Saturday, May 17, 2008
What's in a name? (encore)
About four minutes after last night's "Quote of the day" post was published, I got an e-mail from some jackaninny named Keepsake3609 objecting to my use of "B. Hussein" to describe Senator Barry Obama. I addressed this issue several weeks ago like this ...
During the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns, liberals couldn't resist using George Bush's middle names at any and every turn. Calling him George Herbert Walker Bush made the Vice President/President appear patrician and, thus, less understanding of the needs and concerns of the workin' man. We conservatives took this name-calling - accurate name-calling to be sure - all in stride. That's politics, we said.
Fast forward to 2008 ...
A growing number of liberals have their panties in a twist 'cause conservative radio hosts and a small number of Republican political operatives have started referring to U.S. Senator Barack Obama by his full name: Barack Hussein Obama. That's bigotry, they say.
There are two facts that the using-"Hussein"-when-referring-to-Obama-is-racist folks have conveniently ignored: First, that former-President Bill Clinton, a fellow liberal who's never exhibited any racist tendencies, was the first person to regularly use the H-word, if you will, when referring to Senator Obama; and second, that St. Obama himself was the first person to highlight the ethnic portions of his name for political purposes.
For years B. Hussein Obama was known to family, friends and colleagues as "Barry." When he began his political career, however, Obama realized that the über-ethnic "Barack" would impress left-wing money-givers and voters more than a white bread name like "Barry" (pun absolutely intended). His ethnic name game obviously worked; indeed, he went from the Illinois State Senate to presidenial front-runner in 36 short months.
I've taken to referring to Senator Obama as "B. Hussein" 'cause, to tell the truth, it gets under liberals' skin like a two-inch syringe. If liberals have a problem with conservatives using the man's honest-to-God middle name, perhaps they should try to convince their flavor-of-the month candidate to go back to bein' plain ol' "Barry." It'd make liberals and B. Hussein, er, Barry seem a tad less hypocritical.
During the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns, liberals couldn't resist using George Bush's middle names at any and every turn. Calling him George Herbert Walker Bush made the Vice President/President appear patrician and, thus, less understanding of the needs and concerns of the workin' man. We conservatives took this name-calling - accurate name-calling to be sure - all in stride. That's politics, we said.
Fast forward to 2008 ...
A growing number of liberals have their panties in a twist 'cause conservative radio hosts and a small number of Republican political operatives have started referring to U.S. Senator Barack Obama by his full name: Barack Hussein Obama. That's bigotry, they say.
There are two facts that the using-"Hussein"-when-referring-to-Obama-is-racist folks have conveniently ignored: First, that former-President Bill Clinton, a fellow liberal who's never exhibited any racist tendencies, was the first person to regularly use the H-word, if you will, when referring to Senator Obama; and second, that St. Obama himself was the first person to highlight the ethnic portions of his name for political purposes.
For years B. Hussein Obama was known to family, friends and colleagues as "Barry." When he began his political career, however, Obama realized that the über-ethnic "Barack" would impress left-wing money-givers and voters more than a white bread name like "Barry" (pun absolutely intended). His ethnic name game obviously worked; indeed, he went from the Illinois State Senate to presidenial front-runner in 36 short months.
I've taken to referring to Senator Obama as "B. Hussein" 'cause, to tell the truth, it gets under liberals' skin like a two-inch syringe. If liberals have a problem with conservatives using the man's honest-to-God middle name, perhaps they should try to convince their flavor-of-the month candidate to go back to bein' plain ol' "Barry." It'd make liberals and B. Hussein, er, Barry seem a tad less hypocritical.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Saturday, May 17, 2008 
