Was the step-father an oil executive with a well-paid job? If that's the case, it mightn't fit into that story of penury and deprivation. Granny Dunham was the Vice-President of a bank. It looks to me that Barack had quite a cushy life and a further boon to him would have been the fact that Hawaii is multi-racial.

No, Obama's stepfather was a student in Hawaii when he was summoned home early following the deposing of Sukarno by Suharto in Indonesia. The resultant political changes put Obama's stepfather on the outer and he led a frustrated and embittered life. Obama was only with him for a small number of years. I can't remember exactly how many, but certainly he was back in Hawaii with his grandparents by the age of 10.

It is true that he led a reasonably comfortable life materially in Hawaii with his grandparents, but his autobiography suggests that he had a continuous struggle with his racial identity, Hawaii's multi-racial population notwithstanding.

I am puzzled by your tone and also by why you replied to me a second time when I only replied to you once.

I never accused you of being "obsessed with Obama's 'pedigree'". I didn't make any reference to obsession or pedigree or anything like it.

As to Obama's stepfather, the details are all in his book, Dreams from My Father, but I have loaned out my copy so can't refresh my memory. The stepfather had a job, but it wasn't the high paying job he had anticipated (my vague memory is that he trained as an engineer but couldn't get a job as one). The family's fortunes were evidently tied to the Sukarno regime. Whether that was because they were ardent supporters of Sukarno or merely failed to show ardent support for Suharto or just what I don't know. Regardless, Obama's life with his stepfather was not privileged.

The reason for this emphasis on Obama's Kenyan roots is because they were an important part of his search for his identity. He went to Kenya to get to know his Kenyan relatives, he had many of them as guests at his marriage, and he continues to maintain contact with them. It is all in his book. I suggest you read it.

The Obama campaign is so tightly controlled by Mephistopheles Axelrod that the American media only allows people know what can enhance Barack's exotic appeal as the child of an African father and an American mother. The fact that Barack has another brother of African and American lineage living in China has been suppressed. An innocent explanation would be that it takes away from Barack's uniqueness and makes his "dreams" more mundane.

You need to get your head out of your arse. Obama's family is described in painful detail in his book, Dreams from My Father, including this half-brother Mark who Obama met when on the trip to Kenya that I mentioned previously.

Your paranoid nonsense is really tiresome. Nothing has been hidden and there is nothing the slightest bit sinister about the complex and diverse nature of Obama's family. He also has a half-sister who taught at university and another half-brother in the export business and countless other relatives with all sorts of other jobs (or no job at all) and all sorts of personalities. If you could get your head out of your arse long enough to read Obama's book, then Obama's uniqueness might be obvious even to someone with your fevered brain.

To all those "too much information" people and all those "she is boasting" people, the point is that there is now, as there has often been, a debate about appropriate sexual behaviour and many people feel a great deal of pressure to conform to a particular standard. Hearing some honest discussion from someone who seems to have her life together is a useful input into that debate.

There are plenty of people declaring that anyone who follows their preferred path is assured of happiness, whereas those following a different path are on the road to misery. But happiness can be found along many paths, and misery may be found just a little way off any of them.

But I think there are also rational Democrats still shaking their heads over how the civil-rights-championing Clintons were turned into racist white scapegoats.

No there aren't, because it never happened. Sure, there were accusations of racism thrown around, just as there were accusations of sexism. None of that amounted to the Clintons being "turned into racist white scapegoats".

The grown ups have gotten over the sniping from both sides and moved on. Time for you to do so too.

What has got Bill Clinton really pissed off is that his wife lost. That, I'm afraid, can't be helped.

I don't consider these PUMAs post-meopausal freaks, as Joan puts it, but I do think they are sore losers...Post menopausal freaks, no; impossible persons, yes. It is not the way Obama won, but the fact that their idol lost that alienates them, and I doubt any conciliatory move Obama might make at this point will spare him the electoral consequences of their self-righteous embitterment.

You nailed it.