I was recently asked about Barack Obama’s Pakistani former roommates, with whom he has retained ties and allegations regarding illicit money ties for Obama and his campaign. My first reaction was that I hadn’t heard anything of it, and, if it was worth mentioning, then Hillary or McCain, or Fox News, being the diligent, conscientious news organization they are, would have brought it up by now. It turns out that I was entirely correct. This is another fear-mongering non-story dreamed up by an immoral Obama detractor to scare the witless out of their wits. It took five minutes to debunk this preposterous and unfounded claim.
You had asked me questions about where Obama’s money came from; I found a piece that seems to sum up your questions at: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/who-real-barack-obama
This now has an embedded link to Snopes, which has a response to 90% of it here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp
Both Chandoo and Hamid, the Pakistani friends to whom you referred, are incredibly wealthy; Chandoo is now an investment guy, financial consultant, in New York, while Hamid apparently cleaned up his alien status and is now a vice president for Pepsi in New York. They have raised donations for Obama as “bundlers”, but all of that money is tracked and accounted for, none of it has proven illicit or questionable- otherwise, as I said before, the McCain campaign would have jumped all over it.
As for Obama’s travels during college and how they were paid for, the explanation is rather generic. Although his family did use food stamps and other forms of aid during his youth, by the time he was in college, Obama’s mother was working for an international aid agency in Indonesia, I believe, and made frequent trips, related to her work, to Pakistan. Christian missionaries do stuff like this all the time, as do Red Cross international aides. So, he was probably able to get initial travel arrangements through his mother’s agency. Once in Asia, travelling around would have been relatively cheap, especially given that his prior friendships, along with his mother’s local contacts, would have been able to assist with paperwork and money. He also traveled to India and visited with a Hindu family. Also, this was all in the early ‘80’s, when Asia was incredibly cheap by US standards. None of this checks out to any kind of nefarious subplot, but it does give testament to Obama’s experience in dealing with different cultures in areas that are currently incredibly important to the US.
I have lived in, and visited many countries, and can say that, once outside the US, travel usually becomes easier and cheaper than most Americans realize; you just have to be willing to put up with crowding, noise, and odor.
As for money for college, Obama has said that he and Michelle made it through with a combination of scholarships, grants, and loans. This checks out; they only fully satisfied their student loans in 2003 or 2004, after the money from his book writing started coming in. The house was bought in 2005, when Obama got his largest book deal. And realize that, in all likelihood, the house is mortgaged, just like everyone else’s. There was no outside help that can be even pointed to. Between ’04 and ’05, Obama made over 2 million on the book deals, and he continues to receive royalties in the hundreds of thousands. The money checks out, and there is no indication of illicit assistance, something McCain and company would jump on; in fact, Hillary, with her vast network, wasn’t able to jump on this either.
The way I see it, Obama’s Pakistani, and other foreign, experiences and contacts will help in an Administration that is going to have to deal with Pakistani sovereignty, al-Qaida, the Taliban, cross-border raids, shared intelligence and joint operations as well as the ongoing dispute over Kashmir.
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