{"id":10084,"date":"2007-03-02T10:25:23","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T15:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10084.html"},"modified":"2007-03-02T10:25:23","modified_gmt":"2007-03-02T15:25:23","slug":"obamas-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother-is-front-page-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obamas-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother-is-front-page-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother is front-page news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, the AP ran a 1,200-word story, for no apparent reason<\/a>, about Mitt Romney’s great-grandfather and great-great grandfathers having multiple wives. It was a cheap and unnecessary shot.<\/p>\n

On a related note, the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune are reporting on Barack Obama’s ancestry<\/a> in an inexplicable way.<\/p>\n

Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.<\/p>\n

But an intriguing sliver of his family history has received almost no attention until now: it appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and Census records.<\/p>\n

The records — which had never been addressed publicly by the Illinois senator or his relatives — were first noted in an ancestry report compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner, who works at the Library of Congress and practices genealogy in his spare time. The report, on Reitwiesner’s Web site, carries a disclaimer that it is a “first draft” — one likely to be examined more closely if Obama is nominated.<\/p>\n

According to the research, one of Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ve got to be kidding me. Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfather is relevant to his presidential campaign, why?<\/p>\n

Keep in mind, the Baltimore Sun ran this on its front page<\/i><\/a>. It’s not just some passing curiosity about Obama’s diverse background, it’s literally above-the-fold news.<\/p>\n

Is this the kind of reporting we can expect for the next two years?
\n
\nBill Burton, a spokesperson for Obama’s campaign, had a reasonable response. “While a relative owned slaves, another fought for the Union in the Civil War,” Burton said. “And it is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States.”<\/p>\n

That’s fair, but how about this response to the reporter’s inquiry: why do you care about Obama’s great-great-great-great grandfather? <\/p>\n

Has any presidential campaign in history ever explored a candidate’s great-great-great-great grandfather seriously? As far as I can tell, probably not. There are usually too many real, substantive stories to cover in a presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

I should add the same article also touches on Edwards and McCain.<\/p>\n

Reitwiesner’s research identifies two other presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, as descendants of slave owners. Three of McCain’s great-great-grandfathers in Mississippi owned slaves, including one who owned 52 in 1860. Two ancestors of Edwards owned one slave each in Georgia in 1860.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If anyone can explain why any of this is relevant, I’m anxious to hear it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, the AP ran a 1,200-word story, for no apparent reason, about Mitt Romney’s great-grandfather and great-great grandfathers having multiple wives. It was a cheap and unnecessary shot. On a related note, the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune are reporting on Barack Obama’s ancestry in an inexplicable way. Many people know that Democratic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}