Obama’s Communist Mentor
February 20th, 2008 at 06:52pm Matt Margolis
Accuracy In Media calls our attention to Obama’s communist mentor:
In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama’s life as a “secret smoker” and how he “went to great lengths to conceal the habit.” But what about Obama’s secret political life? It turns out that Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.
In his books, Obama admits attending “socialist conferences” and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a “hard-core academic Marxist,” which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes. However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who 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.” The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What’s more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.
[...]
Obama’s communist connection adds to mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere, with a brief U.S. Senate legislative record, to become the Democratic Party frontrunner for the U.S. presidency. In the latest Real Clear Politics poll average, Obama beats Republican John McCain by almost four percentage points.
AIM recently disclosed that Obama has well-documented socialist connections, which help explain why he sponsored a “Global Poverty Act” designed to send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world, in order to meet U.N. demands. The bill has passed the House and a Senate committee, and awaits full Senate action.
Will the media report on this connection (which is explained in much greater detail in the story) or will it ignore it? I think we all know the answer.
Sadly, I doubt Obama’s supporters, or a majority of Democrats would see a problem with Obama’s connections to communist and socialist groups.
Entry Filed under: Democrats
28 Comments
1. andrew | February 20th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Obama is a communist, this explains why he sponsored a bill to send money to the poor around the world.
President Bush has done more for Africa than any other president, must make him an even bigger communist.
Or is it that a demorcrat helping the poor is a communist and a republican a good christian?
Blogging bias if you ask me.
2. Diana Powe | February 20th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Ah, yes. Good old Accuracy in Media which breathlessly informed the world about the horrors of the Global Poverty Act which Freedom1 tried to pass off here as a measure that would threaten America’s sovereignty. Of course, as I demonstrated then (by the very sneaky means of reading and referring to the text of the bill) that was complete and utter nonsense. Now, in a measure of how apparently terrifying the possibility of a Senator Obama as the Democratic nominee is, we have the “Obama is really a Muslim” meme now being joined by the “Obama is really a Communist” meme.
It’s really a rather sad commentary on your brand of faux-conservatism that you would traffic in this kind of boogey-man nonsense. Pretty lame, but I guess when that’s the best you can do and I’m sure that the Obama campaign appreciates the preview of the various and sundry accusations that will be directed toward Senator Obama if he is the nominee. Maybe he and Senator McCain could get together sometime and Senator McCain could regale Senator Obama with his experiences with the honorable Republican Party from the South Carolina primary of 2000.
3. Tractatus | February 20th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Wow, you poor, poor souls. You’re already reaching pretty hard, and we aren’t even out of February yet. I guess the whole “Obama’s a stealth Muslim Manchurian candidate who went to a madrasah, will take the oath of office on the Koran, and will force sharia upon everybody!” meme didn’t take off for you, huh? Now you’ve gotta go with “Obama’s a commie!” The ever-so-serious folks over at NRO already tried pushing this idea under the auspices that Obama is the product of an interracial marriage, and interracial marriage back then was something commies did. Ah, conservative stupidity. It never seems to go out of style.
And look at how pre-defensive poor little Matt is. “The media won’t report on this because of librul media bias! And libruls won’t decry it because they’re all potential Stalins! Waaaa!”
Actually, Matt, this story won’t get much traction (outside of Fox and the onanosphere, that is) because it’s freaking stupid. Good luck trying to resurrect HUAC, though. I’m sure that’ll work out real well for you.
(Here’s the part where Matt completely misses the point and claims I just proved is. Go on, Matt…you know you want to.)
4. Matt Margolis | February 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Ahh, like a broken record the liberal trolls come out with the usual comebacks they say for everything:
“Is that the best you can do?”
“you’re reaching pretty hard,”
It be a welcome change if liberals actually responded with a well thought out rebuttal, isn’t of the same meaningless lines they throw out every single post when they can’t come up with a valid counter point or argument.
5. Joe | February 20th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
A well thought out rebuttal? Matt, this is a foolish thread you threw out here. He is a communist? Wow.
I guess calling him a liberal wasn’t enough anymore, huh?
So you clowns went to calling him a Muslim? EEK! So scary. Nope. That didn’t work either.
OK… he is a Socialist! That should be scary enough, right? That sure didn’t stick.
So now he is a communist. That will certainly scare the public enough this time.
What is next? He is an animal-human hybrid!!!
You people have really big freaking issues.
Meanwhile (Ed. Note: Off-topic part of comment deleted).
6. Tractatus | February 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Thanks for proving me right, Matt. You’re nothing if not utterly predictable. I guess that’s what happens when you never learned to think for yourself.
Here’s a tip, Potsy: If you want well-thought-out responses, you should make well-thought-out posts. Come up with a valid argument, and we’ll talk.
7. andrew | February 20th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
start with a well reasoned arguement yourself, or at least cut and paste a well reasoned arguement Matt. Or is mark the only one on this blog who actually writes?
Can’t you do a little better than read something on the internet and then complain that it’s not being covered by “mainstream media”?
8. Al Halpern | February 20th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Deleted - off topic.
9. Joe | February 20th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Deleted - off topic.
10. Rich | February 20th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Speaking of drugs Al, what did Obama snort and smoke back in the day? Did he inhale? It is unfortunate that Mrs. McCain was addicted to painkillers. If you want to talk down about her go for it, but make sure you give Good Time Barry the same scrutiny. After all he is the one running for president, and he is the one that snorted coke and smoked marijuana. Or am I being a racist for pointing it out? Hell maybe he did sell it as Clinton surrogates asked. I would be worried somone might come out of the woodworks during the general and make that claim. Might be hard to disprove at this point in time eh?
11. Bob | February 20th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Well, the AIM article hardly rates an honest response being based on precisely zero evidence and zero logic.
But, even if there was, but for starters the kind of socialism that the Democratic Socialists of American and Harold Meyerson and others support would certainly not be approved by VI Lenin or Chairman Mao. They’re for a truly mixed economy along the lines of what is now practiced by our close European allies and Canada, though I know that might seem like a nuanced difference to you. (We need to start a new Cold War with those comsymps!)
Which is, by the way, not to say that Obama agrees with them just because he attended a meeting or campaigned for Bernie Sanders, who votes with the Democrats almost all the time and is therefore an asset to the party, even if he’s not an official member.
The rest is guilt by extremely tenuous association. I’ll ask you what I asked the “Accuracy in Media” guy? How many Republicans (and Democrats) were known associates of such well known one-time (or all-time) fascist sympathizers as Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, William Randolph Hearst, and how many more current Republicans have campaigned for Strom Thormond? If someone got along well with onetime Dixiecrat Thormond in the 1990s, does that mean him a racist who believes that non-whites should be prohibited from voting?
If you answer yes to this question, then I’ll grant you that Barack’s teenage friendship with a Dashiki-wearing old radical poet makes him a crypto-Marxist. You’d just better hope that young John McCain never had a friendly chat with the old John Bircher or onetime German Bundt member down the street.
12. Joe | February 20th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Deleted - off topic.
13. neocon | February 20th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
>>McCain Knocks Bush Signing Statements - Joe<<
Joe, this actually works against your best interest. But again, reality eludes you. While Obama and Clinton offer much of the same policies and fight over the same constituency, McCain has successfully reached across the aisle and has successfully garnered the support of independents and moderates because of his opposition to Bush. It’s called diversity of opinion. A concept I know is not accepted within liberal ranks and will not serve them well in November.
14. Rich | February 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
“Rich,Nobody gives a rat’s ass what he “snorted” ore “smoked”. Nobody cares if Mrs McCain was addicted to anything.”
I guess you missed this post from Al,
“By the way, does anyone know that Cindy McCain, the women, JM married when she was 25 and left his family for, so he could launch his political career with her money is a former drug addict.”
15. Kahn | February 20th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
It is Obamas (and you liberals) unwillingness to actually define his positions that leave you open to these claims.
We’re wrong you say? So - what ARE his accomplishments? What ARE his plans? Teach us with your incredibly large liberal brains.
16. Mark Noonan | February 20th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
What we on the right would like is a world in which you on the left view communist associations as being as bad as Nazi associations - but we know we won’t get that from you, because a mere 100 million murders doesn’t make communists socially unacceptable…
17. Magnum Serpentine | February 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
But then,
Our Founding Fathers were Revolutionaries.
next.
18. Eric T | February 21st, 2008 at 7:08 am
The old Andrew Jackson, working man, democrat rhetoric that the DNC is pushing, I can relate with. But when you look at the campaign donations, they look like the party of the rich to me, I’d like to see a list of the corporate donations.
The GOP guys don’t have a fraction of the money the dems got. Anyone know why?
19. OhioOrrin | February 21st, 2008 at 8:07 am
don’t forget the electoral college was intended by the framers to counter mass-hysteria by the voting public.
if I’m not mistaken, the college elected W even tho Lieutenant Kerry got more total votes.
20. Sunny | February 21st, 2008 at 11:33 am
Mark Noonan | February 20th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
What we on the right would like is a world in which you on the left view communist associations as being as bad as Nazi associations - but we know we won’t get that from you, because a mere 100 million murders doesn’t make communists socially unacceptable…
Mark, if my math is correct, this happened about 30 years ago and Senator Obama would have been 17-18 years old. Is that really relevant today? Does it make him a communist if he attended a meeting with this friend? Had he actively worked in the Communist Party, I would be more inclined to agree with you but that does not seem to be the case. In my youth I would attend church with my Catholic relatives occasionally (since most of my relatives are Catholic) - does that make me a Catholic? Since I grew up in the Methodist Church I still considered myself a Methodist.
21. majoriot | February 21st, 2008 at 11:44 am
OMG!
He knew a communist and read Marx.
OMG!
OMG!
22. FmrMarine | February 21st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
We fought the communists
and are doing the same with the islaminists.
BO may be some of both, we will continue to fight against what he stands for.
His poor wife went to college, and law school on GRANTS, provided by taxes of white working people. Even still she could find nothing to love about this racist country.
Funny I have worked all my life and own two businesses, but none of my three sons qualified to go to college on SOME one ELSE’S MONEY.
GO - BO and OJ for vi p, and NOI for his cabinet.
23. stevega | February 21st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
FmrMarine,
Thank you for that well stated and reasonable post. I did not know that we are fighting islaminists.
I am sorry that Michelle Obama accepted grants to go to college paid for by white people. I’m sure she’s sorry too, and I’m sure she’d pay you back if you’d just pay her for the ‘unpaid labor’ of her ancestors, with interest of course. Fairs fair, right?
I’m sorry if you’re children didn’t qualify for grants. Grants are typically given for merit, which must mean your children are stupid and/or lazy. Sorry. However, if they have accepted any loans to pay for school, then they are in fact going to school on SOME one ELSE’s MONEY. Take comfort in that.
24. Sunny | February 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
stevega, loved your response t fmrmarine. But what I didn’t realize was that only white taxpayers money was used for grants. I try to learn something new everyday, and this is my lesson for today. Black tax payer dollars do not go to grants. But as intelligent as fmrmarine is, owning two businesses and all, I am sure he did not even need for his children to apply for scholarships, grants or student loans. This guy has to be loaded, right?
25. Faceplant | February 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 am
“We fought the communists
and are doing the same with the islaminists.
BO may be some of both, we will continue to fight against what he stands for.”
Despite the fact that his voting record shows he isn’t a communist, or a socialist. It’s pretty sad that you people will believe in complete fantasies.
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