Obama, Not The First American President With Black Blood
By Debo Oladimeji

A NIGERIAN-BASED American, Mr. John Cashin has described United States President-elect Barack Obama as the 8th American President with black blood in his veins.

According to him, the last US President with 25 per cent African blood was President David "Ike" Eisenhower, whose President mother, Ida Elisabeth Stover, was a half-cast.

"She met a German immigrant, named David J. Eisenhower, and their son later became the President of United States," he stated.

Before Eisenhower, he mentioned Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Abraham Lincoln, whose father was also a black mulatto, among others.

"Before Abraham Lincoln was Andrew Jackson from Tennessee and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who both had a grandmother that was also partly Native American and partly black," he posited.

He also cited the important roles of black Congressmen in American politics. "Then you have the Swedish and Black President of the Congress, Mr. John Hanson, the very first non-executive President under the Articles of Confederation from 1781-1782, prior to the United States Constitution.

"The last black senator, before him was a Republican Edward W. Brooke, who was elected in 1966 in Massachusetts after being the State Attorney General. Before that, we have had several other black Congressmen. I had a family member named John Mercer Langston, who was elected in 1890 from Virginia, when he was a Virginia State Senator," he recalled.

In 1972, he disclosed that America had a black woman Congressman named Shirley Chislom and a black named Dick Gregory also in 1972, who was a comedian and ran for the Presidency.

"Then, we have Rev. Jesse Jackson Snr. He ran twice for the Presidency in 1984 and 1988. After Jackson, some other blacks people ran for the Presidency, including Dr. Lenora Fulani of New Alliance Party and another Black Congresswoman this year (2008), Cynthia McKinney of Atlanta, Georgia on the Green Party Ticket," he enthused.

Obama, he reasoned, was not the first black senator, as there was another black woman from Chicago, Carol Mosley Braun.

But he agreed that Obama is the first African-American President popularly elected. "To me, he is an American-African President. His father is from Kenya, his mother a Jewish-American," he stressed.

According to him, a lot of people did not hear of Obama until he became Senator-elect and made his remarkable speech at the Democratic Party Convention in 2004. Also, Cashin said a lot of people do not know that Obama ran for the US House of Representatives before the Senate but lost to Congressman Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther Party member, now a Democrat in Congress from Chicago's South Side 2nd District. He is the Representative in the district next to Jesse Jackson Jnr. Rush, he explained, was a member of the Black Panther Party, which had membership all over the US and quite a presence in Chicago, California and New York. He has been popular in that part of Chicago community since the 1960s.

He also reminisced that there was a black woman that was once in the presidential race on the Green Party ticket. "She was a Congresswoman from Atlanta for 10 years until she started a campaign for the Green Party ticket with former Hip Hop Rap star from New York City, a Hispanic woman, Rosa Clemente, who was her Veepee," Cashin stated.

He explained that Obama, who won the popular vote fought against the institution of slavery.

He said that it was gratifying that Obama ran against the institution of slavery and won, recalling that the President-elect also secured the support of black celebrities, like Oprah Winfrey, who happened to be his church congregation member and decided to have a show dedicated to his presidential campaign.

"That was a critical turning point in the whole campaign and her media power was a key turning point, and then the whole snowball effect took place.

"Without it, I don't think Obama would have got the money to pull through the party primaries. The show was meant for support but it was a key critical turning point. That Africentric Church member, Oprah Winfrey, had that show dedicated to him and that set a big stage for Obama," he emphasised.

"Without that Oprah show, I don't think he (Obama) could have had the money to win. But for such a black leader, like John Lewis, who supported Hillary Clinton originally to say that he going with Obama was risky. This is because even one year ago, Hilary was it. But now, everybody knows who Obama is. A year and half ago, it was like Obama who?"

According to Cashin, Obama's journey to the White House was not an easy one. "Obama had to learn American style of campaigning. He was taught a big lesson when Bobby Rush beat him. No campaign has been done like the Obama campaign. Everybody started copying Obama's campaign strategy eventually," he reasoned.

He added that Obama had to speak at a large National Football Stadium in Denver town to show the world that he deserved to be voted for by the American people.

"Today, you can't win elections in the United States without a hi-tech. Obama's team showed that those old ways of campaigning are now gone. Every three weeks, there was a major change in the ICT strategy. The Obama campaign was caucus community style and had a very humane element too. Internet people are thinkers; once you have the thinkers behind you, they can begin to convince the common man to vote for you. This helped youthful Obama's campaign tremendously," he said.

He regretted that the US election process is not fair for everybody, saying only Maine and Nebraska select electors somewhat constitutionally.

"In only these two states, the electors are chosen district by district instead of winner take all, like in the other 48 states," he stated.

Cashin's family has been actively involved in American politics since the 1870s.

Culled from The Guardian,Saturday, November 29, 2008

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/africa/article01/indexn2_html?pdate=291108&ptitle=Obama,%20Not%20The%20First%20American%20President%20With%20Black%20Blood

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i thought this was an OLD STORY?

hisses and walks away.

lol nonsense

ridiculous

Xcuse me Sir! Whar da heck is da Xssence 4 this em Topic Me is supposin it to be 4 da RECORDS aigh??!?

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Who gives a shit.
According to science, we all have a common black ancestry so what the hell

ALL humans originated from Africa!

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All these Africans that are drunk on Obama issue must make themselves available for further education. There is nothing like acquiring knowledge no matter the degree of its obscurity.

Like Obama who has been wrongly floated as first African-American president of USA, George Washington has also been regarded as the first president of USA. Those of you who seemed miffed about this true revelation of these facts must be loaded on skewed sentiments.

kosovo:

i thought this was an OLD STORY?

I didn't realise that many Nigerians like you make their living through the stock market.
Sorry about your loses!!! What a shame! Next time just keep the money safe under your pillow.

The Ishu, and Iyan, in this matter is that He is the first well known and celebrated Black american to be voted in as president of an all white country Period. Shikena!

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