Barack Obama’s ‘Lost’ Brother Found in Kenya
What degree of responsibility should Obama have for his family members spread across the globe?
Umm…none?
I have a brother that I haven’t seen for probably seven or eight years - and I’d be a whole lot more likely to help out a friend than someone who is a stranger that happens to share one or more parents.
-Joe
I saw that article and I’m not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, no, he’s not responsible, or course, but on the other, he had a face to face with his well-off brother in 2006, and is now living in a 12 cubic foot shack on one dollar a day? I’m not sure that plays well. On the other hand (wait…that’s three hands) could this be a set up for a tearful plays-in-the-heartlands reunion? I wouldn’t put it past the Obama campaign to have arranged this whole thing.
He has some responsibility . Perhaps McCain will give him one of his 10 houses and make a huge political gain out of it.
of course, aren’t we all our brother’s keepers in one way or another?
Before he does anything he needs to make sure it’s really his brother. You never know… look what happened in “there will be blood”. Just saying.
Interesting idea. I wouldn’t put it past the McCain campaign to have arranged this whole thing. :rolleyes:
Well Obama has met him, he mentioned him in his autobiography. So I would assume that Obama could verify that it’s his brother by sight. It would be really hard for Obama to convince people of his bona fides in terms of helping the poor and such if he didn’t help his brother who would require so little of him. He could pay his Brother’s tuition and set him up in a better neighborhood. Homeboy owns a million dollar mansion in Chicago. He could improve this guy’s life significantly with just $ 10,000 a year, and it would certainly look good on his image.
This would play really badly to the liberal stereotype of people who only care when the government is providing the charity, and won’t lift their own finger or get their own hands dirty in pursuit of their ideals.
Well, now if he does help him, he’ll be accused of using the charity as a political stunt.
On the other hand, maybe his half-brother is a complete dick.
If his *half-*brother has been living in conditions like this and has not been in touch with his own family - he says “no one knows I exist” - how is Sen. Obama supposed to do anything about it? We don’t know that he was aware of George’s situation, and they have only met twice, briefly. You make it sound like he has refused to help when we don’t know that that’s the case.
This plays badly to the stereotype of people taking human tragedies and trying to twist them to score a minor political point.
If the guy’s living on $365 a year, he could improve things significantly with $1000 - but what about everyone else on his cardboard block? Why should accident of birth make this guy more worthy than his neighbors, and why shouldn’t Obama be responsible for all of them?
I mean, this is his “brother” only in the loosest biological sense, right? They didn’t grow up together, or even on the same continent. They didn’t hunt for frogs, skip stones and build model airplanes together. They didn’t argue over who got the good seat at dinner table or whose turn it was to find the lost remote or cry on each others’ shoulders when their father died. This is a guy whose mother Obama’s “dad” (and I use the term very loosely) knocked up.
George Washington was embarrassed when his own elderly mother complained publicly that he wasn’t supporting her adequately (he was). The more things change…
Barack Obama is a moral and conscientious person, by all accounts. If I were him, I’d get in touch with my half-brother and see what he needed. “A hand up and not a handout” would be my guide. Will it be dissected politically? Of course. But what’s right is right.
He has zero responsibility. This guy isn’t “family” in any meaningful sense. They share a father who abandoned Barack when he was two. He met this guy briefly in Kenya during a visit, but even the half-brother says they are “strangers” for all practical purposes. It’s ridiculous to suggest that Barack Obama has to take responsibility for all the scattered offspring of his abandoning father.
I have a couple of half-brothers out there in the world somewhere. I never knew they existed until I was in my 30’s. I’ve never met them but I talked to them on the phone once. I don’t know where they are now. Am I responsible for them? If I fall on hard times, should they be responsible for me?
I guess since McCain’s a boot strap and all conservative, it’s ok that his wife’s sister has been ignored…maybe the Ice Princess can give her siblings one their 10 houses. It would help this woman’s life and would certainly look good for McCain’s image…right?
You would agree, right?
Or would it play badly to the conservate stereotype of people who care only for themselves and won’t reach into their stuffed pockets even for family, as they pursuit the conservative stereotype of greed.
Goose and gander and all that.
Is it just me? Because in reading that article, I didn’t get the impression that the brother had been refused anything, or even asked for anything. In fact, I didn’t get the impression he felt especially entitled to anything. I got the impression that a reporter showed up and started asking him questions his life, and about the brother he doesn’t know who happens to be running for president, and he answered them matter-of-factly.
Good thing Cindy’s not running for President, then, isn’t it.
So? Her husband is…or does guilt by assocation only apply to Obama?
A distinction which is never made if a woman is married to a Democratic Candidate…or who even knows a Democratic candidate.
Who the hell said anything about guilt? I point you to post #3 in this thread, but since it’s hard to see past the tu qoque, "1) he’s not responsible; 2) it might not play well anyway; 3) it might be a set up.
I’m trying to see where it says John McCain in there anywhere.
Oh, look! Distraction! Over there! Quick, look over there!!!
Okay, “responsible by association”, then. IF* one holds Barack responsible for his father’s crotch spawn’s economic condition, would one also hold Mr. McCain responsible for his sister-in-law’s economic condition? If not, what does one use as the rubric? Is DNA the decider, or prior relationship or what?
*And this is an if, and we’re all kinda whacking at strawmen at this point…
The word isn’t “distraction”, it’s “hypocracy”. An even standard would be unlikely to assess that Obama had a large responsibility to care for a half-brother who is a complete stranger in another country, and assess McCain no responsibility for a half-sister-in-law who is neither as complete a stranger nor as completely distant.
Ed: Note that the hypocracy is only on those criticising one side and not the other for their “uncaring” - I don’t know if McCain himself is doing so.