There is nothing wrong with Obama's middle name!

[Dhalgren]

Hussein is a good, ancient, strong name. It is Obama's middle name and he should be proud of it. We should not be buying into the concept that Obama should be ashamed of his name, period. Barack Hussein Obama is his name. We should all start using it constantly and get beyond this silly, "you have a funny name" childishness. Fuck some racist, ancient white Republican MF who thinks he needs to apologize because someone used Barack Hussein Obama's name! Fuck him! Obama has nothing to be ashamed of and fuck anyone apologizing for his name. Good gods! Sorry, my rant is officially over. I have not supported Obama or Clinton, but this crap about Obama's name does not serve him well and we should all put a stop to it! Thank you...

[0007]

1. bttft and recommend!

[Pirate Smile]

2. I guess Rove has warned them not to use it as an attack - it will backfire.

Rove: Don't "Hussein" OBama
27 Feb 2008 08:40 am

No less an authority figure than Karl Rove has warned Republican operatives from demagoguing Barack Obama's middle name.

At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, "Sen. Obama."

"The context was, you're not going to stimatize this guy. You shouldn't underestimate him," one of the executive directors said. Rove said that the use of "Barack Hussein Obama" would perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted and would hurt the party.

Rove also said that Republicans should refer to Hillary Clinton as "Sen. Clinton," rather than "Hillary."

Right wing figures are set to ignore Rove's advice. Rush Limbaugh used Obama's middle name more than a year ago, and Ann Coulter regularly uses the middle name, once calling him "President Hussein." So does Michael Savage, who once asked whether Obama was a "so-called friendly Muslim" or one more "radical."

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/02/rove_dont_hussein_obama_1.php

[Recursion]

6. Both the right and the left have missed how Rove actually operates

This is a great example of it: attack your opponent's strength without appearing to attack. It's almost like tai chi. I'd love to see the guy land in jail, but it's kind of amusing to watch how much worse the rest of the GOP is at this than he is.

[tigereye]

24. good point!

love the tai chi comparison...

[Demagitator]

15. Republicans often talk using half sentences....

I'm sure he was thinking; or, it was said behind closed doors, wait until we get him elected as the Dem candidate, first; then start making jokes about his middle name. The joke factor, then reinforces it must be a joke to vote for a Democrat.

Trust me, on this...as soon as Obama officially wins. His middle name; will be front page news, over and over and over again.

[mikelgb]

33. I have predicted this for awhile now...

[CanonRay]

3. Spot on

[hobbit709]

4. The BS about his middle name

makes as much sense as claiming that anyone named "Josef" or "Adolf" is Stalin or Hitler reborn. He didn't choose his middle name in the first place.

[Sensitivity]

5. Voters CARE!!! Bin Laden used to be an honored name in the W.H. It no longer is.

Lots of people don't use their middle name because the name is quaint or no longer has the
same panache it once held. It is clearly a prejudicial tactic to emphasize an opponent's name that has been demonized by the media for the last 2 decades.

[Dhalgren]

8. Anyone who would not vote for Obama because of his middle name

would not vote for him anyway. Buying into this fear of his middle name will hurt him and Democrats in the long run. Up thread it was posted that Rove himself told operatives not to go the "hussein" rout because it would backfire. I think we should all (including Obama) embrace his middle name and move on - it is not an issue.

[EFerrari]

7. It's never the thing itself but the context that racists use it in. n/t

[Dhalgren]

9. But anyone who is racist enough to let his middle name, Hussein,

influence their vote, would never vote for him anyway. Barack Hussein Obama is his name, it is not an issue. There is absolutely no reason for him not to be proud of his name and move on.

[EFerrari]

13. He's been dealing with this cr@p for a long time now and

he's doing just fine with it.

The issue isn't his name. The issue is public displays of bigotry. They need to be confronted and rejected. Or, denounced. :)

[Dhalgren]

17. More than just denounced!

We should all start using his full name all the time. Screw these simpletons! His name is not an issue - and his name ain't going away, so let repetition make the name banale...

[hendo]

10. It isn't

the use of his middle name, it is the tone in which it is used.

That is what they need to appologize for.

[Eurobabe]

11. It is a diminuitive of the Arabic name Hasan

Means good or handsome.

Let the CONS go racist on it, I dare them. It will back fire BIG TIME on their asses.

[Demagitator]

20. No it won't backfire

Even actors are to afraid to use their real name; for fear of getting typecast into roles they don't want. Case in point, Martin Sheen refused to use a hispanic name, for fear they would typecast him into hispanic only roles.

[Eurobabe]

23. That's your opinion, I have mine.

But thanks for playing :hi:

Just curious, what's with your name? Do you come here to agitate Democrats? Should I be ignoring you?

[Demagitator]

26. No don't ignore me...

I am a non-affiliated party liberal Democrat.

[Eurobabe]

30. OK, there's just been a rash of trolls

on DU, so most people who might agitate get put on my ignore list. I just went through it, and found 6 that I had blacklisted were tombstoned in the past week. I have good intuition.

Welcome to DU!

[Nye Bevan]

12. We don't say "Hillary Diane Clinton"

and I am sure most people don't even know that that is her middle name. Why not? Because she does not refer to herself this way and there are no other Hillary Clintons that we need to distinguish her from.

So I am not going to start calling Obama "Barak Hussein Obama". I couldn't care less what his middle name is but he has shown no indication that he wants to be referred to this way. It's just common courtesy to use the name that he uses himself.

[IsItJustMe]

18. I won't either. Seems that there is a double standard being applied here. I go by how a person

refers to themselves. I never use my middle name and nobody knows it. I have never heard Obama refer to himself by his middle name, and therefore I will not use it. I never even knew his middle name up until about three months ago, because of the slander email that was going around.

Let's be honest here. The only reason we know his middle name now is because of the people who are trying to use it to smear him. That is sad; but welcome to American Politics 101.



Edit for spelling

[Dhalgren]

19. Well, most Presidents are frequently referred to by their full names:

William Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, Richard Milhous Nixon, Lydon Baines Johnson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the list goes on. When Barack is sworn in next January, he will be asked to repete, "I, Barak Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear..." This fear and shame of his name is going to bite him and the Democrats on the ass, this fall, unless it is embraced, and killed as an issue - because it is NOT an issue.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. You're preaching to the choir here, but the RW crowd will not see

it your way. They will continue to equate Hussein with Muslim. You can argue that it's unfair until the cows come home, but you probably won't change their perceptions.

[Dhalgren]

21. Again, anyone who would not vote for him because of his middle

name won't vote for him anyway. We should reject any idea that his name is in any way objectionable. He (and we) should get in front of this and kill it as an issue, because it is NOT an issue...

[Arkansas Granny]

22. I agree with you that it is not an issue. However, my opinion and my

protests will not change the mind of those on the right who will persist in equating his middle name with having Muslim ties.

[Eurobabe]

25. Who cares, those RW fuckers aren't going to vote Dem anyhow?

:eyes:

[Dhalgren]

27. Absolutely correct! Those RW fuckers can kiss Democratic Ass!

:headbang:

[terrya]

16. No, there isn't.

And shame on anyone who would use it to demean him.

[cooolandrew]

28. I will always now use it let's turn the spin on it's head. I back Barack Hussain Obama the evil doer

[Dhalgren]

29. Barack Hussein Obama for President! Because we aren't stupid!

I think I just made a new bumper sticker...

[meow mix]

31. i think its a cool name.. Barack sounds like Brak from spaceghost

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[14thColony]

36. Brak is cool

A Brak-Barack ticket...

[yellowcanine]

32. There is nothing wrong with my middle name either but if I choose not to us it then people should

respect that. It is rude to call someone a name that they do not use. If your middle name were "Hitler" because your mom was drunk when filling out the birth certificate would you want people running around using it? "Hussein" may be a good, ancient strong name but in our culture it has a stigma because of Saddam Hussein. So if Obama chooses not to use it, for whatever reason, people should respect that. There is really nothing wrong with Republicans talking about the "Democrat" Party either, except that it is not the name the Democratic Party chooses to use and thus it is rude.

[Dhalgren]

34. Okay. But I will tell you right now, Hussein is his name and it isn't going away.

Obama can either get in front of this or act ashamed and insulted every time it comes up and will come up - unless he kills it as an issue...

[kentuck]

35. Not with you..

or most liberals or most DUers...But, we really don't know how the rest of the electorate will react to it.

[WinkyDink]

37. Of course! For another thing, we think nothing bad about Jordan's former King Hussein.

To avoid it, with Obama, is stupid and tacitly accepting the RW's smear campaign.

And as I opined elsewhere, "BHO" is better than "BO"! :)