What’s in a Name?

14Dec06

A name that we hear alot these days is Barack Hussein Obama. Who is Barack Obama? He is a junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, who despite his young age, and relative inexperience in the senate, may run in the next presidential election. Rumor has it that he may very well be the first black american president.

Contrary to what you might think, recent discussions about him have nothing to do with him potentially being the first black president. Rather, it all has to do with his name.

Believe it or not, there have been numerous online and radio discussions regarding this issue.

As the media would like to emphasize, Barack’s middle name is Hussein, a popular middle eastern name that means, the handsome one. However, for some, this is a cause for grave concern. As one individual puts it “is America ready to elect a president with the name Hussein? Oh the irony” Is this really ironic? Not in the very least.

For others, it’s not really the middle name they have an issue with, but rather his last name; Obama…sounds way too much like Osama.

I kid you not, this is actually a huge problem for some of the American people. So how exactly does this affect his capability as a politician? Well your guess is as good as mine.

Personally I find the whole uproar about his name a non-issue. After all, isn’t a rose by any other name, still a rose?

-sk