Obama's Missing Time at Columbia? Look to the Fall of 1981 and perhaps the Spring of 1982.

Some, like Pastor Manning, say Obama NEVER attended Columbia University.  The greatest missing timeline, when examined, appears to be the Spring Semester of 1982, when there is NO DATA that Barack was even in the city consistently, let alone even attended a single class.  But as we shall see, I think it may have been equally logical to say it was because he was battling getting off of drugs, as to speculate anything else in the absence of eyewitnesses and college transcripts.

I think a big problem with the Columbia years, that although Foxnews interviewed some 400 people that atended Columbia at the same time without a single recollection of the man, all we have is the blogger testimony by one singular guy named Phil whom Foxnews did NOT find and interview...but came out himself, and stated

http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb09/alumni_corner

that Obama had Campus access, hence a Columbia University Campus pass, and showered there...but little else. Incredulously, all he needs then, is a Gym Class for the Fall semester of 1981.

"We attended rallies on campus where we were urged to “draft beer, not people,” and discussed ..."


"The crowd we hung out with included ..."


"Barack listened ...and he was ..."


"We both transferred from Oxy to Columbia in fall 1981. "


"Barack has said that he spent a lot of time in the library while at Columbia ..."


"We also didn’t have regular hot water and sometimes used the Columbia gym for showers."


"One weekend I invited Barack to meet ..."


"After that first semester, we had to move. Barack tried to find an apartment for both of us, but was only able to find a studio for himself."


"Through different living arrangements in Astoria, Queens; Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; and all over Manhattan, we stayed in touch..."


"...in 1985,...He left for Chicago..."


"Barack wasn’t thinking about becoming President when he was in college; he wanted to be a writer. "


I would like to ask those that say Barack was a full time student at Columbia, by what proof? The roommate said Barack attended rallies on Campus, and took showers there, and that's it. No talks about the Student Union, or interactions with Campus anything (including students and others) there except at "rallies". The roommate says that Barack said he was at the Columbia Library alot. He means, that he never had to use the Library himself much if at all, and never once saw Barack at the Library to know for himself? In some classes I took in College, I was often withdrawing and returning upwards of some 6-8 books a week at 21 units in the semester. I find Barack's roomate and attitude that ends up to the effect that it was if he NEVER saw Barack in the Library he claimed to be at, as incredulous. I repeat, Barack's alleged Columbia University and closest Fall Semester 1981 witness is claiming that he never saw Obama on Campus other than at political rallies they attended together or when they took showers in the Campus Gym together. Is he kidding me?

We need to be focusing on precisely what Obama's roommate says, and DOES NOT specifically say about Campus Life in order to best reconstruct the testimony he claims to have and give about Barack's Campus Life and actual College attendance.  But for Phil, where would that be?  At "Oxy" where he saw Obama living out an actual campus dorm room.

In the article / blog at the NY Times
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/recollections-of-obamas-ex-roommate/

he does say that at Occidental, he and Barack had Dorm rooms directly opposite one another...so at least at "Oxy", there is the presumption of mutual full time status and Campus Class attendance. But getting back to Phil's first-hand blog:

It seems to me that he phrases Obama in the careful language of laying smoke, while de facto stating that Obama was more or less a Columbia University outsider for that semester, or perhaps (by the impression) one not even carrying more than Gym and perhaps one other class for the Fall of 1981, if even that much. That too, it seems to me, can be rationally inferred by Phil , and more rationally carried away by the language Phil uses, unless there was unit minimum to appear in the Campus Directory. Was there a unit minimum? . But, oh wait, that directory lists Obama A YEAR LATER in 1982-1983's school year. Ooops.

Oh Yeah...and Obama is alleged to have written one, just one article....in MARCH OF 1983! As it pertains to the Fall of 1981, we must say...so what?

Clearly, Obama probably did attend in 1982-1983 at Columbia...probably. But what about 1981-1982? That part, except for a probable Gym class at Columbia in the Fall of 1981, we simply have no right to expect he did anything more than that. So if people want to theorize about a lack of attendance , perhaps 1981-1982 would be a time, when like high school, Obama might be best speculated as having had a problem with drugs at that time (if we take in what he says in his ghost-written auto-biography).

So I understand why there are those who say he never attended, when realistically that claim is beginning to sound a bit more like something akin to what Oliver Stone might overlay in the same way he did with his JFK movie, specifically on Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans with the Printing House run by Ed Asner and Jack Lemmon's characters. It enters into a realm of questioning what is or is not fictitious about the man, and coming back with an answer that says: "without the transcripts and multi eyewitness testimony of those who attended classes with Obama...if any have...we simply don't and won't know." I think, for at least the Fall of 1981 to the Spring of 1982, it's probably more about Obama battling drug addiction than anything else...but again, we simply don't know.

In the NY Times, known repeatedly by scandals for intentional fiction writing
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/where-obama-lived-in-1980s-new-york/

the eyewitness is one to the neighborhood Barack claims to have lived in, and NOT Obama personally.

"Frank Neubauer, 73, who has lived all his life in the building except for two years in Brooklyn, confirmed Mr. Obama’s account that it was a rough place back then. "

Unfortunately, not once does Neubauer or the other person (Mr. Burns) ever confirm that Barack ever lived in the same building as they. It is the NY Times writer who infers without any facts or confirmation.