I do not believe in guilt by association. As a youngster though my mother would always say "show me your friends and I will tell you who you are."
We are all by products of the strong influences of our family friends and associates. This is why I now question whether Barack Obama is the most qualified to lead this country in the next few years.
Barack certainly had a diversified childhood. He was born in Hawaii to a black African father and white American mother. They met at the University of Hawaii. They divorced shortly after Obama was born.
His father continued on to Harvard to get a Phd. and then returned to Africa. As a socialist he soon became dissillusioned and embittered by the tyrants that took control in post colonial Africa.
His mother remarried a student from Indonesia and the family moved there. Obama attended Christian and Muslim schools there.
When he was 11, his mother and stepfather divorced and Obama returned to Hawaii and his grandparents and attended an excellent prep school there.
He next attended Columbia University in NYC and came under the influence of a radical Muslim professor Rashid Khalidi founder of the AAAN an American Arab group. Khalidi is best known for his efforts to get the president of Iran Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia last year.
Obama next obtained a law degree from Harvard and settled down in Chicago working for a law firm and acting as community organizer.
Attempting to provide low cost housing for poor Afro americans in Chicago, he became friends with Tony Rezko whose company was involved in low cost housing. Rezko obtained public funding to develop homes but became a virtual slum lord. He is now on trial for not revealing to Federal investigators a 350 million dollar loan he obtained from
Arab billionaire Nhadmi Auchi. Auchi is well known in Europe for his ties to terrorists.
Obama at this time was a paid director of the Woods Foundation along with William Ayers,radical Weatherman from the 70's. The group made several grants to the AAAN and gave a million to Tony Rezko.
Another close friend and mentor was the Rev. Wright pastor of his chicago church, which is well known for a combination Southern Baptist,Socialist and radical black Muslim views. They support Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.Their philosophy may explain some of Obama's recent
statements on small town America.
While none of these connections are indictments of Obama and I think he has the potential to become a great leader in the future, I do not think he is the best candidate to represent the interests and needs of all Americans today.