Barack Obama's Fantastic Family

Mr. Obama’s “Uncle Omar” has been arrested and detained in the Boston area. Recall that before the election, Mr. Obama’s Aunt Zeituni was also located in the Boston area. Both of these relatives, half-sister and brother of the President’s father, were here illegally at the time of their discovery (Aunt Zeituni has since been granted legal status) and living on the public dole. Uncle Omar even has a driver’s license and Social Security number.

What’s with this ever-surprising nutty family?

I recently read Angelo Codevilla’s jaw-dropping history of the Zeituni-Dunham-Saetoro-Obama family for a clue to how to unravel this weird clan. Seems that the Rosetta Stone for understanding anything Obama (and there is still much we do not know about the President) is his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. She is the one who choreographed her daughter Ann’s (Obama’s mother) hegira through a series of affairs and foreign appointments that in turn shaped the destiny of the enfant adoree we know so well today.

Far from being the wind-chime, hippy socialist she is often portrayed to be, Ann Dunham was part of a complex web of ultra-left-wing high rollers who populated, and still populate, the State Department and philanthropic arms of the government. Did you know that she once worked for Peter Geithner, father of the current Treasury Secretary?

There is little doubt that Barack Obama’s persona is, as they say, a construct, an amalgam that blends a mythical African-ness with various artificial flavors, including liberation theology, community activism, self-righteous gravitas, and the bottled pietism of the establishment Left. This is usually a formula for an authoritarian personality. I wonder what rock they’ll turn over next in the saga of this bizarre man.

(Jack Niewold)