Barack Obama during his days as a student at Columbia University in New York City |
TEL AVIV – President Obama, who has refused to release his college transcripts, yesterday divulged his daughter Malia scored a 73 on a sixth-grade science test.
Obama went into unusual detail about Malia's 73, telling a Wisconsin school audience his 11-year-old daughter recently "became depressed," explaining that in the Obama household "our goal is 90 percent and up" on school tests.
Obama said Malia complained her test differed from the class science study guide but that after changing her habits, she scored a 95 on the next science test. He quoted Malia saying, "I like having knowledge."
"In our household with the privileges and opportunities we have, there are times when the kids slack off," Obama said. "Part of our job as parents is not just to tell the kids what to do, but to instill in them a sense that they want to do it themselves."
Obama used his daughter's test scores to make the point that "parents must set a high bar in the household."
The president's disclosure of Malia's test scores, notes columnist Michelle Malkin, contrasts with his refusal to release his college transcripts.
Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before transferring to Columbia in 1981. It has been confirmed Obama graduated from Columbia in 1983 with a major in political science and that he did not receive honors, but further information, including transcripts, is sealed by the university.
In his 1995 memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Obama goes into detail about certain periods of his life, including his early education and his days at Harvard Law School, where he led the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. But he just barely touches on his Columbia days.
Obama wrote he "spent a lot of time in the library. I didn't socialize that much. I was like a monk."
He then immediately moved on to a general philosophical discussion about race in New York, but he didn't return to his Columbia experience nor mention any associations with friends or professors at the university.
It is known Obama lived off-campus with a roommate identified as "Sadik," who was not a Columbia student. Obama describes Sadik as "a short, well-built Pakistani" who smoked marijuana and snorted cocaine.
The AP tracked down "Sadik," whose real name is Sohale Siddiqi. Obama first met him when the two attended Occidental and Obama was living with a group of Pakistani students.
"We were both very lost," Siddiqi told the AP of his days in New York with Obama. "We were both alienated, although he might not put it that way. He arrived disheveled and without a place to stay."
Obama had traveled to Pakistan with his college friends, staying there for three weeks in 1981 at a time Pakistan was under military rule and it was difficult for U.S. citizens to travel to the country. WND previously exposed information indicating Obama may have been an Indonesian citizen.
His Columbia days are particularly mysterious because there is almost no trace of him among students who attended the same year and studied the same major.
Fox News contacted some 400 of his classmates and found no one who remembered him.
Wayne Allyn Root, the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in 2008, previously told WND he graduated from Columbia the same day as the president with the same major, yet he never spoke to a single former Columbia student or faculty member who remembered Obama.
Root speculates Obama is keeping his Columbia transcript under wraps to conceal a less-than-stellar record, which would raise questions as to how he was accepted to Harvard.
Root said at Columbia he personally achieved a B+ average with a good score on the Law School Admittance Test, but he says he was told he would not be accepted to any Ivy League graduate school.
"Yet, Barack was accepted to Harvard Law School. Was it because of his grades, test scores and college record? Or, was it because of the color of his skin?" asked Root.
WND reported Northwestern University professor John L. McKnight – a renowned disciple of the late socialist agitator Saul "The Red" Alinsky – wrote a letter of recommendation for Obama when he applied to Harvard Law School.
A September 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed noted, "Some think his transcript, if released, would reveal Mr. Obama as a mediocre student who benefited from racial preference."
But the Journal pointed out Obama later graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, proving "he knows how to get good grades." Obama has said he was involved with the Black Students Organization on campus, but students active then have stated they don't remember him.
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