Review of Obama's "Dreams From My Father"

 Obama Sr, our president's father, was an alcoholic who killed a man in an automobile crash and died in another crash, probably of his own making. He was a brilliant and driven man who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Hawaii in three years. He left his wife and two year-old son, our president, in Hawaii so he could attend Harvard for his doctorate. He had a partial scholarship to Harvard and a full one plus a guaranteed job at the New School in New York City. This meant that he could have brought his family with him to graduate school. But he ruthlessly opted for the prestigious Harvard leaving his family in Hawaii. Obama, Jr. didn't see his father for eight years.
 Obama Sr. returned to Kenya after receiving his doctorate. He was very active in the government. The vice-president and many others in the government met, drank, and talked at his comfortable, government-provided home. But gradually Obama Sr. saw the flies in the ointment and would not keep quiet about them. He saw the corruption of the politicians who were acting like the newly-departed white colonials whom they all had hated. Like the  white colonials, the people in power were buying businesses and land that Obama thought should have been given to the people. Compare this to Obama Jr.'s crony capitalism in which he gives huge sums of the people's money to his friends' worthless, and perhaps deliberately phony, business efforts.
Also Obama's father spoke up against tribalism. He said that favortism toward the Kikuyu, the largest tribe in Kenya, over the Laos tribe, which happened to be the tribe he belonged to, was going to ruin the country. Compare that to Obama Jr.'s favortism toward the Black Panthers and his attempts to divide America into warring groups. Obama's father also complained publicly that unqualified people were taking the best jobs. Compare that to Obama Jr.'s support of affirmative action, set-asides, disparate impact, and other schemes not to hire people based on their merit only.
 Obama Sr. was eventually summoned by Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, who told Obama that he wouldn't have a government job again until the shoes wore off his feet. He was dismissed and lost his home too. Obama Sr. was eventually given a small government job by a friend, but by then he was an embittered man and probably a heavier drinker.His political friends had long deserted him to curry favor with the regime. A lonely man, Obama was reduced to the practice of waking his daughter late at night and railing in a drunken stupor about the injustices he had suffered.
 Our Obama uses crony capitalism and favortism of one race over another to increase his power. Like Kenyatta taking away his father's job because of his father's dissenting views, Obama, Jr. makes an endless war against the opposing Republican Party. He triangles in the Republican Party between him and every unpopular issue, insisting that the Republicans are the reason for every problem. This allows him to try to destroy the dissenting party while he remains personally liked by most of the people who are low information and don't know any better.
 Our president is not like his father. He is like Kenayatta who broke his father. Obama Jr. is not following the dreams from Obama Sr. as you would think from the title of this book. To the contrary, he is rebelling against them and doesn't even realize it. Obama, Jr. writes about his father's dreams, but does the opposite. What a waste of two generations and two brilliant men! Peter Nickerson, Gainesville, Florida, 352-359-0850, peternickerson12@yahoo.com