US Senator Barack Obama has turned out to be a true Kenyan. You should hear the guy speak.
This is not some American ignorant of the way of life in Kenya. This is a guy who traveled by train and the notorious matatus during an earlier visit in1987 that took a whole month. The senator slept on the couch at his sister’s house in some seedy Nairobi estate.
This guy can identify with Kenyans more than most, if not all of the greedy 222 hyenas seated in the August house.
And it would seem that the guy reads this blog religiously. He’s singled out corruption and tribalism as the two main enemies of the Kenyan people. Let me just stop my accolades there,somebody might start a rumor that I am getting paid…
Senator Barack Obama’s meeting with the president was cordial but you could sense the sparks flying.
The aging President (have you noticed how old the President looks these days? The pressures of the office seem to have taken their toll) spoke to Obama encouraging Americans to invest in the country. Senator Obama dwelt a lot on corruption and how big a hindrance it can be to any foreign investment. He even mentioned the fact that a camera crew accompanying him had been forced to pay a bribe to some customs officials to get their equipment through.
One thing that most of the Kenyan media has missed is the fact that the senator is a politician in office with a re-election bid at the very least or a possible stab at the American presidency in the horizon. Therefore he has to play to the gallery (meaning the American electorate). The senator’s African tour is being followed closely back in the States especially via the news crew following him around.
It is now very clear that American’s confidence in the Kibaki administration has fallen to an all-time low.
(See open letter from the Kenyan people to the American electorate.)
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Obama's sticky switch from media darling to media-hounded
ReplyDeleteNovember 7, 2006
BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
For the first time, Sen. Barack Obama was playing defense with the press. It was after a get-out-the-vote rally on Monday. Instead of the usual fawning Washington reporters tossing softballs as they worked up adoring stories about him running for president in 2008, Obama was taking questions from the City Hall news crew about his astoundingly bad judgment.
They drove up to Waukegan to find out for themselves why on earth Obama had anything to do with the shady, recently indicted Tony Rezko.
WLS radio reporter Bill Cameron put it this way in the lead-off question: "What in the world were you doing in a real estate deal with Tony Rezko?''
For the next 14 minutes, Obama had what for him was a new experience: explaining himself in public for questionable personal conduct.
Obama's inquisitors were reporters who knew him for years and were neither awed nor intimidated by him. It was just another grilling of yet another Chicago pol who got caught in a sticky situation.
Put another way, Obama was being treated just like everybody else.
"This is the first time this has happened and I don't like the feeling,'' Obama said. "It's frustrating to me, and I'm kicking myself about it."
Book deal leads to real estate deal
To recap: Obama inked a book deal after winning election to the Senate in 2004. With his new wealth, in June 2005, Obama bought a $1.65 million mansion in Kenwood, some $300,000 below asking price. Rezko's wife Rita paid $625,000, the list price, for an adjacent empty lot the Rezkos may develop.
The deals closed the same day because the seller insisted both parcels be sold at the same time.
When the deals went down, Rezko -- who befriended Obama when he was a nobody Harvard law student -- was already cast in news stories as a controversial figure and political fundraiser.
By January 2006, when Obama bought a strip of Rezko's yard, Rezko's status was elevated to politically radioactive, since it was known he was under investigation by federal prosecutors.
The Rezko story broke last week, when Obama was wrapping up a national tour serving several purposes: promote his new book, The Audacity of Hope, raise money and stump for Democrats, and lay the groundwork for a possible 2008 White House bid.
******this is the same guy who was calling kenya corrupt