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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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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