Barack Obama’s Composite Girlfriends

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A bizarre right-wing contretemps has blown up over Barack Obama’s admission that some of the characters in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, are composites. Why bizarre? Because right in the introduction to the book, he says, “some of the characters that appear are composites.”

But here’s the really bizarre part. It’s easy to see how you might have missed this. Or maybe not remember it. But these days, it’s not like you have to reread the book cover to cover to see if Obama ever mentioned this. You just go to Amazon, click “Look Inside,” and search for composite. That’s it. I sort of assume that conservatives don’t appreciate looking too much like idiots, so what explains not bothering with even this minimal level of scrutiny? Leave your best guess in comments.

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And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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