Are you a Political Expert? How Much Do you Know About Barack Obama?

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: The "Who the Heck is This Guy Anyhoo?" Quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

1) __ In 2006, Senator Hillary Clinton's political team revealed information that accused presidential hopeful Illinois Senator Barack Obama of being a closet radical Muslim, proving that his grade school and middle school education was at a radical Indonesian madrassa known for preaching jihad against the West.

Obama denies this, claiming that as a young adult, while working as a social activist in Chicago's South Side, he converted to Christianity.

Clinton's team also claimed that, in his two years as a Senator, Obama had never introduced a bill in Congress.

2) __ Before Barack Obama was elected as freshman Senator from Illinois he had no prior experience in government or politics. He was a criminal attorney known for taking on controversial high-profile cases involving alleged falsely convicted political radicals like Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Chicago-based media superstar Oprah Winfrey is credited with "discovering" Obama and helping launch his political career.

3) __ Jack Ryan, Obama's Republican opponent in the 2004 Illinois Senate race, was the favorite to win until the sealed records of his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan were opened to public scrutiny.

According to the court papers, his ex-wife, known for her roles in "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Boston Public", claimed that Ryan took her to sex nightclubs in Paris, New York, and New Orleans. One was described as "a bizarre club with cages, whips, and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling." She also claimed in the records that Ryan had asked her to have sex at one of the clubs. The scandal caused Ryan to drop out of the race. He was replaced with Alan Keyes, a much less qualified Republican candidate.

4) __ A few months ago, it was revealed that Barack Obama was hiding the fact that he has been struggling with an addiction to cigarettes.

5) __ Unlike former President Bill Clinton, Barack Obama acknowledged that he has "inhaled." As a teenager, he used marijuana and cocaine. He said that the only reason why he had never tried heroin was because he didn't like the dealer who was trying to sell it to him.

(See the Answers Below)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. The claim is false that associates of Senator Hillary Clinton were spreading "information" that Barack Obama was educated at a radical Indonesian madrassa. This rumor originated on the website of Insight Magazine, a subsidiary of conservative newspaper The Washington Times. While rightist pundits, including Rush Limbaugh and Fox News' John Gibson, have freely used this website's "story" as fodder against Clinton, none will make the direct accusation that Hillary and her team was directly responsible for the "information" on Senator Obama.

When asked, Insight Magazine would only attribute their "information" to an "inside source" close to Clinton.

It's true that Obama attended a predominantly Muslim school when he was living in Indonesia with his mother, but it was a public school attended by Christians and Buddhists as well as Muslims. While in Indonesia, he attended this school for two years, and then attended a Catholic school for another two years.

Although Obama was born to an atheist Kenyan father and a secular mother, it's true that he converted to Christianity while working as a young social activist in Chicago's South Side. He was baptized at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, where he's still a member.

It's also false that Obama has never introduced a bill in Congress. According to the Library of Congress, he's served as lead sponsor of 66 bills and 86 amendments during the 109th Congress.

2) F: It's false that Obama had no prior experience in government or politics before becoming an Illinois Senator.

It's also false that he had defended political radicals Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. His law firm, Davis, Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, specialized in civil rights cases..

It's false that Oprah Winfrey "discovered" Obama and helped launch his political career. She, however, is a strong supporter and has thrown fundraisers for him.

3) T: It's true that exposed records of his divorce wound up causing Obama's Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, to drop out of the 2004 Illinois Senate race. It's also true that in court papers his ex-wife, known for her roles in "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Boston Public", had claimed that Ryan took her to sex nightclubs in Paris, New York, and New Orleans. And it's also true that she had claimed in the records that Ryan asked her to have sex at one of the clubs.

It's also true that Ryan was replaced by conservative African-America talk show host Alan Keyes. Almost every legitimate media outlet in Illinois supported Obama over Keyes, causing Obama to win by a landslide.

4) TF: This anecdote is both true and false. It's false that Barack Obama was hiding the fact that he's had a struggle with his addiction to cigarettes. His cigarette use was a fact revealed in a Chicago Sun-Times interview with his wife during his 2004 Senate campaign. He has admitted to smoking 3-4 cigarettes a day; 10 if he's under campaigning stress.

5) T: It's true that Obama, as a teenager in Hawaii, had used marijuana and cocaine. It's also true that he had stated that the only reason why he never tried heroin was because he didn't like the dealer who was trying to sell it to him.

SOURCES:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

"Obama launches a '07 campaign", Christi Parsons and Manya Brachear, Chicago Tribune, URL: (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0702060167feb06,1,1003440.story?coll=chi-news-hed)

"Barack Obama, asked about his drug history, admits he inhaled", Katharine Seelye, International Herald, URL: (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/24/news/dems.php)

"Angry Obama the pothead is not how they remember him in Hawaii", Hans Nichols, Telegraph, URL: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/25/wobama25.xml)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/11/60minutes/main2458530_page6.shtml

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1682433/bio

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/22/ryan.divorce/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245582,00.html

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/07/19/oprah-takes-out-big-guns-for-obama/

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703200011

"Sen. Barack Obama tries to flesh out his record", Elana Schor, The Hill, URL: (http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sen.-barack-obama-tries-to-flesh-out-his-record-with-an-election-fraud-bill-2007-02-01.html)