Columnist Parker Claims Blood Relation to Obama

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Columnist Parker claims blood relation to Obama
By: BYRON YORK
Chief Political Correspondent
07/03/10 6:50 AM EDT

Kathleen Parker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post who angered many conservatives with her attacks on Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, says she has discovered she is distantly related to President Obama. “I am proud to be Obama’s cousin,” she writes in a Sunday column.

Parker makes the revelation after discussing the negative reaction she received from a recent column claiming Obama is “our first female president.” Her Post colleague Jonathan Capehart, among others, told her that a black man is “held to a different standard than whites” and therefore cannot show intense anger at events, such as the Gulf oil spill, lest he be typecast as an angry black man.

Parker writes that she sees Capehart’s point but does not “view Obama exclusively as a black man.” “Not only is he half-white,” Parker says, “but also he has managed to transcend skin color, at least from where I sit.” Then Parker adds this:

As a sidebar, there’s another reason I don’t see him as only black. He is my cousin. I had intended to save this nugget for a future column, but now seems as good a time as any to brag.

I learned of this surprising family link when a cousin conducting genealogical research contacted me recently: “And by the way, did you know you’re kin to Barack?”

Apparently, we are descended of brothers whose parents — Johann Pieter Straub and Anna Maria Barbara Hoffman — emigrated from Germany to the colonies about 1733. According to the family grid, Obama and I seem to be eighth cousins once removed.

I am proud to be Obama’s cousin. But that bond doesn’t blind me to his — and our — flaws.

In the fall, Parker is set to co-host a program on CNN with disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

[NCTexan]

told her that a black man is “held to a different standard than whites” and therefore cannot show intense anger at events, such as the Gulf oil spill, lest he be typecast as an angry black man.

Not this crap again!

 

Why does anyone on the left (or right) care how angry our president is? We should only be concerned with his ability or motivation to get the problem fixed!

 

The focus on his anger is just a red herring to take the spotlight off of his dithering and poor decisions.

 

The Left then successfully shifts the subject to race (and racists) when they spout the "black men can't show anger in front of whites". This makes Barry the victim as well as "off limits" for legitimate criticism.

 

That's a totally bogus statement. Just look at some of the most popular personalities that show anger in their roles: Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Sydney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night), and even Mister T (he's always mad). White America loves them and cheers them on every performance.

 

Parker says, “but also he has managed to transcend skin color, at least from where I sit.”

Lady... you must be sitting in the Peanut Gallery. This is the most racially focused president that's been in office in my lifetime.

 

I've heard him use a variation of the line "I don’t look like other people who have been President of the United States" so many times I could barf.

 

[saveliberty]

So the question is whether she knew of this familial connection before the election or afterward.

 

Another point, IIRC the President is related to VP Dick Cheney, but that did not seem to deter the VP from maintaining his own point of view (for which I am grateful).

[Argyle58]

Were it me, I would keep this little family secret in the same vault as Barry's birth certificate, never to see the light of day.

[Sanguine]

So the question is whether she knew of this familial connection before the election or afterward.

 

It doesn't matter. She would have shamelessly shilled for him regardless, because they share similar values and ideology. And, in her narrow, bigoted little world-view that's what counts, and she would have/did ignore things like serious concerns about his ethics, background, experience and abilities, and would never have even thought about the potential effects of instituting that shared ideology.

 

That's also why the question of his citizenship doesn't matter to them. He's the right guy for the job, and a citizen of the world, so what else do ya want? Anything else is irrelevant.

[Valin]

Kathleen Parker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post who angered many conservatives with her attacks on Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, says she has discovered she is distantly related to President Obama. “I am proud to be Obama’s cousin,” she writes in a Sunday column.

 

I'm trying desperately to figure out why this is a good thing.

[nickydog]

Whether it's a good thing or not, she can have it.