The First Dutch American President

With all the innuendo about Obama being “foreign” and too exotic for America, it’s interesting to note that the United States has a long history of selecting Presidents from outside the so-called mainstream. America’s eighth President, Martin Van Buren, was the first Dutch American President. Actually, his first language wasn’t even English; he grew up speaking Dutch. I have an affinity for the name of Van Buren since I spent my childhood in a house on Van Buren Street in San Mateo, California. I still remember the address. One of my best friends was also named Martin, so somehow the name Martin Van Buren sticks in my memory, even though I knew nothing about the man. Looking at Wikipedia, however, I can say we owe a lot to Van Buren. He played a leading role in forming the early Democratic Party. Ironically his name was linked to a man named DeWitt Clinton, and according to Wikipedia “He allied himself with the Clintonian faction of the Democratic-Republican Party,” Coincidentally DeWitt Clinton was a Senator and Governor of New York. Strange how those names keep popping up in history. Van Buren’s nickname was “Old Kinderhook” since he was born in Kinderhook, New York. According to one theory, this is where we get our ubiquitous word “O.K.”  It was originally Van Buren’s stamp of approval. OK, believe what you want to believe. If Barack Obama does manage to become president, however, I doubt that “B.O.” would go over well with the public.