Please note: the photo is only speculation as to how the common ancestor of President Obama and Sarah Palin might have appeared.
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but we’re finding that it makes for even more surprising family relationships. Ancestry.com may not have anticipated the non-kissing cousins they’d uncover when they set out to trace the ancestry of well-known politicians and pundits on both sides of the political aisle, but the results of this search are enough to put you off of the idea of ancestor tracing entirely.
Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are 10th cousins sharing a common ancestor who was a 17th century Protestant pastor in Massachusetts. Obama is a 10th cousin once removed from Rush Limbaugh, and is also an 11th cousin of George Bush through a different ancestor.
Continuing the ministry theme, which makes for interesting speculation, Harry Reid, Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin share a common ancestor from England. The scofflaw was exiled to the U.S. for his ministry of an illegal independent church. Draw your own conclusions here.
In 2008 it was revealed that Barack Obama and Dick Cheney were distantly related, causing Obama to joke that Cheney was "The black sheep of the family."
The article which originated on Ancestry.com goes into the relationships in greater detail.