Did Obama Vote Communist in 1980?

An interesting column by our friend Paul Kengor at the American Spectator:

The best insight into Obama’s political thinking at that time is Dr. John Drew, who knew Obama at Occidental precisely then. Drew headed the campus Marxist organization, and Obama was introduced to him (by Drew’s girlfriend) as a fellow communist. I’ve interviewed Drew numerous times going back to 2007-8. I quote him at length in my book on Frank Marshall Davis, The Communist. Drew told me on-the-record about the moment he first met Obama, who was introduced to him as “one of us.”

“Obama was already an ardent Marxist when I met in the fall of 1980,” said Drew. “I know it’s incendiary to say this, but Obama was basically a Marxist-Leninist.” He underscored how Obama, in Dreams from My Father, candidly recalled attending “socialist conferences” and how he “hung out” with Marxist professors, but what Obama did not explain, noted Drew, is that he “was in 100 percent, total agreement with these Marxist professors.”

Thus, when I read last week that Obama’s CIA director had voted communist back in the day, I emailed John Drew, asking if he knew whether Obama himself had voted communist in 1980.

“I wish I knew,” Drew told me. “I hope someday you get to ask him and all this gets cleared up for future generations. For what it is worth, I voted for Carter.”

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