Not all of your information is correct, but it is interesting and quite detailed. I'm not sure of all of the details but you have apparently mixed up some of the information about various peole. He did live in a poor neighborhood in Indonesia, and according to his book it was not immediately obvious to him how rough life was for other people there, so yes there is indication that his step-father was at the least not poor himself. However, it was life in this poor neighborhood, according to Barack Obama, that taught him to care about poor people in general. As a result, he passed up offers to work on Wall street for a lower paying job as a community organizer in Chicago so that he could do more good for people in need.

Hawaii was ... interesting. It's rough living in Hawaii because the cost of living is (or at least was at that time) very high. Also, it is necessary to learn many cultures there in order to keep from inadvertently insulting someone. Simply not caring whether or not you insult someone really isn't an option when you're living on an island where you will run into them and their friends sooner or later and there's really nowhere to get away from them entirely. I actually got along quite well there, but at any given time I was usually either working at least two jobs or looking for more work to make ends meet.

Here's something "official" from his web site...
http://www.barackobama.com/le...

Perhaps that will help somewhat. It looks like the information you had was put together by someone playing on the "elitist" claims that have been thrown around by his competition lately... with the intention of making their claims appear to be valid.

You may not have noticed, but Barack Obama tried very hard to avoid discussion of such things as what race he was, because it was both irrelevant and an unnecessary distraction. Unfortunately he has been forced to address many irrelevant issues due to negative campaigning. That's why I suggested visiting his web site. If you want to learn what's good about a candidate, go to the source. If you want to learn what's bad about them, don't worry... someone out there will throw it in your face along with a slew of stuff that isn't true. If you want to know what the candidate has faced and disputed, again.... go to the source.

I understand your lack of trust. Why should any of us trust someone we don't know? I know enough about John McCain to understand that he's not the monster that many people make him out to be, but also enough to know that I strongly disagree with him on the things that I think are most important. I know an awful lot about both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama because I researched both of them before going into their Senate offices in Washington D.C. years ago... and I have kept up since then because there were things I liked about both of them. As I have gotten to know them better, like most people (according to the polls), I have learned to like Hillary Clinton much less and Barack Obama much more... but I have favored Barack Obama strongly since long before the campaigning started, not because of any negative talk about Hillary but because of the potential I see in Barack.

You're right, by the way... being able to freely make our choices is very important. That's what the campaigning process is all about. That's why it is so important to look deeper than the rumors and look for both positive and negative in all candidates because it's bound to be there... but how much and in what forms is what makes each one unique.