Is the Presidency an "Old Boys" club? (apologies to Hillary Clinton)

- Since 1928, there have been no Republicans elected President without the name Bush or Nixon on the ticket.

- Since 1952, there has been only one election year (1964) in which the name Nixon, Dole or Bush did not appear on the Republican ticket.

- If Hillary Clinton is elected President in 2008 and serves two terms, then The United States will have spent 28 straight years with either a Bush or a Clinton as President and 36 years with a Bush or a Clinton on the winning ticket!

- Since 1900, a Roosevelt has been elected to serve for 24 years (cut short by FDR's death), Nixon was on the winning ticket elected to serve 16 years (cut short by resignation), and a Bush has been on the winning ticket elected to serve 20 years.

- Of course, Teeddy Roosevelt and FDR were distant cousins and not closely related. However, Teddy was also a distant cousin of Martin Van Buren, and FDR was also a distant cousin of Zachary Taylor. Both were also related to Winston Churchill.

The Presidency is starting to make North Carolina's gene pool look larger!

Inspired by the last half of this article.

Can't begin to match that in Britain! Four of our Prime Ministers have been closely related (Pitt the Elder and Pitt the Younger were father and son and Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour were uncle and nephew)

Ours are linked by education. Of the 54 ( starting with Robert Walpole in 1730), 11 did not attend a university, 2 were at Edinburgh, 1 at Birmingham but no less than 40 were at 'Oxbridge' (26 at Oxford and 14 and Cambridge). And the exclusive 'Public School' , Eton College has provided 18 Prime Ministers.It's great rival, Harrow School, has provided but 7. If Mr Cameron wins for the Conservatives he'll be the 19th Old Etonian and the 27th Oxonian. Oxford and Cambridge have attracted the most intellectually able of our young people for very many years. (Mr Cameron looks set to break that sequence )

Of course, most of our monarchs have been closely related to others. No wonder we are fond of saying that Britain is a republic that thinks it's a monarchy and the United States is a monarchy that thinks it's a republic

Just about half of the US presidents are descended from one of England's early kings, most from one of the Edwards. Slightly less than that are more closely related. We've had two sets of father/son (H.W. and W. Bush, John and John Q. Adams) and one set of grandfather/grandson (Wm. Henry and Benjamin Harrison).

Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were 5th cousins, descended from Nicholas Roosevelt (or Nicholas Van Rosenvelt), son of Claes Martensz van Rosenvelt (Roosevelt), who came to the US from the Netherlands in 1640. Nicholas was the first Roosevelt elected to public office in the New World, being elected an alderman in New Amsterdam. Nicholas was the last common ancestor of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts (including Eleanor and Theodore Roosevelt), founded by his son Johannes, and the Hyde Park Roosevelts (including Franklin Delano Roosevelt), founded by his son Jacobus. The Oyster Bay Roosevelts had the real money in the family.

Franklin's paternal grandmother, Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, wife of the fifth U.S. President, James Monroe. Another of his ancestors was John Lothropp, also an ancestor of Benedict Arnold and Joseph Smith, Jr., who founded the Mormon CHurch. One of his distant relatives from his mother's side is the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. FDR's mother was a sixth-generation descendant of Rebecca Stoughton, sister of William Stoughton, judge and prosecutor during the Salem Witch Trials. Franklin's parents were distant cousins as well, just as Theodore's parents were also cousins. Theodore's brother Elliott was the father of Eleanor Roosevelt, and his sister Corinne, (grandmother of newspaper columnists, Joseph and Stewart Alsop).