Barack Obama pays off 17-yr-old parking fines

WASHINGTON, DC : The things you have to do to run for US President. Between 1988 and 1991, Barack Obama was one of the most decorated students at Harvard University’s law school.

He graduated at the top of his class, and was also elected the first black president in the 104-year history of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. What was unknown, however, to most people was that, apart from a law degree, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate had also acquired several parking tickets during his tenure at Harvard.

In January this year, 17 years after he received those tickets, Obama paid off the parking fines, a local Massachusetts newspaper revealed this week. The fines were paid two weeks before his official announcement to run for US president.

Records from the Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation office show that Obama was slapped fines for parking at a bus stop, parking without a resident permit and for failing to pay the parking meter. Although his fines were just $140, his late fees amounted to $260.

Obama’s campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki clarified to the media that the Illinois senator has paid off all his parking fines, including the late fees. She even dismissed the issue as irrelevant to the campaign.

“Many people have parking tickets and late fees. All the parking tickets and late fees were paid in full,” she said. This was not the only instance for Obama has paid for run-ins with the law. Around the same time he paid for the parking fines, Obama also paid off a 27-year-old excise tax bill to the city of Somerville, a couple of miles away from Cambridge where Harvard University is located.

While Obama’s team maintained that it had nothing to do with the presidential campaign, it is thought that he wants to maintain his clean record for the campaign. Late last year, he apologised for selling off a property to the wife of a real estate agent who was arrested for fraud.

This year, Obama, who is catching up with Senator Hillary Clinton as the leading Democratic presidential candidate, has been trying to cut down on smoking.