The Elect Lies About Kennedy Connection

The Elect traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother. Or, so he says. One problem with this account is: it is a lie.

Contrary to The Elect's claims the Kennedy family didn't fund a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father.

The Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960.

An Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, acknowledged that the senator spoke in error.

Although the airlift occurred before Kennedy became president, Obama said that Kennedy was involved.

What actually happened though is less dramatic. A Kenyan nationalist leader, Tom Mboya, traveled to the United States in 1959 and 1960 to persuade thousands of Americans to support his efforts to educate a new African elite.

Mboya raised money for Obama Sr.

Stephen Plotkin, an archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, said a search of the records did not turn up any evidence that the Kennedys supported the airlift.