Exclusive: The Post & Email Speaks with Director of 1995 Obama Video - PRESENTATION RECORDED TWO DECADES AGO GIVES RARE GLIMPSE INTO OBAMA'S PAST

by Sharon Rondeau (used with permission)

(Original Article)

(Apr. 14, 2015) — Approximately one month ago, Cambridge, MA municipal television station 22-CityView released a nearly-one-hour video (see below) of Barack Hussein Obama giving a presentation to the Cambridge Public Library on September 20, 1995 on his first book, Dreams From My Father.

22-Cityview is a local Cambridge cable television station which recently launched a website and YouTube channel located at 454 Broadway, Cambridge MA 02138 close to Harvard University.

On Monday, The Post & Email became aware of the video during which Obama revealed that communist activist Frank Marshall Davis had, in fact, mentored him during his youth in Hawaii after viewing a synopsis given by Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid released on Trevor Loudon's blog, New Zeal.

On Tuesday, we spoke with 22-CityView's director, Calvin Lindsay, about the origins of the video, during which Obama read a long passage from the book describing a visit to Davis following an admission from his maternal grandparents, with whom he was living at the time, that his grandmother had been intimidated by a panhandler at her morning bus stop because he was "black."

On March 4, Kincaid wrote on his website, "When Rudolph Giuliani mentioned that President Barack Obama, as a young man, was under the influence of Communist Party member and suspected Soviet espionage agent Frank Marshall Davis, Giuliani struck a nerve. In contrast to his claim that Obama didn’t love America, his remarks about the Davis-Obama relationship were not opinion, but fact. That is why a Washington Post fact-checker has been assigned to investigate Giuliani’s claim. We shall see whether the Post, at this late date, covers a story that could have been Pulitzer Prize-winning material more than seven years ago."

In 2012, Kincaid reported that Davis was Obama's role model for a period of eight years.  On March 23, 2015, The Washington Post contended that Kincaid, Giuliani and others had made "false claims" about Obama and that Kincaid's characterization of the relationship between David and Obama was worthy of "Three Pinocchios."

Obama read from the book that on that particular visit, he and Davis shared a drink, after which Davis advised him that he would need to become accustomed to feeling "frustrated" in a world where blacks were treated unequally.  The Post claimed that "Davis made an impression on Obama, as shown in his memoir," but that "there is no evidence Obama was 'raised' by Davis, or that Davis remained a close Communist mentor who advised him throughout his life."

22-CityView's programming includes city council meetings, poetry readings, musical composition, book authors, local events, and cultural arts.  Its programming can be viewed online as well as on cable television.

Another featured section, "From the Vault," includes archives of older broadcasts from which the 1995 lecture Obama gave at the Cambridge Public Library was drawn.

Cambridge is the home of Harvard University, which Obama attended between 1988 and 1991.  According to author Jack Cashill, Obama served as both editor and president of the Harvard Law Review but is credited with "only one heavily edited, unsigned note" during his dual tenure.

"Obama was not a writer," Cashill reported.

Those who have attended the same institutions of higher learning as Obama have questioned how an allegedly poor student could have been admitted to study.

Lindsay told us that approximately two years ago, his staff began combing through "tapes in offsite storage," some of which dated back to the beginning days of the station in the early 1990s.  He said that while finding the tape of Obama from 1995 was "not a total surprise," they were pleased to find it in excellent condition, unlike similar recordings of its era which had undergone water or other damage.

He related that the individuals who recorded Obama's address at the library are no longer employed by the station and confirmed that the video is their sole item containing footage of Obama.

For a nominal fee, 22-CityView offers DVDs of its programs to members of the public.

Lindsay said that after the video was located, the White House was made aware of it prior to its release on 22-CityView's YouTube channel.