Obama Born out of Wedlock?-Unproven!

Barack Obama was Born Out of Wedlock-Unproven!

Summary of eRumor:

The eRumor claims that Barack Obama has been concealing the fact that he was born out of wedlock.

The Truth:

The text of this forwarded email is from a news release about Andy Martin, an Illinois man who is releasing a book titled Obama: The Man Behind The Mask

The news release claims that Senator Obama’s father, Barack Obama Senior, and his mother, Anne Dunham, never married and that the senator has been lying about it for decades.

Andy Martin variously describes himself as a “Legendary Chicago muckraker”, “Legendary Chicago Internet columnist”, “internationally recognized expert on the Middle East”, “”talk show host”,”America’s most respected independent foreign policy and intelligence analyst”,”a leading corruption fighter in Illinois”, and a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.

Whether Obama was born out of wedlock does not affect his eligibility for the presidency but it could bring up a credibility issue if his parents were not married.  Obama has believed them to have been married and has said so on several occasions.

There is no good documentation that we know of that they were married or divorced.

Most notable among Obama’s comments about his parents’ marriage are quotes from his book, Dreams From My Father.

Here are excerpts:

Speaking of the appearance of his father in his mother’s life, Obama says, “At the point where my own memories begin, my mother had already begun a courtship with the man who would become her second husband.”

Again, speaking of his mother and father, “The girl’s parents, wary at first, were won over by his charm and intellect; the young couple married, and she bore them a son, to whom he bequeathed his name.”

“…self-knowledge, even if accessible, would have made my mother’s engagement any easier for him to swallow. In fact, how and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I’ve never quite had the courage to explore. There’s no record of a real wedding, a cake, a ring, a giving away of the bride. No families were in attendance; it’s not even clear that people back in Kansas were fully informed. Just a small civil ceremony, a justice of the peace. The whole thing seems so fragile… “

Obama’s mother told him that she and her father were married and also divorced, “It wasn’t your father’s fault that he left, you know. I divorced him. When the two of us got married, your grandparents weren’t happy with the idea. But they said okay…”

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Updated 3/24/08