Dogs, Cats And Pets Of Presidential Candidates
Here’s a summary of the dogs, cats, birds, fish and other pets owned by the 2008 republican and democratic presidential candidates. It’s not how many pets you have, or any at all, but how you treat all pets.
(Pictured: Socks Bush Clinton)
Presidential candidate factoids:
- Out of 14 hopefuls, 9 presidential candidates currently have pets.
- Only 2 have a cat and a dog.
- Democratic candidates have 9 pets.
- Republican candidates have 31 pets.
- John McCain leads the pack (or zoo) with 22 pets.
Democratic Presidential Candidates and Their Pets
- Joe Biden: Delaware Senator
- 1 cat
- Hillary Rodham Clinton: New York Senator
- 1 dog: Seamus (Labrador retreiver)
- Chris Dodd: Connecticut Senator
- None: States family’s allergies as the issue, but said would like a dog.
- John Edwards: Former North Carolina Senator
- 2 dogs: A Golden retriever, and a chocolate Labrador retriever
- Dennis Kucinich: Ohio Representative
- 3 dogs: Harry (beagle-basset), Lucie (beagle), and George (cocker spaniel).
- Barack Obama: Illinois Senator
- None: Says he’s facing pressure to get a dog from the kids.
- Bill Richardson: New Mexico Governer
- 2 cats: Jake, and Squeaky
Republican Presidential Candidates and Their Pets
- Sam Brownback: Kansas Senator
- 2 dogs
- 2 cats
- 1 fish
- Rudy Giuliani: Former New York Mayor
- None
- Mike Huckabee: Former Arkansas Governor
- 2 dogs: Jet (black Labrador retriever), and Sonic (Shih Tzu)
- Duncan Hunter: California Representative
- 2 dogs: Boo (black Labrador retriever), and Hunter (black Labrador retriever).
- John McCain: Arizona Senator
- 1 cat: Oreo (black and white cat)
- 2 dogs: Sam (English springer spaniel), and Coco (mutt)
- 13 fish: (saltwater)
- 1 ferret
- 3 parakeets
- 2 turtles: Cuff, and Link
- Mitt Romney: Former Massachusetts Governor
- None: Family recently lost Marley, a Weimaraner. Read about family dog Seamus’ 12-hour ordeal on top of Romney’s car. And why we think Romney should not be president.
- Tom Tancredo: Colorado Representative
- None
(Source: AP)
June 29th, 2007 at 10:00 am
The caption says “pictured: Socks Bush”. I believe that Socks was in the White House as a pet of Chelsea Clinton. You may wish to correct that.
June 29th, 2007 at 10:25 am
I think the Bushes are parents to a couple of dogs. Terriers?
June 29th, 2007 at 10:30 am
There is no Socks Bush.
Thats Socks Clinton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socks_(cat)
June 29th, 2007 at 11:00 am
edwards HAS a golden retreiver or he IS a golden retreiver? i’m confused- the 2 look alike.
the bushes have barney and friend-terriers and a black cat.barney has videos for kids up on the white house web site. the cat runs through them occassionally. there’s a’ pet’ steer somewhere in the mix too…
socks was left behind in washington when the clinton’s left the white house because he didn’t get along with the dog they bought to make bill look less like a lecherous creep and more like a family man during that whole gross impeachment thing. some ex-staffer rescued the abondoned socks who i heard from the white house pastry chef at the time was referred to as ‘ the Beast’.
i’d prefer a cat person in the presidents seat thank you- not someone who feels the need to have something drooling and submissive at his/her feet.( i do like dogs mind you but i am really all about the cats. i’m quite fond of wire hairfox terriers because they seem like cats- aloof. no drooling.)
June 29th, 2007 at 11:27 am
As others have said, that’s Socks Clinton, and the caption should be corrected.
Socks was Chelsea’s cat. When the Clintons left the White House and she went to college, it wasn’t practical for her to take the cat with her, and no, Socks didn’t really get along with Bill’s dog, and a staffer who’d been with them a long time and had a good relationship with Socks offered to take him. This counts as “abandonment” only in the Bizarro universe where everything done by a Clinton is evil because it was done by a Clinton.
Back when Clinton was first elected, and the press was treating everything about them, including Chelsea and including the cat, as both public property and inanimate objects, Bill Clinton stepped quite firmly to stop photographers’ harassment of the cat and limit the “cute” pictures to a frequency and duration that the cat could cope with easily. (The Clintons were also remarkably effective in limiting Chelsea’s exposure to the media nastiness, but since she’s one of the Evil Clintons herself, that’s not important.)
June 29th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
[…] Of Pets and Presidents […]
June 29th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
So corrected. :)
June 29th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Hmmm, might have to learn more about Bill Richardson and Joe Biden.
Seems like every person I have known that says “I hate cats” turns out to be and awful person in the long run!!
June 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Look at all the pure bred dogs, guess the unique distinctive mixed breed just doesn’t cut it in the upper echelon crowd. Have to keep up the appearances–notice almost all of the breeds are those we all equate with the wholesome happy all-american family.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Dennis Kucinich’s dogs are all rescues! :)
June 30th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
“Mitt Romney: Former Massachusetts Governor
None: Family recently lost Marley, a Weimaraner”
I wonder how Romney treated this dog. Did he too have to ride the roof?
January 24th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
The Bush’s have Barney & Miss Beasley two Scottish Terriers & India the cat.