Rising Star

by David J. Garrow

  On Obama Sr.’s visit to Hefty and Eldredge’s fifth-grade classes, also see B. J. Reyes, “Punahou Left Lasting Impression on Obama,” HSB, 8 February 2007; Eldredge in Meacham, “On His Own,” Newsweek, 1 September 2008, p. 26; Eldredge in Remnick, The Bridge, p. 74; and DJG interviews with with Pal Eldredge and Mark Hebing. Eldredge recalls Ann coming to the second, midyear student evaluation conference; Hefty’s invitation to Obama could have stemmed from that meeting. On Brubeck’s 19 and 21 December concerts, see HSB, 17 December 1971, and Brubeck Papers, University of the Pacific, Section 1.F.4.2, particularly the February 1972 Aida program, p. 34. From Honolulu, Obama went to stay with his brother Omar at 17 Perry Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ruth wrote to him on 4 January 1972 to complain that she and his Kenyan children “Haven’t heard from you in ages—perhaps you have forgotten us?” Ruth B. Obama to Obama Sr., 4 January 1972, Abon’go Malik Obama Papers.

  28. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, “Application for Passport by Mail,” 4 January 1972, Dunham Passport File; Mark Hebing e-mail to Serge Kovaleski, 25 January 2008, Hebing Papers; DJG interviews with Mark Hebing and Pal Eldredge; Eldredge in Tani, “A Kid Called Barry,” Punahou Bulletin, Spring 2007, pp. 16–21, on ABC Nightline, 26 April 2007, and in Glauberman and Burris, The Dream Begins, p. 13; Jacobs, Obamaland, p. 78; Austin Murphy, “Obama Discusses His Hoops Memories at Punahou High,” SportsIllustrated.com, 21 May 2008; Abercrombie in Dan Nakaso, “Army Veteran Grandfather Was Obama’s Boyhood Pal in Hawaii,” HA, 14 November 2008; Punahou Catalog 1972–73; “Obama’s Ex-Teacher Expects Successful Visit,” Japan Times, 14 November 2009; Jayne Arakawa Kim in Ramos, ed., Our Friend Barry, pp. 45; Barton George, “Obama in ’73,” blogs.sun.com, 7 February 2007; Punahou’s middle school yearbook Na Opio; “Obama on Zionism and Hamas,” Jeffrey Goldberg Blog, TheAtlantic.com, 12 May 2008. On Abercrombie’s eventual 1974 UH Ph.D. dissertation, “Mumford, Mailer and Machines: Staking a Claim for Man,” see Richard Borreca, “Life Lessons from Gov.-Elect’s Thesis,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 28 November 2010. Either prior to admission, in 1970, or sometime during the fifth-grade year, Punahou reportedly administered IQ tests to students. Pal Eldredge, who has given all of his evaluative materials to Punahou’s archives, recalls of Obama that “he was really up there. His IQ was up there.”

  On the 1973 summer trip, see Amanda Griscom Little, “Obama on the Record,” Grist.org, 30 July 2007; Jeff Zeleny, “As America Learns About Obama, He Returns the Favor,” NYT, 10 July 2008; Obama on The Late Show, 10 September 2008; Wolffe, Renegade, p. 147; Obama, Remarks on the 160th Anniversary of the Department of the Interior, 3 March 2009, Public Papers 2009 Vol. I, p. 179; Scott, A Singular Woman, pp. 139–42; Obama in David Remnick, “Going the Distance,” New Yorker, 27 January 2014; and Obama’s remarks at Senator Daniel K. Inouye’s funeral, Washington, D.C., 21 December 2012. Obama, DFMF, pp. 144–45, incorrectly dates the trip as 1972 rather than 1973.

  On Obama’s seventh- and eighth-grade years, the 1973–74 and 1974–75 Punahou Catalogs as well as Kelli Furushima’s rich collection of yearbooks and other materials are most instructive, as well as DJG interviews with Furushima, Mark, Joann, and Philip Hebing, Laurie Tom, Bob and Kent Torrey, Pal Eldredge, and Alan Lum; Cheryl Lister in Ramos, ed., Our Friend Barry, p. 55; Laurel Bowers Husain and Laurie Uemoto Chang, “Obama Encourages Students to ‘Dream Big,’” Punahou Bulletin, Spring 2005, pp. 14–17; Carlyn Tani, “Facts About Barack Obama’s Ties to Punahou School,” Punahou, n.d.; and Obama, Remarks at Benjamin Banneker High School, 28 September 2011, Public Papers 2011 Vol. II, p. 1180. See as well S. Ann Soetoro to John F. O’Shea, 1 May 1974, O’Shea to Lolo Soetoro, 11 May 1974, and Douglas H. Brehm, “Memorandum for File,” 23 May 1974, Soetoro INS File. On the tennis incident, see Caldwell in Ramos, ed., Our Friend Barry, pp. 51–52, and Caldwell’s 2012 Jim Gilmore interview for Frontline. Ronald Loui on Real Talk with Jack McAdoo, JMacRadio.com, Show 10, 4 November 2010, endorsed Caldwell’s memories (“that certainly was the kind of environment that was going on in the tennis court”). Three DJG attempts in 2014 to ask Mauch about his recollections were unavailing. On Mauch see also “Oakland Man Gets Tennis Job,” Oakland Tribune, 26 December 1966, p. A22. Obama cited the incident in DFMF, p. 80, and may have alluded to it—“coaches”—in his 19 January 2005 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Obama on occasion would mention playing football in the ninth grade. See Obama, “Community Revitalization,” Nebraska Wesleyan University Forum, 9 September 1994; also see Dave Reardon, “Coaching Teammates Eldredge, McLachlin Retire from Punahou,” HSB, 20 June 2007. Punahou records indicate it was eighth grade.

  29. Scott, A Singular Woman, pp. 156–57, Maya Soetoro-Ng in Emme Tomimbang, “Barack Obama: Hawaii Roots,” 8 February 2008; Ann Dunham to Alice Dewey, 8 January 1976 and 24 February 1976, and Ann Dunham Sutoro to Ph.D. Committee, “Review and Update on Activities Relating to Ph.D.,” September 1984, Dunham Papers; Stanley Ann Soetoro v. Lolo Soetoro, “Information Concerning Conciliation and Child Care,” Hawaii First Circuit Family Court #117619, 15 June 1980; Dan Nakaso, “Obama’s Mother’s Work Focus of UH Seminar,” HA, 12 September 2008; Sara Lin, “Obama Slept Here,” WSJ, 7 November 2008; Will Hoover, “Obama’s Hawaii Boyhood Homes Drawing Gawkers,” HA, 9 November 2008; Punahou Catalog 1975–1976 (among Kelli Furushima’s Punahou materials but absent from Punahou’s own archives), Ka Punahou Volume 60, #1, 12 September 1975, through #24, 21 May 1976 (one of the two editors-in-chief was Steve Case), esp. Andrew Steele, “Freshpersons: A Social Guide to the Academy,” 12 September 1975; Oahuan 1976; Catherine Black, “A Tradition of Innovation,” Punahou Bulletin, Fall 2014; Tavares in Brian Charlton (AP), “In Honolulu, Young Obama Was Part of a Multiethnic Existence,” 6 February 2007; Ann Sanner (AP), “Personal Side: The ’08 Candidates Name a Few of Their Favorite and Not So Favorite Things,” 20 December 2007; DJG interviews with Eric Kusunoki, Paula Miyashiro Kurashige, Larry Tavares, Greg Ramos, Tony Peterson, Keith Peterson, David Craven, Laurie Tom, Andrea Dolan Owen, and Kelli Furushima; Kusunoki in Richard Wolffe, “When Barry Became Barack,” Newsweek, 31 March 2008, pp. 24ff.; Whitey Kahoohanohano in Dan Boylan, “’08: Year of Obama,” Midweek, 2 January 2008; Sharon Yanagi in Gloria Borland and Kris Anderson, “An American Boyhood: Barack Obama in Hawaii,” Video, 2008, Rik Smith in Scharnberg and Barker, “The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama’s Youth,” CT, 25 March 2007, and in Sudhin Thanawala (AP), “In Multiracial Hawaii, Obama Faced Discrimination,” 19 May 2008; Tony Peterson, “Obama’s Depth of Mind, Ability to Grow Don’t Surprise High School Friend,” Nashville Tennessean, 6 February 2008 (reprinted in HSB, 15 February 2008, and Salem Statesman Journal, 12 May 2008); Peterson in David James Smith, “The Ascent of Mr. Charisma,” Sunday Times Magazine (UK), 23 March 2008, pp. 58ff., in “Obama as We Knew Him,” Observer (UK), 26 October 2008, pp. 4–7, and in Kevin Simpson, “Identity Questions Shaped Obama into New Kind of Politician,” Denver Post, 28 August 2008 (Peterson noting that with regard to DFMF “the year I knew him isn’t recorded in his book”). See also Kenji Kakugawa, “Young Mr. Obama,” my.bo.com/kenjikakugawa, 6 November 2008, and Dennis Bader, Facebook posting, 27 September 2012. Obama would later say, with apparent reference to those Poki Street years, that “my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D.” Joe Klein, “The Fresh Face,” Time, 23 October 2006, pp. 44ff. No other sources or recollections speak to this issue.

  30. Ann Dunham to Alice Dewey, 8 January 1976 and 24 February 1976, Dunham Papers; Scott, A Singular Woman, pp. 153, 157, 167–68; Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, “Application for Passport,” 2 June 1976, Dunham Passport File; Maya Soetoro-Ng on MetroTVNews.com, 12 December 2009; DJG interviews with Alec Williamson, Rolf Nordahl, Pal Eldredge, Alice Dewey, Ralph Dunham, and Charles Payne; Williamson e-mail to DJG; Nordahl, “Gramp’s Dream,” in Jacobs, Obamaland, p. 130; Eldredge on Nightline, ABC, 26 April 2007; Obama, DFMF, pp. 76–77; Dan Nakaso, “Obama’s Tutu a Hawaii Banking Female Pioneer,” HA, 20 March 2008; Susan E
ssoyan, “Strong Women Led Obama,” HSB, 10 August 2008; Allen G. Breed (AP), “‘Toot’: Obama Grandmother a Force That Shaped Him,” 23 August 2008; Suzanne Roig, “Hawaii Friends, Former Co-Workers Remember Madelyn Dunham,” HA, 15 November 2008; Dunham herself in Scott Fornek, “‘I’ve Got a Competitive Nature,’” CST, 3 October 2004, p. 12, and in Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, By the People [film], Pivotal Pictures, 2009; Maraniss, BOTS, p. 270. On “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” see also Don Terry, “The Skin Game,” CT Magazine, 24 October 2004, pp. 14ff. On Bob’s Soul Food Place and the Family Inn, see HA, 16 October 2003. Another bar they frequented was the Black Cat, at Hotel and Richards Streets. Obama would later assert, incorrectly at least with regard to Stan, that by 1972 his grandparents were “voting for Nixon and concerned with law and order.” Book Channel Interview with Marc Strassman, 11 August 1995. Nine years later he would say that Madelyn was a Republican. David Mendell, “Running as If He’s Got a Rival,” CT, 13 July 2004, pp. 1, 20.

  31. Punahou Catalog 1976–1977, Ka Punahou Volume 61 #1, 10 September 1976, through #18, 20 May 1977, Punahou Archives, (#5 is missing), esp. Darwin Sen, “JV Basketball and Soccer Conclude Winning Seasons,” 18 March 1977, p. 7; Oahuan 1977, esp. p. 143, “Junior Varsity Basketball Schedule 1976–77,” Punahou Archives; DJG interviews with Tony Peterson, Keith Kakugawa, Mark Haine, Dan Hale, Pal Eldredge, David Craven, Mark Hebing, Mike Ramos, and Kelli Furushima (including Kelli’s 1977 yearbook inscription); Jacobs, Obamaland, p. 46; Dave Burgess, A Tale of Two Brothers: The Keith Kakugawa Story (Lulu Press, 2009), esp. pp. 2, 23, 29–34, 47, 52, 183–84, 187, 191; Obama, DFMF, pp. 72–73, 83–86; Kakugawa in Jackie Calmes, “From Obama’s Past: An Old Classmate, a Surprising Call,” WSJ, 23 March 2007, p. A1; Kakugawa and Orme in Scharnberg and Barker, “The Not-So-Simple Story of Barack Obama’s Youth,” CT, 25 March 2007; Kakugawa on Jake Tapper, “Tale of Two Men: Senator Obama’s Best Friend Ray,” Good Morning America, ABC, 30 March 2007; Kakugawa in Peter Wallsten, “Obama Defined by Contrasts,” LAT, 24 March 2008, in Richard Wolffe et al., “When Barry Became Barack,” Newsweek, 31 March 2008, pp. 24ff., on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, 15 April 2008; and on Real Talk with Jack McAdoo, Shows 7 and 10, 28 October and 4 November 2010; Ramos in Tomimbang, “Barack Obama: Hawaii Roots”; Orme in Rosemarie Bernado, “Punahou Alumni Celebrate Pride,” HSB, 20 January 2009; Ann Dunham Soetoro, “Review and Update on Activities Relating to Ph.D.,” September 1984, Dunham Papers; Obama on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 18 October 2006, Obama Remarks at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, 5 December 2007; Furushima in B. J. Reyes, “Punahou Left Lasting Impression on Obama,” HSB, 8 February 2007, and in Minna Sugimoto, “Obama’s Sweeties Quietly Campaign for Former Punahou Classmate,” KHNL.com, 5 November 2008. On Obama’s early interest in jazz, see also Russ Cunningham in Brian Charlton (AP), “In Honolulu, Young Obama Was Part of a Multiethnic Existence,” 6 February 2007, Dean Ando in Reyes, “Punahou Left Lasting Impression on Obama,” and Jann S. Wenner, “A Conversation with Barack Obama,” Rolling Stone #1056-57, 10 July 2008 (“When I was in high school, probably my sophomore or junior year, I started getting into jazz”). Kakugawa’s and Ramos’s memories disagree about when the Schofield party occurred; Ramos’s dating of it fits better with all other evidence. Regarding his feelings concerning his mother’s absence, Obama in 2006 would say, “I’m somebody who did not get a lot of attention as a very young person” and in 2008 he would allow, “in retrospect, it was probably harder on me than I cared to admit” and “I suspect it had more of an impact than I know.” Jimmie Briggs, “A Man of Vision,” Essence, October 2006, p. 160; 20/20, ABC, 26 September 2008; Remnick, The Bridge, p. 83. Apropos of Kakugawa’s insistence, Obama on one occasion would explicitly acknowledge, “the trouble I had didn’t have to do with being black. It had to do with the fact that I had this funny name, Barack Obama . . . You wish your name was Tim Smith.” Fresh Air, NPR, 12 August 2004. Almost alone among subsequent commentators, Nicholas Lemann, “The Cipher,” TNR, 25 October 2012, pp. 28–31, bluntly confronts Ann’s behavior and its impact: “she consistently decided, from the time he was about ten, to structure her life so that she spent almost no time with him,” and Barry “sensed this and resented it deeply.” See also Paul H. Elovitz, “A Comparative Psychohistory of McCain and Obama,” Journal of Psychohistory 36 (Fall 2008): 98–143, at 130 (“his sense of abandonment by his parents”). Observers who speak of “how carefully his mother sheltered him from the harsh reality of paternal abandonment” are missing at least half of the picture. David Lauter, “Review,” LAT, 17 June 2012. Obama could more easily acknowledge his father’s absence, once remarking, “I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house.” Julie Bosman, “Obama Calls for More Responsibility from Black Fathers,” NYT, 16 June 2008.

  32. “Who Is the Real Barack Obama?,” Good Morning America, ABC, 9 February 2007; Scott Fornek, “‘Blessed by God,’ Rooted in Two Continents,” CST, 22 January 2003, p. 8; Burgess, A Tale of Two Brothers, pp. 183–84; DJG interviews with Keith Kakugawa, Mark Haine, Pal Eldredge, Bob Torrey, Jim Iams, Jay Seidenstein, Tom Topolinski, Mike Ramos, Greg Ramos, Dan Hale, and Mark, Joann, and Philip Hebing; Wayne Weightman e-mail to DJG; Kakugawa in Serge F. Kovaleski, “Old Friends Say Drugs Played Only Bit Part in Obama’s Young Life,” NYT, 9 February 2008, p. A1; Topolinski’s interview with Jim Gilmore for Frontline; Topolinski comments of 25 November and 12 December 2007 on politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com; Weightman in Doug Ward, “U.S. Democrats Hope Vancouver Convention Can Help Change the World,” Vancouver Sun, 14 April 2008; Punahou Catalog 1977–78 and 1978–79, esp. pp. 60, 86; Bill Messer in David James, “Meet Barack Obama’s Welsh Teacher,” Western Mail, 15 December 2008; and “Ex-Teacher on ‘Oddly Quiet’ Obama,” BBCNews.com, 20 January 2009; Alicia Eler, “President Obama Pens Personal Apology to Art Historian,” Hyperallergic.com, 18 February 2014; Linne Nickelsen-Willis, “The Narc Squad,” in Ramos, ed., Our Friend Barry, pp. 60–62; Ka Punahou Vol. 62 #1, 9 September 1977, through #18, 19 May 1978, especially Steve Yamane, “Cagers Win Four in Row,” 16 December 1977, p. 8, Natalie Steele, “Vars. AA Cagers Upset First Place University High,” 17 February 1978, p. 7, “Vars. A Cagers Close Out ILH Season Finishing Fifth,” 3 March 1978, p. 7; Oahuan 1978, esp. p. 163; Titcomb in Tani, “A Kid Called Barry,” Punahou Bulletin, Spring 2007, pp. 16–21. The third member of “The Narc Squad” was Tom Krieger. On the widespread presence of pakalolo in 1970s Honolulu, see Michael Corcoran, “Obama’s Oahu,” Austin American Statesman, 9 November 2008, p. G1: “The pungent odor of marijuana could be smelled everywhere: movie theaters, Waikiki sidewalks, the Kam Drive In swap meets. . . . Everybody in Hawaii was getting high in the ’70s.” On the Bendix family, see Mark’s younger sister Dyno in David Keyes, “Remembering a Kid Named ‘Barry,’” Bonner County Daily Bee, 27 December 2007. Obama, DFMF, p. 80, describes “our assistant basketball coach” once using the word “niggers,” but none of Obama’s teammates or friends has ever made reference to any such incident.

  33. Ann Dunham Sutoro to Ph.D. Committee, “Review and Update on Activities Relating to Ph.D,” September 1984, Dunham to Alice Dewey, 28 July 1978, and Dunham résumé, ca. 1993, Dunham Papers; Judith Kampner, “The Untold Story of Obama’s Mother,” Independent, 16 September 2009; Christine Finn and Tony Allen-Mills, “Jungle Angel Was Barack Obama’s Mother,” Times, 8 November 2009; S. Ann Dunham, Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia (Duke University Press, 2009), pp. xxxi and 299; Titcomb in Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, By the People, Pivotal Pictures, 2009; DJG interviews with Alice Dewey, Kelli Furushima, Kent Torrey, Annette Yee, Clyde Higa, Dawna Weatherly-Williams, Mark Hebing, Ian Mattoch, David Craven, and Tom Topolinski; Kelli Furushima in Hans Nichols, “In Hawaii, Media Surfs Obama’s Past,” Politico, 14 March 2007, and on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN, 15 April 2008; Scott Fornek, “Barack Obama,” CST, 1 March 2004, p. 6; Obama on CNBC, 18 November 2006; Ann Sanner (AP), “Personal Side: The ’08 Candidates Name a Few of T
heir Favorite and Not So Favorite Things,” 20 December 2007; Sudhin Thanawala (AP), “Obama Worked to Fit In at Elite School,” 26 March 2008; Obama in Kenneth T. Walsh, “Becoming Barack Obama,” U.S. News, 9 June 2008, p. 17; Obama, “Here’s the Scoop,” LinkedIn.com, 25 February 2016; Punahou Catalog 1978–79, esp. pp. 28, 60, 63–80; Arlene Kishi, “Mattoch Explores ‘Law and Society,’” Ka Punahou, 2 April 1976; Ka Punahou Vol. 63 #1, 8 September 1978, through #17, 24 May 1979; Law and Society syllabus from 1980 and other materials in the Ian Mattoch Papers, Honolulu; Samuel Mermin, Law and the Legal System: An Introduction (Little Brown, 1973); Connie Ramos in Ramos, ed., Our Friend Barry, p. 14; Barry Obama, “The Old Man,” Ka Punahou, 15 December 1978, p. 5 (reprinted in Ka Wai Ola, 26th ed., May 1979, p. 65; the first comma in the fifth line is omitted in the newspaper copy); Mariko Gordon in Daruma Newsletter, November 2008, and Bernice Glenn Bowers in Dan Nakaso, “Hawaii Democrats Plan Parties Hoping to Celebrate Obama Win,” HA, 3 November 2008. On Mermin, a 1936 graduate of Yale Law School, see “Memorial Resolution of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison on the Death of Professor Emeritus Samuel Mermin,” 7 April 2008.

  In contrast to Scott, A Singular Woman, pp. 192–93, Dunham’s 1984 and 1993 timeline summaries indicate she did not return to Honolulu again in 1978 after departing for Indonesia in late May. On Obama at Baskin-Robbins, also most guardedly see Matt Pearl, “Kenmore Native Is Obama’s Former Teacher,” WGRZ.com, 21 January 2009. In the 26 March 2006 AP story, Obama also mentions working at “a burger chain,” with the apparent implication that this also was summer 1978.