Father Discussed Adoption for Obama, Records Show

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Before Barack Obama was born, his parents may have considered putting him up for adoption, according to documents obtained by a reporter for The Boston Globe.

Mr. Obama’s father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., told immigration officials that Ann Dunham, whom he had recently married, would make “arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away,” one document said.

The revelation came from 1961 immigration forms obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Sally Jacobs, a reporter who has written a book called “The Other Barack, The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father.” An excerpt from the book, which will be released next week, appeared Thursday in The Globe.

President Obama’s father, then a student at the University of Hawaii, was questioned about his marital status by immigration officials when he applied for an extension of his visa, which he had to do each year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/08adopt.html

[gateley]

1. Oh that's sad. I'm HOPING he knew this before these records

became public.

His father sounds like a jerk.

[Fearless]

2. I'm hoping the networks don't pick this up instead of the debt ceiling...

:banghead:

[LiberalFighter]

3. What Sr may have stated to immigration officials may not have matched

with the intent of Jr's mother.

[SoCalDem]

15. Yep.. he seems like he was not all that great of a guy

and the marriage was all about HIS immigration status, and not creating a family..

She seems to have been a very idealistic young woman who was caught up in the general youth-rebellion of that era. Truthfully, probably most young women in her circumstances might have thought about all the possible scenarios, but the fact that she KEPT him, and did the best she could to raise him, says it all for me..

[surrealAmerican]

17. It may not have even matched his own intent.

He was in danger of being deported: he probably told them whatever he thought they wanted to hear.

[KT2000]

4. how can this do anything

but cause pain for a very real family. So sad that the NYTimes picked it up. Let's ignore it.

[BlueIris]

5. Agreed. This is the last comment I will make in this or any forum.

Not newsworthy and entirely wrong for the Times to have declared it a "story."

[larwdem]

6. '

What the fuck is the matter with these people

[girl_interrupted]

7. They will pick up any story having to do with a President's family

Goes with the territory, unfortunately. Sounds like it was all his father's idea, not his mother's. Obama was fortunate to have his mother and her parents, they really seemed to love him a lot, and played a very large part in his upbringing. The father, not at all. I always wonder why some kids make the parent that takes off, larger than life, instead of the parent that stays and does all the heavy lifting. It's sad.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Seems a Democrat would have more respect for the President than to post this crap. n/t

[alp227]

9. I respect Mr. Obama and will criticize him on policy, but this is about his FATHER

you can't blame a kid for having dumb parents, just like how Dems argue in favor of the DREAM Act for instance.

[No Elephants]

14. Who's blaming Obama, Jr. for what Obama, Sr. did?

[BlueMTexpat]

10. He may have been telling officials what he thought that they wanted to hear.

After all, for him, Barack would otherwise have been an "anchor baby," an ongoing route to eventual US citizenship - after he had successfully fulfilled all other conditions. His marriage to Barack's mother could always have ended in divorce. And ultimately did. But as Barack's father, his route to eventual US citizenship could still have been a possibility.

As Barack's natural father married to his mother, he would have had to consent to relinquishing his right to his child in order for the child's adoption to be legal. Once he relinquished that claim, he would no longer be eligible for US citizenship through his erstwhile "anchor baby."

If this story were genuine, I would be surprised if Barack himself hadn't already learned it from his mother or his grandparents when he was doing research on his father because they all seemed to be plain-speaking folks and he was an adult by then. If for some reason it actually was one consideration among several options and he didn't learn about it before, then I don't see what difference it makes to learn it now. The fact was that his mother and her family did raise him and surrounded him with love.

My guess, however, is that it was likely something wholly dreamed up by his father for whatever reason. It certainly is in line with the father's other behavior.

[trud]

11. I am sure

Obama's mother never considered this for an instant. We already know his father was a dick, and I'm sure he knows that also.

[unc70]

12. Ann Dunham and baby B.O. moved back to Seattle just weeks after his birth

Ann Dunham Obama left Hawaii with little Barack almost as soon they would have been allowed to travel. By September, she was living in Seattle, a single mom with her infant son, and enrolled at the University of Washington where she wanted to attend the previous year along with her friends from high school, but her parents had made her move with them to Hawaii.

They remained in Seattle through the following spring. They moved back to Hawaii around the time that Barack, Sr. left for Boston and Harvard, either just before or just after he left.

The immigration service concerns regarding his marriage in Kenya might have been how Ann first became aware of it. His statement regarding possible adoption is consistent with statements about him by his family, his other children, and those who knew him in Kenya. Barack, Sr. showed little interest in any of his children, rarely even around them. Maybe better for them given how abusive he became when he drank.

I have wondered what motivated Ann Obama to seemingly flee to Seattle from Hawaii. Was it her learning of his other family? Had he been abusive? Was there some problem with her parents? Now we see another possibility; if his marriage to Keisha were confirmed, not only could he be deported, his marriage to Ann would be voided, their son born out of wedlock - "illegitimate". Maybe her moving was in part to avoid further scrutiny by authorities and to protect the status of her marriage and her son's birth.

[No Elephants]

16. Now that we are discussing this, I always thought Obama, Jr.'s seeming

reticence about the cirumstances of his birth had to do with protecting the memory of a young woman who, in the 1960's, had gotten pregnant by a questionable man before she married.

Things then must have been very hard for that woman raising her baby, even if the father had been an unmarried white U.S. citizen near the mother's age. As it was, she must have been one heck of a strong woman.

[No Elephants]

13. Obama, Sr. had a wife in Kenya when he supposedly purported to marry Ann Dunham.

I guess that was legal in Kenya, but not in the U.S. So I wonder if he could be said to "marry" the young Ann Dunham.

If I recall correctly, he had something like four wives and a mistress when he died. Sad.