The club that Barack Obama now joins has traditionally been far more exclusive than just all white and all male. There has never been an Italian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Russian, Greek, Spaniard, or Hispanic elected to the White House. No descendent of the great waves of immigration from southern and eastern Europe that washed over this country in the 19th century has ever made it. Nor has anyone of Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian descent ever been elected.
Most presidential ancestors came from 18th- and 17th-century British immigrations in which the few names ending in vowels were mostly Scottish or Irish. It is interesting to note that the newest president is the descendant of Luo tribesmen. The Luo moved into what is now Kenya from the southern Sudan
Writing in the Boston Globe, H.D.S. Greenway has authored an interesting piece that gives an overview of the ethnic origins of the country's leaders. You can read his article at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/20/an_exclusive_club_at_the_white_house/
