Robert Knight has a probing, provocative column which dares to examine the far-left influences in Barack Obama's early life, influences that are being papered-over by the mainstream media.Yes, it’s hard to believe a claim that an American presidential nominee was influenced by a Communist, especially if you ignore the supporting evidence, as Milbank does. [Dana Milbank from the Washington Post] Milbank does not even mention the “mentor’s” name. He is, in fact, the mysterious “Frank” in Obama’s book, Dreams of My Father, and was identified at the conference as the black writer and poet Frank Marshall Davis. Quoting from Obama’s own book, as well as congressional hearings, interviews, speeches, articles, and books, Kincaid presented hard evidence that “Frank” is Davis, and that Davis was a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was in fact involved in a Soviet-sponsored network in Hawaii that was judged by Congress at the time as a security threat to the U.S. Milbank never acknowledges the evidence, even though he handled copies of the reports while the briefing was going on, suggesting that Kincaid just sort of made it up.
The real question is how much influence “Frank” had on the young Obama. For his part, Obama in his book Dreams of My Father talks about “Frank” giving him advice on his life and career path, telling him to avoid compromise when he goes off to college and noting that black people feel they have a right to hate white people. Obama makes several references to “Frank” in his book. Gerald Horne, a writer for a Communist Party publication, was the first to publicly name “Frank” as Frank Marshall Davis, saying Davis had “befriended” Obama’s family in Hawaii.
Kincaid went for additional confirmation, interviewing Dr. Kathyrn Takara of the University of Hawaii, who knew Davis and had interviewed him for a dissertation about his life and work. Takara, an Obama supporter, confirmed that “Frank” was Davis and that he was a significant influence on Obama’s life. She thought the influence was mostly positive and was unconvinced that Davis, who died in 1987, was a CPUSA member.
Takara told Kincaid that she thought that Obama concealed “Frank’s” true identity because Davis had a controversial lifestyle and used alcohol and hosted parties. Kincaid noted, however, that Obama didn’t conceal his own bad habits, including drug use.
Later in his piece, Milbank takes another shot at Kincaid, accusing him of “the unilateral decision to accuse [Weather Underground leader Bernardine] Dohrn of the 1970 killing of a policeman, a charge no prosecutor has made.”
In fact, Kincaid was quoting Dohrn’s husband, then-Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, who had identified Dohrn as the perpetrator of the bombing which killed the policeman, according to Larry Grathwohl, an FBI informer in the terror group who wrote about it in his own book, Bringing Down America, and testified about it before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.
But Milbank makes it seem as if Kincaid himself made up a groundless accusation out of whole cloth...
The real message of Milbank’s screed against the conferees was a general warning not to raise questions about Obama’s radical ties, or you’ll be ridiculed. Ask any questions about Sen. Obama’s formation of character and worldview, or his associations, and even if you pile up impressive and voluminous evidence, you will be pilloried as part of the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy,” a term that Milbank actually uses sardonically in his third paragraph.
The message to the public is: “Pay no attention to any of this. Look the other way. It’s just a pack of lies from right-wing extremists.” If the discussion touches at all on communism, well, you know how the red-hunter Sen. McCarthy has become a handy brush to paint someone as a conspiracy nut...
