re: the polygamy angle

[cthulu2016]

This presidential election may be the first where both candidates are closely descended from polygamists.

Romney’s father was born in a polygamist commune in Mexico after Romney’s grandfather fled the United States to avoid American laws against polygamy.

Obama's father was already married in Kenya when he married Barack's mother in Hawaii, but later his first wife, Kezia, said she had granted her consent for him to marry a second wife, in keeping with Luo customs.

Wild world!

[Herlong]

1. Point?

[SunsetDreams]

4. Your guess is as good as mine.

[fishwax]

2. it was Romney's great-grandfather who was the polygamist, iirc

His grandfather left the US, yes, but was unmarried and in his early teens when Romney's great grandparents moved the family to Mexico. So Romney is three generations out from a polygamous relationship. Which is still closer than any other candidate I know of offhand, other than (as you point out) Obama.

[ZombieHorde]

3. I am not familiar with the sexual practices of previous Presidential candidates recent ancestors,

but you may be right. I think that is interesting because most Americans seem to be against polygamy.

[cthulu2016]

5. I thought it peculiar because it's 2012

If a trivia game said "Name the presidential election where both candidates had fairly close ancestral ties to polygamist cultures" one would assume it must be some very old election.

Anyway, it is also interesting in terms of the historical prevalence of polygamy. For an institution that has "always been between one man and one woman" it's funny. Old testament figures didn't always seem to have gotten the message. The dominant religion around the mediterranean for centuries during what we think of as the Christian era was actually Islam. Polygamy is found in Africa, in Asia... and for a while in America.

So I guess that "always" is not all it's cracked up to be.

[ZombieHorde]

6. I agree. That is also interesting to me. nt