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From Special Irish Fest Race-To-The-White-House Correspondent Barbara Scanlon:

So Who Has The Best Connections?

•Barack Obama

Destined to pip Brian Cowen as the most famous Big Intelligent Fella From Offaly (BIFFO), Obama has the eyes of Moneygall village upon him as he vies to become president.

With a great-great-great grandfather who emigrated to America to escape the Famine, Obama has joined the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of Americans with an Irish heritage.

But for Offaly's newly adopted son, the Irish links don't stop there.

His adviser, a Pulitzer Prize winner and front-line reporter from Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda, and East Timor, is Dublin-born Samantha Power.

•John McCain

In the nooks and crannies of Antrim, Derry and Donegal, hundreds of ninth cousins of Senator John McCain have been quietly waging a campaign of support.

Having proven his ancestral links to the 'Drumboe McKanes', who emigrated in the early 1700s, he would be a welcome visitor among the McKanes and McKeans of the Finn Valley in Donegal.

In 2005, he received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the American Ireland Fund before an audience of Gerry Adams and the McCartney sisters. In a steely speech he claimed that "stealing from banks and slaying men on the streets to settle personal grievances are not the acts of freedom fighters."

•Hillary Clinton

She's been to Ireland seven times, has pledged to return this year and recently presented Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley with photos of her husband switching on the Christmas tree lights in Belfast 12 years ago.

In keeping with that objective of attracting Irish loyalties and their bank account details, she became the first-ever American presidential candidate to hold a fundraiser in Ireland last year.

To date, Irish campaigners have raised over $2m and the Irish American Democrats' group and the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform have rowed in behind her. -The Irish Independent On-Line

So if you pick your candidate according to his or her relative Irishness, there you go. You are now an informed voter. Be heard, fellow citizen.