How Many Serious White Girlfriends Has Obama Had?

As you`ll recall, one of the most stylized, fable-like sections of the President`s Dreams from My Father is the when Obama describes to his half sister Auma the serious girlfriend he had in New York (where he lived from 1981-1985), whom he dumped because she was white, and not only white but old money WASP. As several commenters have noted, the whole episode sounds like it was lifted from a white ethnic writer like Mario Puzo or Philip Roth.

David Remnick`s bestseller The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama doesn`t mention the white New York girlfriend — that`s too interesting for Remnick to pursue. Remnick`s audience is primarily white women who have a bit of a thing for the President, so a discussion of Obama`s disquiet about interracial relationships would be a downer for Remnick`s readers.

But Remnick does say about his first Chicago stay (1985-1988):

“Toward the end of his time as an organizer, Obama had a steady girlfriend, a white University of Chicago student who was studying anthropology.”

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, she sounds much like his mom, who got accepted by the U. of Chicago at age 15 back when they took younger students (but she didn`t go) and got a Ph.D. in anthropology.

Second, according to his book, he had previously realized in New York that it wouldn`t work with a white girl, so why another white girlfriend? (This is assuming that they aren`t the same person, whom Obama has melded together for whatever reason). One might think that a 656 page biography might ask those kind of questions, but it doesn`t.