Obama - Democratic Strategist or clone?

Is it true that no one has ever come forward from Obama's past and said they knew him? I've heard this so many times but it really is too freaky to even contemplate. Not one former student can remember him from Columbia? Well, maybe we should ask Dr. Amitai Etzioni who was the lead professor of sociology at Columbia until 1984 if he knew Obama. (Chris? Can you call him back?) If he says he did not have Obama in ANY classes, then we can follow up with more questions, starting with the picture of him with Obama and the role John McKnight played in getting Obama into Harvard (does anyone remember him from there?)

Obama the Sociologist – Obama’s fundamental political strategy is based on a sophisticated sociological perspective that political scientists, campaign managers and even many progressives largely ignore.
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/2009/02/obama_the_sociologist_obamas_f.php

I used to think the idea of him being an Egyptian clone was funny. Not anymore. I was only at CSUC one semester and I can name many people I met there. I was at UMass for only 2 years and can name even more people I met there, including my academic advisor Prof Howard Ziff who remembered me after I was gone for 15 years. How are we supposed to believe nobody can remember Obama from Columbia? That's just nuts.

Smart Growth was the mandate for all the communitarian police actions taken against rental tenants in Seattle in 1999. The Washington State Growth Management Act was passed in 1990, 2 years before LA21 was introduced at Rio. Our neighborhood plans were based on the 1987 UN definition of "sustainability" and the lead City Agency, the DCLU, hasdas its Director a man who was also a presenter at Rio, with a company called Sustainable Seattle. I asked every one of the seven city, county and federal agencies working to implement Roosevelt's "vision" what their term "livability, quality of life, and sustainable" means. After numerous requests, the Department of Neighborhoods Director finally responded, in writing (aka "on the record") that the city had "no definition for these." No suprise this big affirmation was presented in Seattle. :)

BREAKING: Cabinet officials affirm committment to smart growth and livability at national conference

February 6th, 2010
By Steve Davis

A few of the record-breaking 1,700 attendees at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Seattle might have been pinching themselves on Thursday night after hearing three of President Obama’s cabinet secretaries emphasize the importance of smart growth, sustainability and livability as core goals shaping the work of their three massive federal agencies.

Demonstrating the Obama Administration’s commitment to making neighborhoods more livable, sustainable and affordable, Secretaries Ray Lahood and Shaun Donovan of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development came to Seattle to discuss their plans to use their giant agencies’ budgets and programs in unison to help American families in rural, suburban and urban communities have better options for affordable housing and getting where they need to go each day. Making sure that future growth in our towns and cities results in affordable homes in walkable neighborhoods close to places to work, shop or go to school means less money wasted on skyrocketing transportation costs — saving money for everyday Americans.

(Lahood and Donovan were joined by Assistant Administrator Mathy V. Stanislaus from the Environmental Protection Agency, filling in for EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who was unable to attend due to a conflict, but sent a video message for the conference recipients to watch.)

Secretary Ray LaHood made it clear that the federal government will be a powerful supporting partner in the work that all of us are doing across the country to ensure that the neighborhoods, communities and cities we call home are great places to live for decades to come. “You guys are the dreamers; the innovators — but we are going to partner with you to do this work,” he said.

Smart Growth America applauds HUD, DOT and EPA for the powerful message delivered by cabinet secretaries flying across the country to tell 1,700 planners, local officials, advocates and ordinary citizens that they’ll be making smarter growth and livability the norm and the standard — not the exception.