Reply #30: Probably misread who was accused of smear; Seattle is from area newspapers and Wiki

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I appear to have misread who was being accused of doing the smearing. There have been so many posts at DU, even recently, blaming the Clintons and their supporters of racism wrt Obama that I misinterpreted. My mistake, somewhat distracted by Times Square story.

No, Obama being in Seattle during his first year is not something from the birthers. While many of us knew that Ann Dunham grew up near Seattle and not in Kansas as his campaign often implied, most of what has been reported about Obama living there appears to be more in the "civic pride", "local connection" type reporting. "Obama's mother was a local girl", that kind of thing.

In several articles in the Seattle local press (barely noticed elsewhere), Ann's high school classmates describe her and her baby being back in Seattle after one year in Hawaii, that she was enrolled at University of Washington, trying to make it as single mom, but eventually returning to Hawaii in the spring because it was really hard on her trying to do it all.

Since the inaugeration, I happened upon a little story about a woman to says she lived near Ann and Barack in Seattle, and that she had sometimes been his babysitter. Most of these stories seem to fall into the "I knew him when" category. There were similar stories regarding where Obama had lived in NYC during college and while he was working in the low end of the financial industry before moving to Chicago.

Before the election, I joked about knowing where Obama was living when he was six months old, but I mostly kept it to myself and a few people at DU by private message. Not interested in making too much of it at that time, though it did seem a bit curious.

I have not personally looked at documents from that time such as phone books, directories, alumni records, or anything else to verify this information, but I have not seen anything that would contradict them having lived there at that time. Have not seen this info from the birthers, but I have not looked very closely at their claims. I have thought it was to Obama's advantage to keep that issue stirred up and not provide them with any documents that might defuse the issue for most.

EDIT: Just looked at the Wiki for Ann Dunham. It has been updated to include most of what I describe above, along with various articles and other documents that confirm this information. Check it out; doesn't appear to be any way related to the birthers.