Vetting Obama

This story by Stanley Kurtz on NRO needs to be read.  Kurtz supplies evidence that President Obama joined the New Party, an ultra leftist party that was openly hostile to both Democrats and Republicans and openly repudiated capitalism, in 1996.  Both his State Senate campaign in 1996 and his presidential campaign in 2008 have denied that Obama ever was a part of or joined the New Party.  But here is a section from the minutes from a meeting of the New Party on January 11, 1996 that says otherwise:

Barack Obama, candidate for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a statement to the membership and answered questions. He signed the New Party “Candidate Contract” and requested an endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New Party.

Of course, the media has largely ignored this story.  Ben Smith from Politico spent about 10 minutes of his time looking into it and promptly smeared Kurtz for ginning up conspiracy theories.  From the substantial and well-documented evidence Kurtz has put together, this does not seem like it's just some ravings by an Alex Jones-type figure.