Obama the Descendant of Slaves?

On his mother's side???

WASHINGTON — For genealogists, President Obama’s family tree is the gift that keeps on giving.

There was Dick Cheney, Warren Buffett and Sarah Palin. On Monday, genealogists added another notable figure to Obama's unlikely list of relatives: John Punch, a Virginia slave who some historians consider the first African enslaved in the colonies.

The connection to Punch, an indentured servant forced into slavery in 1640, comes from Obama’s mother’s side of the family, said Joseph Shumway, a genealogist with Ancestry.com, the website that has been researching the president’s family tree for years.

In a not so rare bit of Fauxcahontas envy, with less than 100 days before the 2012 election, genealogists have "uncovered" a link between Obama and slavery. AP might have thought this nothingburger story might give the 'Bamster a little more street cred, to have the "blood of slaves" flowing through his veins, but I don't think there are that many people in this country that give a rat's patoot whether Barry is 50% or 51% or 52% black.

Even if it were true, having an ancestor that far back on the family tree did nothing to shape his thinking in his formative years or beyond. Besides, it doesn't matter who Obama is so much as what he has done, which is nothing helpful and much to harm the economy and prolong the recession. That's why Obama is running on his "vision" for America, because he cannot run on his record.

And if you read this story all the way through, three paragraphs from the end, you are treated to this:

Obama’s connection to Punch is similarly inconclusive

Inconclusive, eh? Color me unimpressed.


But, the choicest irony of the story, and the one reason why Obama would be wisest not to incorporate this into his re-election narrative, is that Obama's tenuous claim to the blood of slaves, comes through his "typical white grandmother". Being two generations closer to her slave roots did nothing at all, according to Obama, to make her more sensitive to the plight of minorities. It might be entertaining to hear Obama try to make the case, though.

Cross posted at Say Anything