A rose by any other name

Have you ever seen anyone on the talk show circuits - or in print - refer to a certain Republican Senator/presidential contender as John Sidney McCain III? What about Rudolph William Louis Giuliani III? Did you know that the former first lady's middle name was Diane? Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. Yes, we've heard people use her maiden name along with the one she received when she married William Jefferson Clinton (nee William Jefferson Blythe III). Now there is one potential candidate out there that uses his middle name, that would be the Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. He uses his middle name all the time - it's his first name he never uses - of course, if my name was Willard Mitt Romney, I'd probably use my middle name too - even if it did sound like a piece of athletic equipment. Did you know that Dennis Kucinich's middle name was John? There's Thomas James Vilsack, William Blaine Richardson, Johnny Reid Edwards, John Forbes Kerry, Newton Leroy Gingrich, George Elmer Pataki, and Michael Rubens Bloomberg. Most of you didn't even know the full name of any of these candidates.

On the other hand, there is Barack Hussein Obama. Now, thanks to the Right Wing pundits and bloggers, Obama's middle name is well known to anyone who is following the race to the White House. The unfortunate part of this is that the Right is using it in an attempt to put an idea in the psyche of voters that, perhaps, Obama is an enemy of the state. This is of course a ridiculous notion.

These are the same people who keep saying that Obama doesn't stand for anything - another ridiculous statement. You cannot be a United States Senator and not leave some kind of record - either a voting record, or a record of bills introduced. These same people say Obama doesn't have any foreign relations experience - the fact that he specialized in International Relations while he was a Political Science major at Columbia University and has sat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee for the past two years must not count.

So, before you start spreading the name of Hussein, don't forget about Willard, Rubens, Blaine, Leroy, Sidney and Forbes. No, they're not foreign sounding, but they certainly are silly!

(cross posted on my other blog - Left of Centrist)