glorifying them.
HerrMorgenholz on April 7, 2008 at 7:47 PM
Just another piece of the puzzle that is Barak. He is steeped in Black Liberation Theology that is founded on Marxism….his mother was a communist…the father that he pines for is a communist….he is THE most liberal senator in the Congress….
Drip, drip, drip….
ihasurnominashun on April 7, 2008 at 7:49 PM
Given that Barack Che’ Hussein Obama wrote a book called “Dreams of my Fathers”, given that Barack Che’ Hussein Obama lionizes his “Fathers” in spite of their abandonment of him, given that Barack Hussein Obama’s ‘dreams of his fathers’ include “Reverend” Sharpton & “Reverend” Meeks & “Reverend” Wright & “Minister” Farrakhan & “Pastor” Michael Pfleger…
Yeah… it matters…
DANEgerus on April 7, 2008 at 7:57 PM
His Das was Mugabe?
kooly on April 7, 2008 at 7:59 PM
er Dad.
kooly on April 7, 2008 at 8:02 PM
ccr6:
“… long list of crazed attacks…”
HA!
then you go on to nake a list that’s all true!
you choose to deny their significance.
i do not.
reliapundit on April 7, 2008 at 8:05 PM
Obama’s dad was not a comie…he was a mac daddy, at least according to this guy.
Inzax on April 7, 2008 at 8:12 PM
Well wait a second, Obama’s paper advocate the same sort of class warfare that’s led to the deaths of 20,000 White Africans in South Africa, and the problems in Zimbabwe. Granted it was a college paper (though it comes froma Journal implying he was at least a grad student, but I’m no Obama expert) but his proposal to sieze White and Asian property is hardly “boilerplate”, the Asains in Africa are Indians who have had settlements in Africa for hundreds if not thousands of yearsa and White Africans were born there.
And how do we think his 100% taxation would work in his mind? Isn’t it a metaphor for killing people and taking their stuff?
In college I worte Romantic poetry, I rarely write poetry at all any more but I still prefer Romanticism. Likewise I may have been more Libertarain then, but I was still a righty. Obama may have mellowed, but he did once advocate what would have been a Mao style pogrom against Asians, Whites and people with a little money. It’s not the end all of his being but it should give us some insight into his comfort with “far leftism” and people who peddle it.
Rob Taylor on April 7, 2008 at 8:18 PM
Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his “poetry” and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just “Frank.”
DANEgerus on April 7, 2008 at 8:25 PM
What about holding people responsible for what they smoked in their college dorm rooms?
I’m starting to worry about Allah. Who ever believed he’d go soft on “congenital bolshevism”?
Ali-Bubba on April 7, 2008 at 8:46 PM
Someone said that he has dual citizenship – kenya and the US. Does anyone know if this is true?
You know if his dad left when he was 2 and he was upset at his dad for abandoning him he certainly wouldn’t have written a book about him. Obviously he longed for that association and thus the book. Why not write about the people who nurtured and loved and raised you? Oh ya, they are white.
Do I consider his father an influence on him? You bet!
As posters said above all his influences have been from the hard left – even his wife and have a cumulative effect.
Bambi on April 7, 2008 at 8:52 PM
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