
It is something surprising; both have mothers born in the U.S.A. and fathers born in foreign countries. Obama’s mother was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Romney’s in Logan, Utah. Obama’s father was born in Kogelo, Kenya, Romney’s in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Romney’s great grandfather, Miles Romney, emigrated from Dalton-in-Furness, England. His son, Gaskell Romney, Mitt’s granddad, born in St. George, Utah, was sent by the Mormon Church to start a colony in St. Johns, Arizona, where he, his five wives and children, were decidedly unwelcome. After the whole family was threatened with lynching, he moved his clan to Chihuahua, Mexico, and bought land from dictator/president, José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori.

George Romney went on to become CEO of American Motors, Governor of Michigan, and a Republican candidate for president. If anyone mentioned that he’d been born in a foreign country, the argument was made that his parents had been natural born citizens, so he was too, despite having been born in a foreign land.
The recent “birtherist” slur against Barack Obama uttered by Mitt Romney when campaigning in Michigan, raises the old question about Mitt’s father, who, despite uncontested evidence that he’d been born in a foreign country, could become a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1968.