Obama: Do as I say, not as I do

I prefer to keep it between the issues, but this is hard to overlook. Barack Obama plans to redistribute trillions of dollars of income. His big thing is looking out for the little guy. But he would prefer you do as he says, not as he does.

The Democrat raised well over $600 million in his campaign, but his aunt lives in destitution in the slums of Boston. Despite her poverty, “Auntie Zietuni” (Zeituni Onyango) was able to send a donation to the Obama campaign of $260. Barack’s “Uncle Omar” (Obama Onyango) was kicked out of his apartment in 2000 for falling more than $2,000 behind in paying the rent.

Obama’s half brother George Obama lives a 6 x 9 shack in Kenya on less than a dollar a month. He told the Italian Vanity Fair, “If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed.”

‘‘Barack!” I turned to see Auma [his Kenyan cousin] jumping up and down behind another guard who wasn’t letting her pass into the luggage area. I excused myself and rushed over to her, as we laughed and hugged as silly as the first time we’d met. A tall, brown-skinned woman was smiling beside us, and Auma turned and said: “Barack, this is our Auntie Zeituni. Our father’s sister.”

“Welcome home,” Zeituni said kissing me on both cheeks . . .

We went to drop Zeituni off at Kenya Breweries, a large, drab complex where she worked as a computer programmer. Stepping out of the car, she leaned over again to kiss me on the cheek, then wagged her finger at Auma. “You take good care of Barry now,” she said. “Make sure he doesn’t get lost again.”

Once we were back on the highway, I asked Auma what Zeituni had meant about my getting lost. Auma shrugged.

“It’s a common expression,” she said. “Usually it means that the person hasn’t seen you in a while. ‘You’ve been lost,’ they’ll say. Or, ‘Don’t get lost’. Sometimes it has a more serious meaning. Let’s say a husband or son moves to the city, or to the West, like our Uncle Omar in Boston. They promise to return after completing school. They say they’ll send for the family once they get settled. At first they write once a week. Then it’s just once a month. Then they stop writing completely. No one sees them again. They’ve been lost, you see. Even if people know where they are.”

Excerpt from Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama