As you may know Jerome Corsi just published an article featuring my first impressions of young Obama: I thought he was part of a wealthy gay couple. In a world where Obama uses his marriage and family for political gain, I guess it is fair to ask folks like me what we first thought of the sexual orientation of the young Obama. What ticks me off, however, is when the guy running ConWebBlog suggests that I am a "discredited source." Terry K. writes:
But as we've also detailed, Drew -- who has cited his encounters with Obama to claim that he was, as Corsi wrote, a "Marxist revolutionar[y]" -- met Obama only twice in social occasions, making it highly unlikely that he could have made such sweeping conclusions of Obama's purported nature based on brief, casual encounters. Further, some of Drew's details about Obama have been discredited by actual college friends of Obama.
Corsi makes no apparent effort to fact-check anything Drew says.Let me unpack this for you and illustrate why I have such a low opinion of ConWebBlog.
It seems Drew is nothing more than an Obama-hater who's embellishing his brief, long-ago encounters to curry favor with fellow Obama-haters. Why? Presumably to sell some books -- he's supposedly working on one. And Corsi is swallowing every word he says.
First, my assessment of Obama's commitment to Marxist revolutionary thought was not based simply on brief, casual encounters. The girlfriend who introduced me to Obama, Caroline Boss, was so close to him that she became part of the composite character "Regina" in Obama's book, Dreams From My Father. The very name "Regina" was taken from the real life name of Boss's grandmother.
Second, I did not have a casual encounter with young Obama. Instead, he and I engaged in an intense, sometimes angry debate about whether or not Communism was a realistic objective and whether or not a violent Communist revolution was or was not a realistic possibility. It was an important debate that - potentially - impacted young Obama's early career decisions. I remember that debate no so much because of young Obama, but because of how my changing views on Marxist ideology impacted my relationship with Boss. (No one else has provided anything close to the detailed description of young Obama's thinking as I have provided in various articles.)
Third, many of the details of my story have been confirmed, not discredited including my report on Obama's GQ style of dress which was confirmed by Margot Mifflin in Remnick's The Bridge, my report that both young Obama and young Chandoo were in the San Francisco area over Christmas break 1980 which was confirmed by David Maraniss in his book, Barack Obama: The Story, and my take on the lack of African-Americans in young Obama's social circles is verified by reports which indicate that none of Obama's supposed African-American friends from Oxy attended his wedding to Michelle even though his Indian and Pakastani friends from Oxy did attend his wedding to Michelle.
My report on Boss's radicalism was confirmed, in part, when Remnick pointed out that the Democrat Socialist Alliance, where she was the co-chair, displayed a large banner of Karl Marx in the Occidental Quad and later when Remnick confirms Obama's roommate, Chandoo, admitted to his youthful Marxism.
I was on the phone with Jerome Corsi while he was writing that article and I can verify he was doing his fact-checking by running various photos, scenarios and stories by me prior to publication. I am consenting to interviews because I am still quite frustrated that the mainstream media failed to pick up on young Obama's radicalism in 2008. I have no doubt that if my story had gotten proper media attention in 2008, Obama would never have been elected president in the first place.
Although I have not been interviewed by liberal authors like Remnick or Maraniss, my story has been considered credible enough to be featured in a number of other publications by four authors with Ph.D.s including, as Corsi has written, the following references:
Author Paul Kengor discusses Drew’s testimony that Obama was a Marxist-Leninist at Occidental in his 2010 book “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century,” beginning on page 445, and in his 2012 book “The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis – The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor,” beginning on page 10 and resuming more extensively on page 249.Finally, I have debunked many of the on-line critics of my face-to-face report on young Obama's ideological extremism in the posts I created usually on the same day that attack appeared including the following work:
Author and WND columnist Jack Cashill mentioned Drew’s testimony of Obama’s Marxist views on page 224 of his 2011 book “Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Loves, and Letters of America’s First Postmodern President.”
Author Stanley Kurtz discusses Drew’s contention that Obama was a “pure Marxist-socialist” at Occidental in his 2010 book “Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism,” on pages 9-10 and again on pages 88-91.
In response to the "Oh For Goodness Sake blogger," Anne Stoddard, who first wrote about me on February 17, 2010, I immediately debunked her silliness in an article I wrote on the same day her article was posted which appeared at the Patriot Action Network website.
I also debunked the "Oh For Goodness Sake" blogger once again when she wrote another inaccurate smear piece attacking me on March 11, 2011. I immediately debunked this article too.
For recent articles that provide more details of my take on young Obama's ideological extremism, please see the following articles in American Thinker, Breitbart.com or PJMedia. As far as I am concerned, I think it is extremely unfair to describe me as a discredited source when so many of the things I said about young Obama and his friends in February 2010 have rung true as subsequent literature - from liberals and conservatives - has verified my take on young Obama's radicalism.
John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.
