Why It Matters That Obama Dated a Composite and Ate a Dog

The vetting that never was.

As you probably know, an author named David Maraniss has contacted one of Obama's old girlfriends. Turns out he claimed events and conversations occurred with her that she says never happened; but then, his book claims that some characters may be composites. (Wiggle room for anytime Bill Ayers made something up, or talked about his own experiences.)

Is this important? Tim Stanley thinks so.

What stands out from the composite story isn’t that Obama amalgamated characters, it’s that the press hadn’t noticed until now. As with the dog story, this confirms the suspicion that the mainstream media gave Obama a free pass in 2008 and declined to check too deeply into his background.

...

Why didn’t we know all these details four years ago – even though some of them were published in a best-selling autobiography that was sold to us as if it was a fifth gospel? And yet we knew everything there was to know about Sarah Palin, despite the fact that she was in the race for a much shorter space of time than Obama – and only running for veep.

That’s the significance of the canine and composite revelations – both of them, aside from their delightful “dish” factors, not really revelations at all. That we are only discussing them this late into Obama’s career suggests that the vetting that should have happened four years ago was unforgivably neglected. But, hey, it’s never too late to start.

posted by Ace at 04:09 PM

| Access Comments