By Wayne Allyn Root
My life has crossed paths with President Obama on multiple occasions. According to Obama, we were Columbia University classmates, both Pre Law and Political Science majors in the Class of ’83. I also ran against Obama in 2008 on the Libertarian Party Presidential ticket. What are the odds?
But something about “the Obama at Columbia story” has always bothered me. Earlier in the week right here at The Blaze I wrote about having just returned from New York, where I attended my 30th Columbia University reunion. I celebrated with my esteemed classmates. Everyone except Barack Obama. As usual- he wasn’t there. Not a trace. Not a video greeting. Not a letter. I could not find any classmates who knew him.
I called Obama “the Ghost of Columbia University.” I pointed out (as I’ve said in the media for many years now) that Obama may have been registered at Columbia, may have graduated from Columbia, but he was rarely (if ever) seen for the two years in-between. It’s a strange, mysterious and frightening story.
Is he the real-life “Manchurian Candidate?” What explains Obama having just enough skeletal proof that he was there (one photo, one roommate, one professor, one friend)…but never seen in a class, never on anyone’s radar screen, almost invisible. A total 2-year blackout. It’s like a story straight out of a novel about the CIA or KGB. He graduated Columbia, but it’s almost as if he never went there.
To make matters more mysterious, Obama’s college records are sealed. He’s had plenty of opportunities to authorize the release, to clear the air. He has never chosen to do so. But why? What has he got to hide? Funny enough Obama has never had a problem ripping open the sealed records of his political opponents. Every step of his career Obama has beaten his opponents by having sealed documents just happen to be publicly exposed by anonymous sources. But not Obama. His records are always unavailable (and never leaked). Obama always seems to have powerful forces on his side.
Did he attend Columbia as a foreign student? That was the educated guess I made in my appearance on “Hannity” on Fox News a year ago. The only photo of Obama from his Columbia days was in his off-campus apartment with a roommate described by USA Today as a Pakistani national, pot smoker, and cocaine abuser. If you’re a foreign student, you live in housing off-campus with other foreign students.
That would also explain how he transferred into Columbia. Transferring into an Ivy League school is all but impossible. I did a little digging and found out only 3 transfer students in all of America were accepted into Columbia in the past academic year. Three students out of 315 million Americans. Yet those who knew Obama at Occidental called him a pot smoker and partier who rarely attended class. You’re telling me that a poor student, with that record, at an average college, was accepted for transfer into prestigious Columbia University? Only if he was an exotic Indonesian foreign student transferring into a college that desperately wanted to claim an ethnically and globally diverse student body.
Still that might explain how Obama got into Columbia. But where was he for those two years? My gut instincts say something is wrong with “the Obama at Columbia story.” Very wrong. Rancid.
But until now, I was the only one publicly voicing my suspicions. That just changed in a big way. Meet Professor Henry Graff, perhaps the most legendary and honored professor ever at Columbia University. He was THE American History and Diplomatic History professor at Columbia for 46 years. And he is more emphatic than yours truly that there are no Obama footprints at Columbia.
I was put on Professor Graff’s trail by another Columbia classmate, skeptical about Obama’s story. He told me that Professor Graff had been the speaker for the Class of ’53 last weekend at Columbia. My friend was watching Graff answer questions from the crowd when he was asked about Obama at Columbia. Graff said, “I have my doubts he ever went here.”
I did some digging and located Graff’s home phone number. I called him yesterday. Now retired, he was delighted to hear from me. He agreed to go on the record about Obama. Unlike Obama, Professor Graff clearly remembered me. He was thrilled to hear from his former student. I was in several of Graff’s classes and he remembered me like it was yesterday. He sounded great- like he hasn’t lost any of his trademark sharpness in 30 years since we last met.
I was honored to learn that this legendary historian has been following my political career for many years. But he had no such cheery things to say about the President. Graff said, “I taught at Columbia for 46 years. I taught every significant American politician that ever studied at Columbia. I know them all. I’m proud of them all. Between American History and Diplomatic History, one way or another, they all had to come through my classes. Not Obama. I never had a student with that name in any of my classes. I never met him, never saw him, never heard of him.”
Even more importantly, Professor Graff knew the other history and political science professors. “None of the other Columbia professors knew him either” said Graff.
Graff concluded our interview by saying, “I’m very upset by the whole story. I am angry when I hear Obama called ‘the first President of the United States from Columbia University.’ I don’t consider him a Columbia student. I have no idea what he did on the Columbia campus. No one knows him.”
There is something wrong with Obama’s story- I know that. Many of my classmates at last weekend’s 30th reunion knew that. Now the most beloved Professor ever at Columbia joins us in publicly questioning the story. Obama is either the ghost of Columbia, or the perfect Manchurian candidate. But something smells rotten at Columbia.
Wayne Allyn Root is a Capitalist Evangelist, serial entrepreneur, and Libertarian-conservative media commentator. He is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He serves as Executive Vice Chairman of the Conservative Caucus in Washington DC. Wayne’s latest book is the National Bestseller: The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive and Prosper During Obamageddon. Wayne’s twitter: http://twitter.com/WayneRoot/

Trust My Government? Are you kidding?
Published at Town Hall on 6/14/13
By Wayne Allyn Root
I don’t trust my government as far as I can spit. And you shouldn’t either.
There I’ve said it. I love my country, but I don’t love our politicians or government bureaucrats. Why would I? History proves that people in government the world over are liars, cheats, frauds, incompetents, common criminals, tyrants, and even murderers. Yet you think I should trust them with my phone records, emails, tax records, and healthcare? If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Let’s not worry about the true despots of world history like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, or Pol Pot who enslaved and murdered their own people. Let’s ignore King George and the British generals who ordered American colonists burned alive in a locked church. Let’s ignore Southerners who whipped and hung black slaves for daring to want freedom. Let’s ignore all that serious and deadly stuff.
Let’s just look at recent history – SEO (Since Electing Obama):
Obama’s IRS persecuted honest people for the crime of being conservative critics of Obama, yet nominated proven tax cheats like Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis, and Ron Kirk to major positions in his administration. He also criticized Mitt Romney for keeping his money in the Cayman Islands, but then named Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary, even though Lew keeps his money in the Cayman Islands. Do you trust these cheats and hypocrites to monitor your taxes, oversee yoir healthcare, or listen to your phone calls?
Obama and Hillary lied about Benghazi, ordered Susan Rice to lie to the media for 2 weeks, then Obama even lied about the terrorist attack multiple times in front of the United Nations.
It now appears Hillary Clinton ordered a cover up of a prostitution scandal in her own State Department.
General James Clapper lied in front of Congress about the NSA surveillance program.
The head of the IRS lied in front of Congress about the scandal involving the targeting of conservatives. I know- I’m one of the victims that was targeted.
Obama claims he knew nothing about IRS persecution- even though he visited with the head of the IRS 157 times in his first term…and even though Obama met with the head of the IRS employees union the day before the targeting began. Liar.
Attorney General Eric Holder appears to have lied under oath about spying on journalists- including James Rosen of Fox News (and his parents). Holder said he knew nothing about it, while he was the one signing the request for surveillance.
Then there’s the scandals themselves. The IRS scandal. The Benghazi scandal. The Justice Department media spying scandal. The Kathleen Sebelius Obamacare extortion scandal.
These scandals all tie together. They represent “Government Gone Wild.” Our government is out of control. It is run by meglo-maniacs and control freaks, who lie with impunity. Everything is always “top secret” and “on a need to know basis.” And only they need to know. They will take care of us and protect us- whether we like it or not, want it or not, ask for it or not, need it or not.
Personally, I think the group we need protecting from is government.
I don’t want the same government employees who at the IRS decided to persecute conservatives like me, to be in charge of surveillance over my phone calls and emails. If I’m an outspoken critic of Obama, will they decide to listen in on my calls with the intent of finding a reason to persecute me? If I run for office as a Republican, will they be listening in to my calls to find dirt on me? Will they be reading my emails to find out my campaign strategy?
I don’t want the same government employees who at the IRS decided to persecute conservatives like me, to be in charge of Obamacare. When I need approval for expensive cancer treatments, will they withhold approval, or delay reimbursements until I die? Will they simply make my life miserable, while I’m dealing with a life-threatening illness? Will they run “targeted Death Panels” by denying treatment to critics of Obama?
I don’t want the government educators who recently held a “toy gun buyback program” at a California school teaching my children. Yes, I said a “TOY gun buyback program.” They asked young children to turn in their toy guns in return for books. Any educator who thought up that program shouldn’t be in charge of teaching children anything.
When I publicly criticize the obscene pensions of government employees that are bankrupting our country, should I trust that angry government employees won’t target, persecute, and spy on me? Or put me in prison on trumped up charges?
Should I assume that the same Obama administration that labeled Ron Paul supporters as “terrorists” and suggested law enforcement pay special attention, won’t target Rand Paul supporters for destruction by listening to calls, reading their emails, or auditing their tax returns?
Should we assume the government won’t listen in on the privileged conversations of lawyers and ACLU executives to gain an edge in a high-profile trial?
Do you honestly believe that if government wants to silence your criticism and dissent, they’ll wait for a warrant to listen to your calls? iBased on what we’ve seen with the IRS scandal, I’d expect our government to target conservatives’ conversations and emails, then only after finding something they label as “questionable,” ask a judge for a warrant.
What next? Looking through our garbage, tearing open our envelopes at the post office, planting video surveillance or recording devices inside planters placed at our homes and offices- something the IRS was shopping for only days ago, until public pressure shut it down.
Based on the IRS scandal, the Justice Department scandal, the Benghazi cover-up, the Sebilius extortion scandal, the nonstop lies (often under oath) of government employees and even political leaders, why would anyone trust government “to do the right thing?” If you’re smart, you should assume they’ll almost always do the wrong thing.
Trust government? Trust the IRS? Trust the NSA? Trust Obama?
You’re kidding, right?
Wayne Allyn Root is a Capitalist Evangelist, serial entrepreneur, and Libertarian-conservative media commentator. He is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He serves as Executive Vice Chairman of the Conservative Caucus in Washington DC. Wayne’s latest book is the National Bestseller: The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive and Prosper During Obamageddon. Wayne’s twitter: http://twitter.com/WayneRoot/