Mediaboss Marketing

Barack Obama's presidency

President Barack Obama attends the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in March 2014 in the Hague, Netherlands. As his presidency winds down, here's a look at some key moments of his administration.

Barack Obama's presidency

Michelle Obama brushes specks from the coat of then-Sen. Obama inside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, just before he announced his candidacy for president of the United States in February 2007. Their daughters Malia, left, and Sasha wait in the foreground.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama appears on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, right, in Des Moines, Iowa, in November 2007.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama shakes hands with supporters after addressing a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, in January 2008.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama gives a speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in March 2008.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama speaks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama stands on stage in Chicago, Illinois, with his family after defeating Republican presidential candidate John McCain on November 4, 2008.

Barack Obama's presidency

Left to right: Presidents George H. W. Bush, Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter pose for photos in the Oval Office in January 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama is sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as the 44th President of the United States on the West Front of the Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

As retired military officers stand behind him, Obama signs an executive order to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in January 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden look at solar panels as they tour the solar array at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on February 17, 2009. That same day, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Barack Obama's presidency

A soldier hugs Obama during his surprise visit to Camp Victory just outside Baghdad, Iraq, in April 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama kisses Sonia Sotomayor's cheek after announcing her as his nominee for justice on the Supreme Court in May 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Palestinian security forces in Jenin, West Bank, listen to Obama speak from Cairo University in Egypt in June 2009. The Palestinian Authority hailed as a "good beginning" Obama's speech to the Muslim world in which he reiterated his support for a Palestinian state.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City in July 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama hosts the Apollo 11 astronauts, from left to right, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong in the Oval Office on July 20, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.

Barack Obama's presidency

Police Sgt. James Crowley, second right, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, speaks with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., second left, alongside Obama and Biden as they share beers on the South Lawn of the White House in July 2009. In an effort to curb controversy, the so-called "Beer Summit," was held after Crowley arrested Gates at his own home which sparked tensions and racial furor.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama salutes during the transfer of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, in October 2009. Obama traveled to the base to meet the plane carrying the bodies of 18 U.S. personnel killed in Afghanistan on October 26, including Griffin.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama walks along the Great Wall of China in November 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama delivers a speech after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, in December 2009.

Barack Obama's presidency

Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Bush walk to the Rose Garden to speak about relief efforts for earthquake-stricken Haiti in January 2010.

Barack Obama's presidency

First daughters Sasha and Malia Obama play in the snow with their father in the Rose Garden during a snowstorm that hit Washington in February 2010.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama's signature on the Affordable Healthcare Act is seen at the White House in March 2010.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama throws out the opening pitch before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals on Opening Day at Nationals Park in Washington in April 2010.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama and daughter, Sasha, swim at Alligator Point in Panama City Beach, Florida, in August 2010, in an effort to encourage people to come back to the Gulf Coast after the devastating oil spill.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama laughs as he makes a statement on his birth certificate in April 2011. Obama said he was amused over conspiracy theories about his birthplace, and said the media's obsession with the "sideshow" issue was a distraction in a "serious time."

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama, Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team receive live updates in the Situation Room of the White House on the mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.

Barack Obama's presidency

U.S. Marines of Regiment Combat Team 1 watch from Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan as Obama announces the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama enjoys a pint of Guinness in his ancestral home of Moneygall, Ireland, in May 2011.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama, left, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, meet with Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at Buckingham Palace in London in May 2011.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon walk together in May 2011 during a tour of the devastation of Joplin, Missouri, after it was hit by tornado with winds over 200 mph.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama delivers remarks to troops and military families at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on December 14, 2011, marking the exit of U.S. soldiers from Iraq.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama pays for a dog toy as he shops with his dog Bo at a Petsmart in Alexandria, Virginia, in December 2011.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in April 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others watch the overtime shootout of the Champions League final soccer match between Chelsea and Bayern Munich in the Laurel Cabin conference room at Camp David, Maryland, during a G8 Summit in May 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama casts a shadow in this picture as he accepts the 2012 Democratic nomination for president during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in September 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Obama participate in the first presidential debate of the 2012 election in Denver, Colorado, in October 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama celebrates on stage in Chicago after defeating Romney on Election Day November 6, 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama pauses during his speech at a memorial service in Newtown, Connecticut, for the victims and relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012.

Barack Obama's presidency

Hundreds of thousands gather at the U.S. Capitol building as Obama is inaugurated for his second term on January 21, 2013.

Barack Obama's presidency

Israeli President Shimon Peres, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, stand with Obama during an arrival ceremony for Obama at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, in March 2013.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama adjusts an umbrella held by a Marine during a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House in May 2013.

Barack Obama's presidency

Jay Leno interviews Obama on "The Tonight Show" in August 2013.

Barack Obama's presidency

White House press secretary Jay Carney fields questions from reporters during a daily press briefing at the White House in September 2013 after Obama's push for Congressional approval for limited military strikes against the Syrian government.

Barack Obama's presidency

Actor and comedian Zach Galifianakis interviews Obama during his appearance on "Between Two Ferns," a digital video series with a laser focus on reaching people aged 18 to 34. The President urged young people to sign up for the new health care plan in the video posted on the website Funny or Die.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama walks to the Oval Office on August 7, 2014, the same day he announced the beginning of air strikes on ISIS.

Barack Obama's presidency

Obama speaks to the nation from the Cabinet Room of the White House about normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba in December 2014.

Barack Obama's presidency

Left to right: House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner listen as Obama speaks during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on January 13, 2015.

Barack Obama's presidency

President Barack Obama takes a selfie with podcast host Mark Maron after being a guest on his show "WTF with Marc Maron" in Los Angeles on June 22, 2015.

Excerpt from:
Obama invites clock-making teen to White House ...

Current job: U.S. senator from Illinois

Birth date: August 4, 1961; Honolulu, Hawaii

Family: Married Michelle Robinson (1992-present); Children: Sasha (2001) and Malia Ann (1999)

Religion: Christian

Education: Columbia University, B.A., 1983; Harvard University, J.D., 1991

Campaign Web site: http://www.barackobama.com

1997-2005: Illinois state senator, representing the 13th District.

2000: Ran for a U.S. House seat but lost primary to former Black Panther Bobby Rush.

July 27, 2004: Delivered keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

November 2004: Won the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, defeating Alan Keyes. It was the first time in history a Senate general election race was between two African-American candidates.

Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for best spoken album for his reading of "Dreams From My Father." In his 1995 autobiography, Obama confessed to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine as a teenager.

In 2006, he toured five African countries, including a visit to Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya, his late father's hometown.

He was the first African American to be president of the Harvard Law Review.

View post:
CNN - Election Center 2008: Barack Obama

EtymologyEdit

Obama means "little beach" in Japanese.[1]

In the Ritsury period, Obama was the capital of Wakasa Province, one of entrance of continental culture. Many temples related to the Yamato Dynasty are located in Obama, and the city is called "Nara by the sea".

In the Edo period, Obama was the capital of the Obama Domain and was the starting point of the Mackerel Road to Kyoto.

As a result of its location in the Wakasa Province area, which travelers passed through when traveling between China and Kyoto, the area was influenced by Chinese culture for a long period. There are many buildings and houses in the Sancho-machi area of the city whose design was influenced by trade with the Chinese mainland.[2]

The area was established as a city on March 30, 1951 although the area has been inhabited for centuries. Otojir Uratani is currently the mayor of Obama.

Obama is one of the locations where Japanese citizens were abducted by North Korean agents on July 7, 1978.[3][4]

Fishing used to be the main industry, but now it is mostly supported by tourism.[1] Wakasa lacquered chopsticks, agate accessories, and other crafts are made in the area.[5]

Fukui Prefectural University is located in Obama and has been operating only since 1992.[6] However, in this short period, the university's Research Center for Marine Bioresources has been noted for its research of preservation and in the fields of fish embryogenesis, aquaculture stock enhancement, fish disease, and microalgeal bloom.[7] The university also has schools (faculties) of Economics, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Biotechnology, and others.[8] Medical research is done at the Obama Community Hospital.[9][10] Obama is also home to the Wakasa branch of the Fukui Prefectural Library.

The Omizu-okuri (Water Carrying) Festival is held every March 2 on which water is drawn from the Onyu River and presented to the principal image of the temple. This annual event dates back more than 1,200 years.[5] Local tourist attractions include the Myotsu-ji Temple and the surrounding Karesansui Garden.[2] The Wakasa Historical and Folk Museum is housed in a large, modern facility. Obama is also home to Hosshinji, a working Zen monastery.[11]

Obama has sister and friendship relationships with the following cities.[12]

The city of Obama has received much publicity because it shares its name with U.S. President Barack Obama. It began when Obama as a Senator gave a 2006 interview to Japanese television network TBS where he noted that, when passing through customs in Narita Airport, the official who inspected his visa said that he was from Obama.[13] The Obama City Hall heard about the interview and the mayor, Toshio Murakami, sent Senator Obama a set of the citys famous lacquer chopsticks, a DVD about the city and a letter wishing him the best. As Senator Obama's presidential campaign progressed, more local businesses began to organize primary parties and put up "Go Obama!" posters, sell "I love Obama" T-shirts, and produce manj (a type of Japanese confectionery) with Senator Obama's face on them. A hula group began in the town in honour of Senator Obama's home state of Hawaii. The troupe visited Honolulu in June to perform at the Pan Pacific Festival.[14]

President Obama has since thanked the town for their gifts and support, saying "I look forward to a future marked by the continued friendship of our two great nations and a shared commitment to a better, freer world".[15]

There are a number of Japanese with the surname Obama. Though the American President is of Kenyan Luo heritage, it is not uncommon for Japanese and East African names to sound alike. Additionally, some Japanese report that the Swahili language is far easier to learn than English.[16][17]

As a result of the victory by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, the Mayor of Obama City announced to the Japanese press that he intends to commission a statue of Barack Obama to be put in front of the city hall "as a token of the great historical moment for the name Obama".[18]

On January 20, 2009, the day that Barack Obama was sworn into office, the city of Obama celebrated the inauguration with women dancing the hula at the Hagaji Temple.[19]

On November 14, 2009, President Obama specifically acknowledged his connection with Obama by mentioning it and its citizens in a speech at Suntory Hall in Tokyo.[20]

Read more from the original source:
Obama, Fukui - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claim: Barack Obama is a "radical Muslim" who "will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance." Example: [Collected via e-mail, January 2008] If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts...this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States...better heed this and pray about it and share it.

Who is Barack Obama?

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school." Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical.

Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. ALSO, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office he DID NOT use the Holy Bible, but instead the Koran.

Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches.

Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.

The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!

Barack Obama has an unusual and interesting background, which the above-quoted piece draws on to paint him as a dangerous, camouflaged radical Muslim.

Claim: Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

Barack Hussein Obama (Senator Obama's father) was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Alego, Kenya. He met and married an American woman, Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas, while they were both attending the University of Hawaii. Their son, also named Barack Hussein Obama, was born on 4 August 1961 at the Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. (News accounts have also variously reported his birth as having occurred at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.)

Although the elder Obama was raised as a Muslim, no evidence supports the claim that he was ever a "radical Muslim," and Senator Obama's family histories note that his father was an atheist or agnostic (i.e., no longer a practicing Muslim) by the time he married the younger Obama's mother. Of his mother's religious views, Senator Obama wrote:

This isn't to say that she provided me with no religious instruction. In her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. But I was made to understand that such religious samplings required no sustained commitment on my part. Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of the many ways and not necessarily the best way that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives.

In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist she would become; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well.

Barack Obama's parents separated when he was two years old, his father moving to Connecticut to continue his education before returning to Kenya. When the younger Obama was six years old, his mother married again, this time to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian oil manager. Barack and his mother moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama spent 4-5 years attending both Muslim and Catholic schools before his mother sent him back to the United States to live with his maternal grandmother. The school Barack Obama attended in Indonesia was "Muslim" primarily in the sense that the preponderance of its student body was Muslim (because Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country), but both the Muslim and Catholic schools he attended in Indonesia offered a few hours of religious instruction each week.

In his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama elaborated on his early schooling, explaining that he attended both Catholic and Muslim schools in Indonesia not out of any particular religious affiliation, but because his mother wanted him to obtain the best education possible under the circumstances:

During the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominantly Muslim school; in both cases, my mother was less concerned with me learning the catechism or puzzling out the meaning of the muezzin's call to evening prayer than she was with whether I was properly learning my multiplication tables.

Barack Obama never stated that he "was once a Muslim" (radical or otherwise), so his "handlers" have nothing to "conceal." Obama communications director Robert Gibbs noted that "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim. As a six-year-old in Catholic school, he studied the catechism." Barack Obama has been associated with the United Church of Christ since the mid-1980s, describes himself as a Christian, and says that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition."

Claim: Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education.

As noted above, Barack Obama's parents divorced when he was only two years old, and his father then moved thousands of miles away, from Hawaii to Connecticut, so he couldn't have received much of an "introduction to Islam" from his (biological) father:

At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more and less than a man. He had left Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two years old, so that as a child I knew him only through the stories that my mother and grandparents told.

Claim: Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

The claim that Obama attended a radical Wahabbist school in Indonesia in the mid-1960s is exceedingly far-fetched, given that:

The large Indonesian community resident in Mecca was a medium through which knowledge about Wahhabism reached Indonesia, but the community itself appears to have remained virtually immune to Wahhabi influences. In reality there was little direct influence of Wahhabism on Indonesian reformist thought until the 1970s.

He visited the Basuki school, which Obama attended from 1969 to 1971.

"This is a public school. We don't focus on religion," Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told Vause. "In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment."

Vause reported he saw boys and girls dressed in neat school uniforms playing outside the school, while teachers were dressed in Western-style clothes.

"I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Vause said on the 'Situation Room.' "I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that."

Vause also interviewed one of Obama's Basuki classmates, Bandug Winadijanto, who claims that not a lot has changed at the school since the two men were pupils. Insight reported that Obama's political opponents believed the school promoted Wahhabism, a fundamentalist form of Islam, "and are seeking to prove it."

"It's not (an) Islamic school. It's general," Winadijanto said. "There is a lot of Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian. ... So that's a mixed school."

"SDN Menteng 1 is a public primary school that is open to people of all faiths," said the spokesman, Sutopo, who goes by only one name. "Moreover, he studied earlier at Fransiskus Assisi, which is clearly a Catholic school."

Obama later transferred to SDN Menteng 1 the elite, secular elementary school at the center of the controversy. The school is public but is very competitive and has exceptionally high standards. It is located in one of the most affluent parts of Jakarta and attracts mostly middle- to upper-class students, among them several of former dictator Suharto's grandchildren.

Indonesia is home to several of the most radical Islamic schools in Southeast Asia, some with alleged terrorist links. But Akmad Solichin [the vice principal at SDN Menteng 1], who proudly pointed to a photo of a young Barry Obama, as he was known, said his school is not one of them.

All of the claims about Senator Obamas faith and education raised in the Insight Magazine story and repeated on Fox News are false. Senator Obama was raised in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother. Obamas stepfather worked for a U.S. oil company, and sent his stepson to two years of Catholic school, as well as two years of public school.

To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago. Furthermore, the Indonesian school Obama attended in Jakarta is a public school that is not and never has been a Madrassa.

As noted above, Barack Obama describes himself as "a Christian," says that he is "rooted in the Christian tradition," and his association with the United Church of Christ began over twenty years ago, long before he contemplated a political career. (Obama was first elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996, but he has been involved with the United Church of Christ since the mid-1980s.) The beginnings of Obama's relationship with the church were described in an April 2004 Chicago Sun-Times article:

The politician could have ended his spiritual tale right there, at the point some people might assume his life changed, when he got "saved," transformed, washed in the blood. But Obama wants to clarify what truly happened.

"It wasn't an epiphany," he says of that public profession of faith. "It was much more of a gradual process for me. I know there are some people who fall out. Which is wonderful. God bless them ... I think it was just a moment to certify or publicly affirm a growing faith in me."

These days, he says, he attends the 11 a.m. Sunday service at Trinity in the Brainerd neighborhood every week or at least as many weeks as he is able. His pastor, Wright, has become a close confidant.

So how did he become a churchgoer?

It began in 1985, when he came to Chicago as a $13,000-a-year community organizer, working with a number of African-American churches in the Roseland, West Pullman and Altgeld Gardens neighborhoods that were trying to deal with the devastation caused by shuttered steel plants.

"I started working with both the ministers and the lay people in these churches on issues like creating job-training programs, or after-school programs for youth, or making sure that city services were fairly allocated to underserved communities," he says. "And it was in those places where I think what had been more of an intellectual view of religion deepened.

"I became much more familiar with the ongoing tradition of the historic black church and its importance in the community. And the power of that culture to give people strength in very difficult circumstances, and the power of that church to give people courage against great odds. And it moved me deeply."

This statement is completely false. It is a mistaken reference to a different politician, Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison, not Barack Obama.

Claim: Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts, Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches.

Senator Obama drew some criticism over a photograph that showed him standing without his hand over his heart during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, but the claim that he "will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance" is false.

During the Democratic candidates' debate on 15 January 2008, Senator Obama directly refuted the three primary rumors about him that are circulating via e-mail: that he is a Muslim, that he was sworn in to Congress on the Quran, and that he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance:

Follow this link:
snopes.com: Who Is Barack Obama?

Story highlights

President Barack Obama was ostensibly returning to the site of the first-in-the-nation caucuses to promote his higher education agenda. But during his short stop here, the undercurrent of the state's full-swing campaign season was unavoidable -- even as Obama himself said he couldn't keep track of all the candidates.

Asked during a town hall which presidential candidate was selling the best plan for making college more affordable, Obama demurred, claiming he wasn't yet ready to wade into sticky presidential politics. But he said he wouldn't say silent on the race forever.

"I can't tell you who to vote for, at least just not right now," he said. "Later I will."

Without naming any of the Republicans vying for the GOP nomination, Obama made clear he disagreed with many of their plans to fund higher education, saying the resources behind their proposals weren't sufficient.

And while he said he wasn't endorsing a candidate, he did chasten Republicans who he said were fueling an "anti-immigrant sentiment" in the political discourse.

Such rhetoric "is contrary to who we are," he said. "Unless you are a Native American, your family came from someplace else."

Obama wasn't the only high-profile Democrat in Iowa on Monday: Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state, was 125 miles away in Cedar Falls.

They didn't cross paths, and even when questioned by a student who identified herself as an intern on Clinton's campaign, Obama didn't take the opportunity to praise her policy positions or record.

He also avoided weighing in on a proposal by Clinton's main rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, to make all public college tuition free.

His reluctance to step into the Democratic nominating contest can be explained by the undecided Vice President Joe Biden, who hasn't yet said whether he's running for president. Obama may endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary, the White House has said.

In his town hall Monday, Obama at times waxed nostalgic about the state that helped launch his improbable bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination, saying as he landed at the Des Moines airport the number of hotel points gleaned from long-term stays at a nearby Hampton Inn could qualify him for a least a few free nights.

In recent days, Obama has lambasted Republicans running for their party's nomination on topics like the economy and climate change, saying they'd take the country in the wrong direction if elected to the White House.

He's eager to remain relevant in the current political conversation, even as the race to replace him consumes more and more of the spotlight. And while he wasn't stumping for any particular candidate in Des Moines, his message on making college more affordable fit squarely within the Democratic messaging that candidates like Sanders and Clinton have been extolling.

"A society's values are reflected in where we put out time, our effort and our money. It's not sufficient for us to just say we care about education," he said, arguing that federal resources were needed to increase graduation rates and improve the quality of teaching.

The White House claims the decision to travel to Iowa wasn't made with political motivations; instead, they say the Department of Education put a pin on the state while planning the back-to-school bus tour the Education Secretary Arne Duncan embarks upon yearly.

But there are plenty of places Obama could have traveled to to underscore his administration's efforts in reducing student debt. On Monday, he announced that students applying for federal financial aid will be able to submit the required form -- the FAFSA -- in October, rather than later in January. He also said his administration had worked to simplify the form so it only takes twenty minutes to complete.

Obama's trip Monday won't be the only time this week the White House lands in a hub of presidential politics.

Biden plans to travel to Southern California on Wednesday to promote the administration's climate change agenda -- just as the Republican presidential candidates convene up the road for their second debate, hosted by CNN, at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.

Like Obama, Biden hasn't been shy in blasting Republicans for doing little to curb carbon emissions.

See the rest here:
Obama slams GOP candidates' anti-immigrant rhetoric ...