Barack Obama And Dick Cheney Are Cousins

Hat tip to reader Roderick for the heads up on this news. It would not make the happiest of family reunions. Sen. Barack Obama, the liberal Illinois Democrat running for president on an anti-Iraq-war platform, is an eighth cousin of Vice-President Dick Cheney, the older, whiter, conservative Republican warrior-politician. The link between the two men was discovered by Lynne Cheney, the vice-president's wife, while researching her ancestry for a memoir about growing up in Wyoming. "This is such an amazing American story that one ancestor ... could be responsible down the family lines for lives that have taken such different and varied paths as Dick's and Obama's," Mrs. Cheney told MSNBC.

Sen. Obama, currently the only black U.S. Senator, is a descendent of Mareen Duvall, a 17th century French Huguenot immigrant. He married the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland in the late 1650s from England, and is a great-grandfather many times over to Richard B. Cheney — the current vice-president by his full name.

A few months ago it emerged that Sen. Obama is 11th cousin to President George W. Bush, through another ancestral line going back to Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole Hinckley in 17th century Massachusetts. However, the connection to Vice President Cheney was news to the senator, who declined to comment at that time. His spokesman, however, said: "Every family has a black sheep." However, last night Sen. Barack Obama claimed Vice President Dick Cheney as a distant cousin, up to a point, on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Sen. Obama said he will pass on the Cheney family's hunting party.

My response: Sen. Obama's late mama was white, so he is 50% European in his genetic makeup. Hence there was no surprise when we found out that his ancestors were slaveowners, and no surprise about this news. The typical black American's genetic makeup is 18% European, so there are a lot of white folks in America and beyond who are not aware (or choose not to be aware) of their black cousins. Did anyone see that "60 Minutes" segment a couple of weeks ago about how a genetic test brought together a black woman and a white man as cousins? I should add that according to geneticists, 30% of white Americans have traceable Sub-Saharan ancestry - the average amount is 3% - which surprises a lot of white folks when they take that genetic test.