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Webb: Obama Has Roots In Appalachia
A very interesting argument to Appalachian voters from Jim Webb on the trail in Virginia today on why they shouldn't view Barack Obama as an outsider or a vaguely sinister other:
"There's a lot of comments that have been made about certain ethnic issues in this campaign," Webb said. "I would like to say we know Barack Obama's father was born in Kenya. Barack Obama's mother was born in Kansas by way of Kentucky. We are going to see on Election Day the election of the fourteenth president of the United States whose ancestry, family line goes back to the mountains of this area."Barack Obama understands you -- the first place he visited after he was officially nominated -- he can here to southwest Virginia. This will be his seventh trip to southwest Virginia. And you can trust him -- I trust him."
Hadn't heard that thing about Kentucky before.
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This is very interesting, indeed.
Mountain 'Bama.
October 17, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell that to the cops! Obama's bus pulled over in Mississippi!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/southern_sheriff_pulls_over_obama
October 17, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a fake piece. It did not happen.
October 17, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you familiar with The Onion? If not, you should be. It is one of the best-written papers in the country.
October 17, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting....everything in the South is about family, lineage and 'who's your momma and daddy' otherwise you are a mutt.
Obama is 'black' Irish on his maternal grandmother's side.
October 17, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good to see Webb out there on the final push. I'm still not sure why he or Obama don't hit McCain on the GI Bill, though.
October 17, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The campaign, Barack and Webb, have been consistently slamming McCain on the GI Bill. At this stage, though, I think it is about gut feelings ... is this guy one of ours?
I am glad to see Webb has Barack's back, particularly back up in the hills.
October 17, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
{giggle} Wonder if Webb made that up on the spot?
October 17, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, it's not made up: One of Obama's 4g-grandfathers was George Washington Overall, who was born in Bullitt County, KY in 1820, and who married Louisiana Duvall of Nelson County, KY.
George Washington Overall and Louisiana Duvall are discussed in this message from the DUVALL listserv archives. The poster was apparently unaware that Barack Obama was a descendant of that couple. Incidently, the Susan Overall Clark and C[hristopher] C[olumbus] Clark mentioned in that message were Obama's 3g-grandparents. Notice that C.C. Clark was enumerated in Kansas in the 1930 census.
It is through these ancestors that Obama is linked to Dick Cheney; the Duvall line goes back to Mareen Duval who died in Maryland in 1694.
George Washington Overall was not Obama's only Kentucky ancestor; one of his 6g-grandfathers was Philip Ament (1755-1836) of Bourbon County, KY. There may be others, too, but those were two that I spotted quickly in a set of charts prepared by genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts illustrating Obama's connections to prominent Americans.
October 17, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
So Barack is descended from the Overalls?
Great news.
October 17, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah; makes me wonder if he is related to Parke Overall (which I had always thought was a made-up name until I saw the Overalls on that chart).
October 17, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
OMG! I am stunned and embarrassed I did not know this before. Thank you very VERY much slb.
October 17, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't have known it if I hadn't attended a lecture by Gary Boyd Roberts in August in which he presented a number of charts linking Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain to former presidents and other prominent Americans. Obama's links were definitely the most interesting (the only person he linked John McCain to in that presentation was Laura Bush), but I don't know the extent to which that is a reflection of Roberts's own political preferences. (He made no bones about telling us that everyone in the room should consider FDR to be the greatest American president!)
October 17, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
One Webb knows as well as anyone -- perhaps better than anyone -- is the Appalachian people. No way he pulled this out of his ass.
October 17, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Typo: "One THING Webb knows as well as anyone . . ."
October 17, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gee, Honest Abe was born in Kentucky,,,, and the present Honest Abe has ancestoral roots there as well. One more parallel shared by Lincoln and Obama,,,,, uncanny.
Does black Irish have anything to do with 'shanty' Irish ? The Fitzgeralds were lace curtian Irish, the Kennedy's were shanty Irish. In this part of Appalachia, that distinction is still alive and well, bye the bye.
October 17, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Black Irish" refers to people who are Irish but who have dark coloring (dark hair, dark eyes), rather than the lighter coloring of the stereotypical Irish (red hair, blue eyes, freckles).
Tyrone Powers supposedly was black Irish.
I'm black Irish.
Maybe I'm related to Obama.
October 17, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, but I"m more related, cause I have multiple genetic markers in Kenya.
:)
October 17, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
You might be related to Thin Lizzy, too.
October 17, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Supposedly the "black Irish" descend from the survivors of the 1588 Spanish Armada that beached on the coast of Ireland after the fleet was broken up by the fireboats. Other Spanish ships beached near Bergen in Norway, with the same eventual result -- a few villages with numerous dark haired, dark eyed, darker skin color amid the Blond, Blue Eyed Scandinavians.
Phillip II's Armada was, of course, just one event in the religious wars subsequent to the Reformation, Catholic Spain against Elizabeth's England. Those who landed in Norway became Lutheran, some who landed in Scotland ended up as Calvinists, and those who beached in Ireland were welcomed for their Anti-British Catholicism. A few years back a Danish Geneticist collected samples from these populations, published, and proposed the thesis that most of the Spanish Sailors were mostly Arab -- Moors.
October 17, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously? I never knew the history behind the term.
I might be Arab?
Thanks so much for sharing this information!
October 17, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's just fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
That's why I just love these boards.
October 17, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, that's interesting -- I had never heard that before. Makes sense, though; for sure there is Moorish ancestry in the Spanish royal line dating back to the time of the Moslem conquest. It only makes sense that would also be the case for the rest of the population in Spain.
October 17, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the history I heard.
October 17, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was once told by someone who seemed to know what he was talking about that the typical Celtic coloring actually was dark; the fair hair, skin, and blue eyes that we now stereotypically assign to the Scots and the Irish actually is in inheritance from Viking invaders.
(Don't we normally think of the Welsh as being dark? They are of Celtic descent as well.)
October 17, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's the way I heard it from my Irish-descent-family, too - all brunettes, by the way.
Fair "Irish" (and Scots) are Viking descendants. Real Celts are all dark.
October 17, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
It may be a combination of factors, but the Spanish armada story always did sound a tad apocryphal.
October 17, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Oct. 6th New Yorker had a very good article on what Webb is doing to help Obama in Virginia, worth a look if you have time: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/06/081006fa_fact_boyer
October 17, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
This shouldn't be a big surprise. If I had been asked I would have bet his mother's family could be tracked back to N Carolina, Kentucky and/or Tenessee. It's an extremely common historical pattern for today's Midwest WASP residents. How do you think they got to Kansas? Flew?
October 17, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tornado?
October 17, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly so.
October 17, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator Webb is quite the stand-up comedian, isn't he?
From that Politico piece:
October 17, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
BooYa! I'da fallen not only out of my chair but off the damn balcony if he'd said that!
*snicker*
October 17, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good one. Thanks for sharing it!
October 17, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Prediction: Senator Webb is going to be one of President Obama's best rods and staves -- along with Vice President Biden and First Lady Obama.
I love all four of them.
October 17, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think my husband is probably related to Obama. I am going to ask him to query his dad this weekend on the possible connection. Obama's great uncle is named Charles Payne. Payne is, indeed, a Kentucky name -- and remember who went to Kansas and from whence. It was largely settled by people moving west from Appalachia in the 30 years leading up to the Civil War. I actually wondered about this when I heard the name "Payne" to begin with because the name has such a history in Virginia and Kentucky. Of course, for all of you history buffs, that doesn't necessarily make the Paynes part of a pure Appalachian lineage, because the Paynes of Virginia came mostly from eastern VA, and were not Scotch Irish settlers that are really the base of Appalachian folk culture in SW VA and Kentucky coal mining areas. They were more likely to be among the slave owning horse people around the Louisville area -- more likely to identify with Mary Todd and Henry Clay, you might say, than Andrew Jackson or Daniel Boone.
October 17, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does this mean Obama will be introduced with the song, "Sweet Home AlObama"?
October 17, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Obama has roots in the Appalachians, does this mean he'll be introduced with the song, "Sweet Home AlObama"?
October 17, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
CT,,,, the blonde,red, hair, freckles, blue and green eyes are the genetic contribution of the Norse who went a viking in Ireland starting in the 700's, and as was their want, stayed to live and breed after a while. The native Celts are shorter, have black hair, usually straight, not terribly dark complexions and brown and hazel eyes.
A good deal of the Arab, Moorish, African genes also come from the fascination of the Veregarian Norse with such peoples and higly prized them as slaves and household servants. They brought goodly numbers of them into their lands from the slave markets of Constaninople as well as their privateering exploits in the Mediteranian and Black seas.
October 17, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
So "black Irish" might refer to the native Celts, or, the imports.
Fascinating stuff.
Where I grew up, there were more "non-black Irish" than black Irish.
October 17, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama has NO ancestry from the Appalachians NOR ALL of America. Positively NONE. We DO know ALL of these things. This is an absolute lie perpetrated about and by Obama like any other that's been progressed by the Obama viral campaign, no different than the Obama blog marketing campaign on the internet. This is another attempt to Americanize an Un-Americanizable politician by adorning it with a false history it does not deserve. Every single historical detail you have mentioned is a complete fabrication. What we do to traitors, spies and terrorists in America who fabricate themselves, however, is just beginning. And THAT'S an historical FACT you can count on. And so can Obama.
October 17, 2008 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go back to the Palin rally.
October 18, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
What, precisely, are you trying to say in your filthy, fascist way, Ken Mendell? Are you making terroristic threats against the future president of the United States of America? Because if you are, I'll be more than happy to put you in contact with the Secret Service so you can make your threats in person. In fact, think I'll just do it now, Ken Mendell.
October 18, 2008 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink