Obama's Tickets

rimrocker · Mar 7, 2007

This is somewhat humorous... I had a friend who racked up $1,000 in library fines at UT and they wouldn't give him a diploma until he paid up. I suspect i still have a few unpaid parking tickets from my college days... still, he probably should have paid them off by the time of his Senate run.

Obama finally pays local parking tickets

By George P. Hassett
http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2007/03/obama_finally_p.html#more

Before Barack Obama was a United States senator and a presidential hopeful, he was a Harvard University law student living in Somerville who parked in bus stops and accumulated hundreds of dollars in parking tickets. And for nearly two decades those parking tickets went unpaid, until a representative of Obama’s settled all his outstanding debts with Cambridge’s Traffic, Parking and Transportation Department Jan. 26.

Obama attended Harvard Law School from 1988 to 1991. During his time at Harvard, Obama lived at 365 Broadway in Somerville, according to his parking tickets. Records from the Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation office show that between Oct. 5, 1988 and Jan. 12, 1990 Obama was cited for 17 traffic violations, sometimes committing two in the same day. The abuses included parking in a resident permit area, parking in a bus stop and failing to pay the meter. Twelve of Obama’s 17 tickets were given to him on Massachusetts Avenue.

In one eight day stretch in 1988, Obama was cited seven times for parking violations and was fined $45. Thirteen of the 17 violations occurred within one month in 1988.

Obama’s disobedience of the rules of the road earned him $140 in fines from the City of Cambridge. The tickets went unpaid for over 17 years and $260 in late fees were added to the tab. On Jan. 26, the fines and late fees were paid in full. The final tally for Obama’s parking breaches was $400, according to Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation.

Obama spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the presidential candidate’s parking violations were not relevant.

“He didn’t owe that much and what he did owe, he paid,” Psaki said. “Many people have parking tickets and late fees. All the parking tickets and late fees were paid in full.”

Psaki declined to comment further. She refused to say how the fines went unpaid so long and what prompted Obama to finally pay them.

At Harvard, Obama became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. After school, he spent eight years in the Illinois state senate before becoming a United States Senator in 2005. He is currently campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president.
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vlaurelio · Mar 7, 2007

counting down to UTL response

mc mark · Mar 7, 2007

interesting...

In his book Barack claims that one of his wife Michelle’s only vices was racking up parking tickets while he was in law school. Maybe the car was in his name?

Mulder · Mar 7, 2007

I can safely tell you that given a choice between being late for a law school class and getting a ticket I can probably argue my way out of, I'm taking the ticket.

Baqui99 · Mar 7, 2007

Mulder said:

I can safely tell you that given a choice between being late for a law school class and getting a ticket I can probably argue my way out of, I'm taking the ticket.
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Ditto MBA classes -> being late is simply not tolerated at McCombs.

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Obama's Tickets

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