1991 Obama Author Bio Gets Birthers Excited

Promotional booklet claimed he was born in Kenya
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 18, 2012 1:22 AM CDT
Updated May 18, 2012 1:52 AM CDT
1991 Obama Author Bio Gets Birthers Excited
Obama's author bio in Acton & Dystel's promotion booklet.   (Acton & Dysel)

"Birther" conspiracy theorists have received a treat from Breitbart. The website has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by literary agency Acton & Dysel, which describes Barack Obama as "born in Kenya, and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." Obama, who was one of the agency's clients at the time, is one of 90 writers with brief biographies in the booklet, which was distributed in the publishing industry.

The statement that Obama was born in Kenya "was nothing more than a fact-checking error by me—an agency assistant at the time," the pamphlet's editor tells Political Wire. "There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii." At Breitbart, editors say—like late founder Andrew Breitbart—that they don't doubt that Obama was born in Hawaii, but they published the bio as part of series looking at Obama's "ideological past" and "carefully constructed persona." (More President Obama stories.)

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