US elections: Short name, short odds

[emad]

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Online Magazine

What's the big question US presidential candidates should be asking themselves?

Is my name short enough?

You only have to glance at the credits on a Hollywood movie to see the polysyllabic, ethnic diversity of surnames in the great melting pot of the United States.

But when it comes to voting for a president, the gene pool shrinks rapidly, and the preference is for monikers that are blunt and Anglo-Saxon. So if you want to find a way of forecasting who is going to win the race for the presidency, look at the lengths and origins of their names. The pattern since World War II has been for candidates with increasingly short, poster-friendly names. And preferably sounding like they could be the lead characters in a mini-series.
More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3727606.stm

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Too bad Malcolm X never ran for public office.

A missed opportunity!

[rockymountaindem]

2. Ok, I'm still in...

5 letters, German origin.

Now all I have to do is overcome the fact that I'm only 5'7'', and I could be President someday.

[LuminousX]

3. The Problem of N

Too small of a sample size to really learn anything.