Who Paid?

I ganked this from a friend of mine on another site/forum,. I think its valid thinking myself. Enjoy. He's from Canada so he's looking at this from the outside in. Instead of the reverse like me:

Something that caught my eye as I was looking into the educational background of the President....who paid the bills for his education? It wasn't him all by himself - the numbers say it was flatly impossible...I know - I'm the same age and I attended university at the same time he did. So - the Occidental College in California...where he went after graduation from high school. That's plausible enough - combination of scholarship and student aid - although his living expenses in CA compared to being at home in Hawaii would be something else. But...after two years, to transfer to Columbia in NYC? Where the hell did the money for that come from? Wasn't from student aid...that wouldn't have even begin to cover tuition. Scholarship? Possibly...but there's never been any mention of that one. Living expenses? We're talking NYC for goodness sake. Quite honestly - there's something that's not being said and that is...who does President Obama owe? Then, after graduation from Columbia...with a poli-sci degree....in an economic slump - he gets a job with a Think Tank? That, friends and neighbours, requires some pull. How does the kid of a single mom in Hawaii have the kind of muscle to get a position like that? Same holds true four years later when he goes off to Harvard Law - tutition alone would have been a years salary - where in the hell did all the money come from and who was the provider? I've yet to see that question answered...and only a few people have ever asked it that I'm aware of. So, what do you all think? Was it simple up by the bootstraps on the President's part or is there an unknown, unnamed benefactor(s) in the background that perhaps people need to be aware of? After all, knowing who the President is beholden to can make a difference in what decisions he makes.

Cheers!

Rob T