Is anyone talking about the upside of having a president whose middle name is 'Hussein'?

[jgraz]

Thanks to Commander Bunnypants, we'll be dealing with a very hostile Muslim world for the foreseeable future. It may be superficial, but don't you think electing a president with a Muslim-sounding name could open some diplomatic doors that would otherwise be closed to us?

Just a thought...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I don't think that matters for shit.

But I will be glad to see a little diversity in the WH, just for its own sake.

[jgraz]

6. If nothing else, it's a way to counter the RW attack bullshit

[Captain Hilts]

2. I did. I said it could be a real asset. As is having Bubba Clinton for a spouse.

Folks in the Middle East and Africa want Bubba back.

[panader0]

3. The upside is as insignificant as the downside.

[islandmkl]

4. if muslim extremists/yahoos/etc. are no more intelligent or informed than their

'western' counterparts...this may have possibilities.

[ronnykmarshall]

5. We can nick name him "Hussy"?

[Benhurst]

7. Yeah, especially since the Arabs get along sooooooooo well with each other.

[XemaSab]

8. I have thought about that, and yes, I think it'll make it less like it's

a war on Islam. :)

[noamnety]

9. This seems vaguely insulting to me.

I dunno, I'm trying to figure out how I would feel if I heard Iraqis talking about how maybe they should elect someone with a middle name of "Thomas" cause American troops would like them more if only their leader had a Christian middle name.

I think the reason there is anti-American sentiment has to do a lot more with our neoliberal policies, and I suspect they'd be more appreciative of Obama if his middle name was John - and he agreed to pull ALL the troops out of Iraq, instead of just the combat troops, and if he dropped that idea of leaving some troops there to protect "our" interests in their country.

[LisaL]

10. Oh dear lord. How do you people come up with this?

Muslims gonna love him cause his middle name is Hussein?
O'key.

[jgraz]

11. And which "you people" would that be?

[rug]

12. Gamaliel didn't help very much.

[PurityOfEssence]

13. Have you thought about a president who can be portrayed as having renounced Islam?

Fair or not, it's not going to go over well in a lot of places...

[Major Hogwash]

14. What was the upside for the Commander in Chief whose middle name was Rudolph?

And he couldn't even walk down a flight of stairs when deboarding an airplane?

If they really want to make a big deal out of his middle name, they've got nothing.

[jkshaw]

15. I don't understand the animus toward the name Hussein

I never did. Saddam was always just Saddam. And King Hussein of Jordan was a good friend of the US and the west from 1952 to 1999.Wikipedia writes that Hussein concluded negotiations to end the official state of war with Israel resulting in the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace. He'd been negotiating with the Israelis from back in the 1970s. Level headed, a peacemaker among the Arabs. He was often in the US newspapers for one thing or another during those forty-some years. The name Hussein should actually be familiar to people who do any reading. Or did, I mean. He's been dead for eight years.