Saturday, December 02, 2006

BARACK FELIX OBAMA   [Byron York]

Maureen Dowd is worried that the Republican smear machine is at it again, attacking Barack Obama by using…his middle name.  It seems Ed Rogers referred to Obama by his full name on "Hardball" a while back, setting off indignation among some on the left.  I don't know why it came to Rogers' mind, but it is true I included Obama's middle name in an NR story (not available on the web) in early November:

Obama has joked that he worried his political career was over after 9/11 because his name sounded too much like Osama. In fact, it's better than that: Named after his father, his full name is Barack Hussein Obama Jr.

Whatever the source, Rogers' comment caused MSNBC's Keith Olbermann some distress.  "We have this right-wing implication that you must have the right name or the right God to be American," Olbermann said.  "This fellow Ed Rogers, among others, has taken to calling Senator Obama Barack Hussein Obama." Olbermann wondered what the proper response should be: "Is it to point out the racial element to this, or the religious element to this? Or is it just to say, this is beneath contempt and not worthy of any response?"

And now Dowd. "The Republicans are expert at tying Democrats to villains," she writes.  "Mr. Rogers's bad-boy mentor, Lee Atwater, yoked Willie Horton to Michael Dukakis. Mr. Atwater and his successors also liked to present their side as being more American."

Now, it is one thing to report Obama's full name — that's completely fair.  In addition, it seems illustrative of the Obama phenomenon that so many Democrats have gotten so excited about him and don't even know his name.  On the other hand, it's another thing to regularly refer to him by his full name when you would not otherwise do so — that is, were it not "Hussein." Hopefully that won't catch on.

Of course, all this might generate a little more sympathy had not some Democrats in recent months become so fond of the name "George Felix Allen, Jr."  During the campaign, winning Senate candidate James Webb routinely referred to his opponent as George Felix Allen, Jr. (just search for the name at webbforsenate.com.)  Although it wasn't even correct — Allen, whose father's middle name was Herbert, wasn't a junior — the use of Allen's full name was clearly a campaign strategy, first, to diminish Allen, and then, after news of Allen's Jewish ancestry emerged, to make an oblique reference to that.

So now Maureen Dowd, Olbermann, and others are upset about Barack Hussein Obama.  Perhaps if they had criticized the whole George Felix Allen thing, they might have more credibility.

12/02 05:40 PMShare