Obama "compressed' but didn't hide that he did so

I still haven't read Obama's book, but it must be noted that in his book, he does state that he did compress a few girlfriends into one person - and he says this in the Introduction to the book, not the rear end of it.

(And Rush had just had a caller that mentioned Obama's girl friend. The only reason it came up was because the caller brought it up - why accept the call if you didn't want to talk about it - surely there were other callers you could have talked to? (In other words, a disengenuous comment from Rush)).

Since we're on this subject, I did not want to talk about it, but since it's come up now -- Obama and the "compressed" girlfriend -- we have some sound bites here from noted professionals in journalism and noted historians to try to explain this to us and to basically say, "Hey, that's just 'cause Obama's talented and he's really, really cool." Up first is Jake Tapper, who was on Good Morning America today. And this is a portion of his report about the new biography about Obama by David Maraniss and the revelations about his new girlfriend, Genevieve Cook.

TAPPER: Obama morphed a few interracial relationships into one composite in that book to discuss racial issues, providing few other details. Cook and Obama moved in together in 1984. She wrote of their love in her journals, and her concern about how guarded and controlled he was. "Distance, distance, distance, and wariness," she wrote. "The sexual warmth is definitely there, but the rest of it has sharp edges. His warmth can be deceptive. Though we speak sweet words and can be open and trusting, there is also that coolness." She tells him she loves him. His response? "Thank you."

RUSH: Well, it's better than "I know." (laughing)

It's better than saying, "I know."

"She tells him she loves him, and he says, 'Thank you.'"

Now, Obama was originally approached to write a book on race, and in fact he intended to write a series of essays on race based on his experiences. But he decided instead to write on the same subject in autobiographical form. So isn't it more than a little weird that his book on race would go to such lengths to skirt around the fact that he had a white girlfriend? Genevieve Cook was white, I think. Why hide that fact, since he was originally gonna write a book on race? But above and beyond that, here's Jacob Tapper, ace reporter at ABC, who's just now learning about this.

It took another journalist, Maraniss or Maraniss. (I've gotta figure out how to pronounce his name. I've known how he pronounces his name; I just don't remember. I'm not trying to purposely mispronounce it.) At any rate, David Maraniss. This stuff was all knowable four years ago. Isn't it striking how all these Obama-beat journalists are fascinated with this. They didn't know anything about it! It was right there in Obama's autobiography. They didn't know anything about it. Now that a fellow journalist has ripped the cover off of this, it's perfectly fine to talk about it.

So we move on to CBS This Morning. The guest is Rice University Professor of History Doug Brinkley and he's having a discussion with Charlie Rose about the report that Obama created a "composite" character made up of several real people in his autobiography Dreams From My Father. And Doug Brinkley says here (I kid you not; you'll hear it with your own ears) that Obama's autobiography was not meant to be factual. So everything's okay here. There's no reason for anybody to panic at what might appear to be compressed characters, composites, because Obama's autobiography was not meant to be factual.

ROSE: If it is different, does it matter? Because it's the difference between autobiography and biography.

BRINKLEY: Well, exactly. I mean, there's a lot of compression that President Obama used in his book. Some of the women that we read about now in the Vanity Fair piece were compressed by the president. But they're two different breeds, autobiography and history. David Maraniss is a very fine biographer. He's written excellent books on Roberto Clemente and Bill Clinton and many others. So he's credible. He's a longtime Washington Post reporter, and he's done the best job of really giving us the factual timeline of the president's Occidental College move to New York City and what he did in New York. Not just who his girlfriends are but how he was fighting for racial identity.

RUSH: "Fighting for racial identity."

What a courageous struggle, "fighting for racial identity." Because, of course, that's all that matters. (interruption) Well, I know, his mother was white and his father was black, so, "Who am I?" It matters, racial identity. But, you see, it is different. Charlie Rose says, "It really doesn't matter, does it? It's the difference between autobiography and biography?" and Doug Brinkley says, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah." Really? An autobiography is not meant to be factual? He's got the latitude and leeway here because he's Obama and we are the reviewers.

So Charlie Rose says, "Well, what comes across here, Doug, is the notion that this is a young man clearly with a remarkable ability -- remarkable talent, remarkable ability, Doug! But he was also ambitious. Really had a plan. He was looking to find his own way to the things he wanted to do, which I find not unusual for somebody of his talent."

BRINKLEY: Exactly! And a talent is what he was. Some of the letters and writing we see of Barack Obama is quite guarded. Uh, he's not putting himself up on the line. He's not exposing his personality. He's keeping a lot to himself. And we see that sort of aloofness sometimes with his presidential leadership. He's very Zen-like and self-contained now as president, and we see that even --

ROSE: Yeah, exactly.

BRINKLEY: -- at an early age, he was like that.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah! Exactly. He's so talented. He's so cool. He's just so "Zen-like." He's so aloof. He's so self-contained. He's in the midst of this racial struggle! It doesn't matter whether his autobiography is factual, because he's Barack Obama. So everything is okay now. What could have been a disaster (Oh, no! Oh, no! Obama wrote some stuff that isn't true in his autobiography!) we've got it covered now. We've fixed it. (interruption) I know. Nixon was "aloof" but he wasn't called "Zen-like." He was called paranoid. Nixon was called a psychological freak.

RUSH: Next time somebody that matters to you tells you that they love you, I want you to do what Obama does and say, "Thank you," and see what happens. Yeah, and then after that say, "I don't blame you."

"I love you."

"Thank you. I don't blame you."

That kind of says it all about the guy.