[Vision2020] Who'da Thunk?

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (October 13, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

---------------------------------------------------------

Ancestry ties Obama to Palin, Limbaugh

WASHINGTON – Rush Limbaugh calls President Barack Obama “imam,” even
though he knows the president isn’t a Muslim. Sarah Palin has openly
doubted the president’s “cojones.”

Turns out these two conservative firebrands have been dissin’ their own
cousin.

The online genealogy service Ancestry.com now reports that Obama and Palin
are 10th cousins, and Obama and Limbaugh are 10th cousins once removed. In
both cases, the ties date to the 1600s.

Obama’s distant family ties to former President George W. Bush and former
Vice President Dick Cheney surfaced during his presidential campaign.
Obama also is a distant cousin of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and
actor Brad Pitt, according to Ancestry.com.

Anastasia Tyler, the lead genealogist on the latest project, said in an
interview: “It just shows how all of these politicians, they’re on
different sides of the political spectrum, but in the end they’re all part
of what makes America great, and they all go back to deep American roots.”

The ties run through Obama’s white, Kansas-born mother’s side of the
family. Obama’s Kenyan father’s background is harder to document as far
back, and likely would have fewer connections to early American settlers.
Genealogists say it’s typically harder for African-Americans and many
minority populations in the U.S. to trace their roots because of a lack of
written historical documentation.

Palin’s tie to Obama is through early Massachusetts settler John Smith, a
Protestant pastor in the 1670s who opposed the persecution of Quakers.
Smith’s wife was the sister of one of the first governors of the Plymouth
Bay colony, Thomas Hinckley. Hinckley’s father, Samuel, it so happens, is
the familial link between Obama and Bush.

Obama and Limbaugh’s common ancestor is Richmond Terrell, who settled in
Virginia around 1656 and acquired a large amount of land.

One might argue that everyone’s related if you go back far enough, but
Tyler said that 350 years isn’t nearly far enough to connect most
Americans to one another.

Tyler’s team tried but failed to connect Obama to conservative talk show
hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, nor could they find a link between
Obama and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

---------------------------------------------------------

Heck!

They're practically siblings.

Now, there's a family reunion I want to see.

I think it's in the eyes.  They each have two of 'em.

Seeya round town, brothers and sisters.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown