Small World
This just on the BBC
Cheney, Obama ‘distant cousins’
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They
may be polar opposites politically but US Vice-President Dick Cheney
and Democratic candidate Barack Obama are related, Mr Cheney’s wife
says.
Lynne Cheney
said she had discovered while doing family research for a new book that
her husband and the Illinois senator were eighth cousins.
She said she traced a common ancestor of the two men to be a 17th century immigrant from France.
She described the connection as “amazing”.
“This is such an
amazing American story that one ancestor… could be responsible down
the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied
paths.”
According to Mrs
Cheney’s spokeswoman, Mr Obama is distantly related to Mareen Duvall,
whose son Samuel married the granddaughter of Mr Cheney’s ancestor,
also called Richard Cheney.
Mr Obama’s spokesman, Bill Burton, responded to the news by saying: “Every family has a black sheep.”
Mr Cheney, the
brooding neo-conservative closely associated with the decision to
invade Iraq, has little else in common with Mr Obama.
Mr Obama, the
son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, has earned epithets
like “rock star” because of his popularity among young Democrats, and a
reputation as a liberal because of his voting record in the Senate
That’s a great quip by Burton.
I’m predicting that if Obama is the DP’s presidential candidate, Wyoming will be a blue state in the 2008 election. ;)
“Every family has a black sheep”? Does Burton mean Cheney or Obama?
Let’s see? Is that one word black-sheep or two, black sheep? Obama is sort-of black, but no sheep. Cheney is no sheep and not black (except when wearing his Darth Vader outfit). So Burton must have meant black-sheep.
If they’re only eighth-cousins, they could get married. If one were looking only at consanguinity, of course.