Obama: Not at his center fundamentally American?

Josh Green reports in The Atlantic that in March 2007 Hilary's former chief strategist, Mark Penn, wrote, "all of these articles about [Obama's] boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared toward showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050. ... It also exposes a very strong weakness for him -- his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values."

Obama was born in the United States (Honolulu). He has lived out of the country for only 4 years, from the age of 6 to the age of 10 with his mother and step-father in the latter's home country of Indonesia. Is it this that "limit[s] ... his roots to basic American values and culture"?

In contrast, his current opponent was born outside the United States (Panama), and spent at least 7 years "living" out of the country as an adult.


Penn apparently felt that not only Obama but anyone else raised in Hawaii and proud of having been part of its multi-ethnic and diverse culture is unqualified to be president -- at least until 2050.