Hey, did you know that Obama and I are cousins?

I learned of this surprising family link when a cousin conducting genealogical research contacted me recently: “And by the way, did you know you’re kin to Barack?”

Apparently, we are descended of brothers whose parents — Johann Pieter Straub and Anna Maria Barbara Hoffman — emigrated from Germany to the colonies about 1733. According to the family grid, Obama and I seem to be eighth cousins once removed.

I am proud to be Obama’s cousin. But that bond doesn’t blind me to his — and our — flaws. In my earlier column, I sought only to offer one possible reason the president is paying such a high price for his response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. American culture is complicated, and gender expectations play an important part. Like it or not, that includes not only our more progressive contemporary thinking about such matters but also our less progressive history. Together, this mix of ideas forms a minefield that leaders must traverse.