NationStates Jolt Archive


Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrat Barack Obama are eighth cousins, Lynne Cheney

Pacificville
17-10-2007, 12:49
The Associated Press
Published: October 16, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrat Barack Obama are eighth cousins, Lynne Cheney

WASHINGTON: Though they may spar across the political aisle, Vice President Dick Cheney is close enough to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama to call him "cousin."

Eighth cousin, that is.

Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, revealed this tantalizing bit of political trivia during a television interview Tuesday.

She said she uncovered the long-ago ties between the two while researching her ancestry for her latest book, "Blue Skies, No Fences," 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 Barack Obama," Lynne Cheney told MSNBC.

According to her spokeswoman, Sen. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is a descendant of Mareen Duvall. This French Huguenot's son married the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland in the late 1650's from England, said Ginny Justice, a spokeswoman for Lynne Cheney.

The vice president's full name is Richard B. Cheney.

A spokesman for Obama, who wants to be the first black U.S. president, offered a tongue-in-cheek response. "Every family has a black sheep," said spokesman Bill Burton.

Lynne Cheney did not reference the ancestral ties between her husband and Obama in the book.

lol...
Dexlysia
17-10-2007, 13:02
Obama is eighth cousin to Cheney who is well known for electronic surveillance which caught Nixon who lost a presidential bid to JFK which was also a 1991 film which costarred Kevin Bacon!
Andaluciae
17-10-2007, 13:38
Uuuuuuuuhhhhhh...GO CLINTON!!!!!!!!! (or Gravel: Seriously, that's one freaked out dude, and that would likely make for a whoop-ass President)
Cannot think of a name
17-10-2007, 13:44
Obama is eighth cousin to Cheney who is well known for electronic surveillance which caught Nixon who lost a presidential bid to JFK which was also a 1991 film which costarred Kevin Bacon!

Quality.
Free Soviets
17-10-2007, 14:26
at approximately what level of cousin-ness are we pretty much all related? like 12th?
Chumblywumbly
17-10-2007, 14:33
*chuckle*

She said dick.
Andaluciae
17-10-2007, 14:35
Wait...his name is Richard B.?
Rambhutan
17-10-2007, 15:42
Endemic nepotism. Does this mean they can marry?
CthulhuFhtagn
17-10-2007, 21:01
Being related caps at sixth cousin-ness.
South Lorenya
17-10-2007, 21:15
Pretty much every pair of humans is related if you go back 30-32 generations.
Intangelon
17-10-2007, 21:19
Wow. Eighth cousins, huh? That means, what, less than nothing? Thought so. :rolleyes:
Free Soviets
17-10-2007, 21:44
*chuckle*

She said dick.

PENIS!!