He is undergoing what some have called the Profile Primary -- which is testing his ability to keep control of his public image, as journalists sketch portraits of the candidate as a young man and comb for contradictions and potential embarrassments in his past. Like Obama, Topolinski had to straddle a racial divide. The three men - Mike Ramos (right), Bobby Titcomb (not pictured) and Greg Orme (left) - are among the few people still in Obama's life who knew him long before he was famous. But, said Mr. Ramos, who is in the process of a divorce, We probably spent more time talking about my situation than we did about his., Visits With School Pals Are a Touchstone on Presidents Trips to Hawaii, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/us/politics/visits-with-school-pals-are-a-touchstone-on-presidents-trips-to-hawaii.html, opposite sides of the debate over crime and policing, prohibiting the use of the gender-neutral term in government documents, an array of forces has bolstered this groups presence in Congress and state legislatures. "But he wanted to remain at Punahou. For the past two weeks, he has been recharging on Oahu after an unpleasant year in the job. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy. Throughout his youth, as depicted in his first book, he always found ways to meld into even the most uninviting of communities. To them, the characteristics Obama displayed on the hardwood as one of the Sons of Oahu were evident in the way he handled the daunting responsibilities as leader of the free world. ---------- Kirsten Scharnberg reported from Honolulu and Kim Barker from Jakarta, Indonesia; Tribune staff reporter Ray Gibson contributed to this report. Madelyn Dunham, a rising executive at the Bank of Hawaii during Obama's Punahou days, was more reserved but seemed to love having her grandson's friends over to play and hang out. But Orme is a hard man to find. But Kakugawa, a convicted drug felon, said Saturday that he had never been the "prototypical angry black guy" that Obama portrays. In a striking snapshot with his grandparents, Stanley smiles proudly while Madelyn hugs him fiercely, as though she doesn't want to let him go forth into a world far from the remote island that for so long had been his home. Obama wrote in the lengthy yearbook note. McLachlin said he told Obama he was volunteering for the American Heart Association and the president urged him to keep in touch. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States. Her date was Greg Orme, Obama's best friend. And like Obama, he found his place on the basketball court. The pretty blonde on the right was the future president's prom date. Among his supporters, his likability and credibility have only been boosted by his stories of being an outsider trying to fight his way in. Dan Hale, the 6-foot-7-inch star center of the 1979 Punahou basketball team, said Obamas depiction of Hawaii as a place where race really mattered hardly resonates with him. It was hard to imagine that he felt that way, because he just seemed happy all the time, smiling all the time, she said. "Looking back now, I'd say he really is kind of the perfect combination of all of them," said his half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. The three men - Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg. So neither of us ever started and that was hard, he said. I brood, Mr. Obamas friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. In one photo he hugs his beaming sister. If this story is eight paragraphs, seven of them go to Greg. She said a woman from People came to visit with her and then walked away with the Punahou reunion list and all its phone numbers. Still, the story of his early years highlights how politics and autobiography are similar creatures: Each is shaped to serve a purpose. They only did it to Barry." A close friend of Obama's from their teenage years, Greg Orme, spent so much time with Dunham that he, too, called him "Gramps." He made an appointment to see me one day and he brought along a couple other guys who wanted more playing time, Chris McLachlin recalled. In Hawaii, our diversity defines us, it doesnt divide us, said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obamas father in graduate school in the early 60s. Obamas prom pictures released. The fun may wear off, if history is any guide. The havoc time wreaks on fashion spares no one, not even the president of the United States.In a newly unearthed photo published Thursday in TIME magazine, a 17-year-old Barack Obama is seen wearing a white dinner jacket as he poses with friends on the night of their senior prom in Hawaii. Likewise for Mr. Obama, it seems. ___ 10:40 a.m. 'It was a really fun, happy time,' she said. Having their back. "I went to those parties up at Schofield but never saw him at any of them." So we'd get three kids together to fight him," recalled Yunaldi Askiar, 45, a former neighborhood friend. "But looking back now I can see he was seeking more from those guys than that. (D-Hawaii), a close friend of Obama . In April 2011, Mr. Titcomb was arrested on a charge of soliciting prostitution in a Honolulu sting operation, but the reunions with the president never stopped. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obamas schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom. We could all be hotheads at times, but he was very diplomatic, he said. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. He attended a college basketball game with the first family the next day, and this week he and his wife hosted their annual barbecue for the other families, including those of the Obamas Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt. She also sent advice about his future. He was a younger black man looking for guidance." KAILUA, HI - DECEMBER 29: (AFP OUT) U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and friend Greg Orme (R) wait to warm up on the driving range to play golf with friends December 29, 2008 in Kailua, Hawaii. "He was just one of those perfect [ethnic] mixes of everything you see in Hawaii." "Those were robust years full of energy and cacophony, and she loved all of it," Soetoro-Ng said of her grandmother, who has lived alone since her husband died in 1992. Then, one day about a year after he had arrived, Obama was gone. "He was a very provocative thinker. Hed tell us to move on if we got into it with another player. Instead we are producing Richard Nixons." Elite Dutch colonists once lived there; the Japanese moved in during their occupation of Indonesia in World War II. He posed in lifeguard stands. Bailey, who owes his nickname to his quickness on a court, said he's been "impressed by the way Obama handled himself as president." Some of these discrepancies are typical of childhood memories -- fuzzy in specifics, warped by age, shaped by writerly license. He played several rounds on the nine-hole course with Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme, childhood friends from Hawaii who flew in to meet the president. "He would be very helpful with friends. He was always very calm, very level-headed, very rational. As Obama's senior year drew to a close, his mother sent him letters from afar, about life in Indonesia and her work there with non-profit groups doing economic development. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Ukraine soldiers shoot down enemy drones with drones of their own, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts. Topolinski, who now lives in Washington state, said he lost touch with Obama after high school and they moved into different political camps. But the reality felt far different for the handful of African-Americans attending classes there. ', In his memoir, 'Dreams From My Father,' Obama recalled a high school career that was, for the most part, ordinary 'marginal report cards and calls to the principal's office; part-time jobs at the burger chain; acne and driving tests and turbulent desire. Obama and his Punahou School classmates Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb and Greg Orme enjoyed a sunny and breezy day on the links. Like Mr. Obama, he was of mixed parentage the son of a Filipino father and a Czech mother and his parents were divorced. Mr. Obamas concern, Mr. Axelrod said, was for Mr. Titcomb, whose arrest was international news because he happened to be Barack Obamas friend.. Mr. Obama and the others often would visit family members there at Christmas and on occasion the men would meet, but it was not until 2004 that they agreed to gather annually. Rik Smith, a black Punahou student two years older than Obama, remembers a Halloween when white students would dress as slaves, coming to school in tattered clothes with their faces painted black with shoe polish. He was the only foreign child in the neighborhood. I hope we can keep in touch this summer, even though Greg will be gone.'. The first family has attended Titcomb's annual luaus in the past. Ramos is most often referred to in stories about his relations with the president as a businessman. It remains a refuge for me when I travel there during the winter, my family and I, and see friends from high school.. The tenacity and determination Obama showed to make his high school basketball team was an early indicator of the greatness to come. Cook, who was 25, and Obama, then 22, dated for 18 months, passing their time discussing books and cooking. Obama was also known on campus for his basketball skills, and was sometimes called 'Barry O'bomber' for his jump shot. Obama, he said, was especially adept at knowing how to build relationships. He said it puzzles him that, as president, Obama was often accused of failing to reach out to political opponents. By Hes been so gracious to him.. Left: Kelli Allmans OAHUAN 1979 Yearbook. But one word Obama learned quickly in his new home was curang, which means "cheater." Obama spent the weekend in California after meeting Friday at a resort with Jordan's king. For me its the unconditional love, its the nontransactional nature of the relationship that enduring quality that is something that I really value, he said. They sought out parties, especially at the military bases on the island, where African-Americans would be in attendance. He also liked to take outside shots and sometimes he got really hot.. Bendix said he and Obama learned most of their basketball moves on the playground. "One of us said that being the different guys in the room had awakened a little bit of empathy to what he must feel all the time at school. Just as he was the only African-American on the basketball team, he was also the only jock working on the schools literary magazine, Ka Wai Ola. And on Tuesday, in what's become a yearly tradition, the men and their families gathered for a luau hosted by Titcomb. He has ethnic Chinese mother and his father was Polish. (Courtesy Maya Soetoro-Ng ), The life stories, when the presidential candidate tells them, have a common theme: the quest to belong. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. Now they mainly just golf more than 30 hours in six outings this vacation and trash-talk, just like in the old days. Mr. Ramos was a year ahead of Mr. Obamas Punahou class of 79, but played with him on the basketball team. Obama has claimed on numerous occasions to have become fluent in Indonesian in six months. Another story put forth in "Dreams" as one of Obama's pivotal moments of racial awakening checks out essentially as he wrote it. The sailboat the Manu Kai (bird of the sea, in English) is about to set sail behind him. This is my man! a delighted Obama said, Maurer recalled. He struggled greatly with the foreign language, she said, and with his studies as a result. In a new introduction to the reissued edition of "Dreams," he noted that the dangers of writing an autobiography included "the temptation to color events in ways favorable to the writer [and] selective lapses of memory." "He was built like a bull. First Lady and her two daughters 'planning EXTENDED summer vacation at exclusive retreat', High school senior rejected by Kate Upton for prom asks Sports Illustrated model Nina Agdal instead - and she says YES, Report: Michelle Obama once dated inspector general at the center of IRS investigation into anti-tea party political favoritism, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S WOMEN: BARACK OBAMA'S FORMER FLAMES, Ukraine soldiers shoot down enemy drones with drones of their own, Mark Gordon arrives at Crawley Police Station after remains found, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' As he had at the old school, Obama sat in a back corner. Those are qualities a president should have. 'The sexual warmth is definitely there,' Cook wrote in her journal. I get one, maybe.. They divorced after seven years of marriage and have a daughter. One place Obama has said he found a sense of community was on the basketball court. Hawaii had become a state only two years before Obama's birth, and there were plenty of native Hawaiians still deeply unhappy about it. 00:53 GMT 31 Dec 2014 Now lots of people are interested in helping graduates of Punahou School jog their foggy memories, trolling for revelations about a young man who spent much of his time that season riding the bench. "In the absence of his father, there was not a kinder, more understanding man than Stanley Dunham. He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. "We live in a world of bullies and the U.S. has been bullied around. "Like being black was a funny costume in and of itself," recalled Smith, now a doctor who specializes in geriatrics in California. With his friends, he would drive the Choomwagon, a Volkswagen microbus, to Mount Tantalus, biographer David Maraniss wrote. With Obama just days away from turning over the reins to Donald Trump, Coach Mac and some of the guys young Barry played ball with at their Honolulu prep school reflected on his presidency and their playing years with pride. McLachlin said he survived a severe stroke shortly before Obama was elected president in 2008. "All of them were imperfect but all of them loved him fiercely, and I believe he took the best qualities from each of them." The handful of black students who attended Punahou School in Hawaii, for instance, say they struggled mightily with issues of race and racism there. He showed leadership and caring for his teammates, McLachlin said. So did Maurer, who is now a pastor in Houston. Half the homes were old bamboo huts; half, including the Soetoro house, were nicer, with brick or concrete and red-tiled roofs. "Stanley loved that little boy," said Abercrombie, now a Democratic congressman from Hawaii. Every time out hed come over and chat with me about my stroke, my health, he said. "It is a shame we have to worry so much about [grade point], but you know what the college entrance competition is these days," she wrote. The teacher, who still lives in Obama's old neighborhood, remembers that he always sat in the back corner of her classroom. For much of their childhoods, Orme and Obama were more like brothers than buddies, constant companions both on and off the basketball court who even double-dated on senior prom night. His character, the way he conducts himself, thats always been his footprint. The term wasn't considered a slur at the time in Indonesia. On prom night, the pair double-dated. Mr Obama has remained close to Mr Orme over the years. "He had a pretty good shot and really handled the ball well.. But I was pretty wrapped up in my own world back then.. TIME Exclusive: President Obamas 1979 Prom Photos. "It's their world, all right," Ray supposedly shouts at Obama. Hes exhibited class and dignity all the way through it. He played on the beach. She mixed encouragement to keep up his grades with laments about American politics. In August, Obama kicked off his 53rd birthday weekend golfing with the three friends in suburban Maryland before heading to Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains. Mike Ramos, Bobby Titcomb, and Greg Orme-friends from Obama's high school daze in Hawaii-joined the president for a round on the links at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Saturday morning. A young black man struggles for acceptance at an institution of privilege, where he finds himself growing so angry and disillusioned at the world around him that he turns to alcohol and drugs. . "Junkie. Still, Bendix said, his old pal should have been a starter at Punahou and insisted he was not just being loyal to an old friend. "We'd all do things together, but Obama was never there," Smith said, adding that they often brought along the few other black underclassmen. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, "It might have been an Ebony or it might have been who knows what it was?" On this visit alone, Obama has spent more than 22 hours with the group on the lush golf courses that dot the island of Oahu. And they have cheered Obama on even when they disagreed with him. "They held his hands and feet and said, `One, two, three,' and threw him in the swamp," recalled Adi, who still lives in the same house where he grew up. In his poem, An Old Man, there are glimpses of a tortured adolescent as well as a budding orator. Obama is. They have a different level of affection for you than friends you meet later in life. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obama's schoolmate Kelli Allman (ne McCormack), show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom.. He took out (Osama) Bin Laden. He added: "I can't say that I've avoided all, or any, of these hazards successfully." But its fun to imagine that in one of those pictures, theres a girl in a pastel dress or a lanky guy in a white sport coat who will end up becoming the leader of the free world. But Obama never gave up and his work ethic was second to none on this team. Associated Press "I brood," Mr. Obama's friend Mr. Ramos said a few years ago. Not as well known is the fact that the many people who raised him were nearly as diverse as the places where he grew up. 'Many people call Obama aloof, and he hasn't made a lot of friends in Washington,' Brinkley said. He's lived in Colorado, but was listed as a North Carolina resident when in 2012 he attended a state dinner at the White House that Obama held for British Prime Minister David Cameron. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. ', 'I'd made my share of friends at school, gone on the occasional awkward date,' Obama wrote, 'And if I sometimes puzzled over the mysterious realignments of status that took place among my classmates, as some rose and others fell depending on the whims of their bodies or the make of their cars, I took comfort in the knowledge that my own position had steadily improved.'. "He would protect the smaller ones." For the president to be able to be with a group where he can be absolutely relaxed a group that knows him from his youth on, and who he knows are friends with him not because of what he became, but because of who he is is a really comforting and warm thing, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obamas longtime strategist. Orme would stay for the games. Third-grade teacher Fermina Katarina Sinaga, now 67, has perhaps the most telling story. He knew that." For much of their childhoods, Orme and Obama were more like brothers than buddies, constant companions both on and off the basketball court who even double-dated on senior prom night. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Wed drive around in my van listening to Earth, Wind & Fire and looking for places to play, he said. Sheriff: Cleveland man shot after attacking man with hatchet at Morgan County campground Cook wrote that she saw his perfect woman as 'very strong, very upright, a fighter, a laugher, experienced - a black woman I keep seeing her as'. I wish I would have known that those things were bothering him, or if they did bother him, said Eric Kusunoki, Obamas homeroom teacher from grades nine through 12. Arkansas is filled with people still burned from their interactions with the national news media, which descended on the state during Bill Clintons 1992 campaign and stayed for his presidency, continuing to poke and prod at his business and personal dealings. Marty Nesbitt, one of Obama's friends from . While Obama's prom photographs have never been seen before, details have previously emerged about his high school years. But spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "stands by his recollections of these events as related in his book." I dont want to accuse her of stealing it, but it was on the table when she arrived and it wasnt when she left, said Furushima. But he wanted to make everybody happy." Titcomb has worked as a commercial fisherman and an airline employee, according to the school's alumni magazine. Obama also made golf outings,. In the 2004 presidential campaign, both John F. Kerry and President Bush were embroiled in disputes over their Vietnam-era records, controversies that were stoked by the conflicting recollections of people who knew them. Wearing a white shirt and dark-colored shorts and a baseball hat, President Barack Obama finished 18 holes of golf at the Kapolei Golf Course in Kapolei, Hawaii. But Furushima, too, is learning to be on guard around the press. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Outside of their regular vacation activities, the First Couple (along with Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden) released their holiday playlists. In a newly unearthed photo published Thursday in TIME magazine, a 17-year-old Barack Obama is seen wearing a white dinner jacket as he poses with friends on the night of their senior prom in Hawaii.
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