What's in a name?

The fact that a guy named Barack Hussein Obama can rise to the presidency in a post 9/11 world is a sterling testament to both Obama's skill as a politician and the utter ineptnesss of the current administration. It's like a guy named Charles Manson Hitler asking for your vote - and succeeding!

As a fellow saddled with a difficult name, I can empathize with Barack on some level. Props to Obama for honouring his African heritage, but if he had any intentions for higher office, why didn't he stick with his childhood nickname Barry? Really, a lot of Americans don't go by the full name on their birth certificate on a day-to-day colloquial basis - I sure as hell don't. Or ask Bill (William Jefferson) Clinton or Dick (Richard) Cheney. And Barry's a name that's familiar and comforting to the American electorate - we have Barry White and Berry Gordy and Barry Bonds and most Americans could probably recall a guy named Barry whom they knew at some point. Barry Obama. It's got a nice soft alliterative touch.

And there's that other handicap that Barack Obama's got - the guy is sort of odd-looking. For a black guy, he doesn't look conventionally African-American (his lineage traced to Kenya, not West Africa as with most black Americans). And for a black-white hybrid, there's nothing about him that looks remotely Caucasian (compared to say Jason Kidd, who looks plausibly half-white). Actually Barack Obama looks like one of those Kalahari Bushmen - like the dude from The Gods Must Be Crazy! (Brock - you know what I'm talking about.)

So in the meantime Mr. Obama will have to contend with this -



Props. Now practice what you preach.