Cincinnati radio talk show host Bill Cunningham ignited a firestorm of controversy at a John McCain rally earlier this week when he repeatedly referred to Senator Barack Obama by using his middle name “Hussein.” Although Cunningham maintained that his use of Obama’s full name was entirely normal and innocent (and cited “John Fitzgerald Kennedy” and “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” as proof), McCain called Cunningham’s comments “inappropriate” and pledged that Obama’s middle name would not be used as an issue by anyone from his campaign.
Underlying the incident is the question of what exactly the significance of Obama’s middle name is and what exactly Cunningham might have been implying by using it. To assume the worst (always a safe bet when talk radio personalities are concerned), Cunningham may have been suggesting that Barack Obama is a sort of “Manchurian Candidate” for the Islamoterrorists, implanted with radical fundamentalist ideas as a child and poised to enshrine them as American law if he were elected president. A recent widely-circulated photograph of Obama wearing traditional Islamic garb may have given credence to this notion.
To give this suggestion consideration it is probably not due, let us first consider the name “Hussein.” It is, of course, an extremely common name in the Muslim world, especially among Shia Muslims who revere Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammed and the first Shia Imam. Barack Obama is, at least publicly, a Christian, a member of the United Church of Christ and not beholden to any Muslim sect, Shia or Sunni.
Then there is the association, perhaps more familiar to American voters, with Saddam Hussein, the brutal Iraqi dictator, deposed and eventually executed following the American invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein, it must be pointed out, was a secular ruler until it became politically expedient late in the game for him to embrace fundamentalist Islam. If, in fact, Obama was in league with Saddam Hussein it would not be to advance a religious agenda but rather for some other purpose, like to help Saddam obtain advanced weapons that would cement his regional hegemony. In this case, Obama might have acted as a moderating force on the hot-headed Saddam and, perhaps, eventually brought him into the Western fold. Any childhood implantation of post-hypnotic suggestions that would render Obama susceptible to Saddam Hussein’s will might, ironically, have ended with Obama being hailed as a statesman and a more stable Middle East. Who cares where Obama’s secret loyalties lie if the result is a safer, better world?
The reality of Saddam’s rule is that his power base was actually quite narrow consisting almost entirely of kinsmen from his home village of Tikrit. Everything we know about Barack Obama’s well-documented childhood and youth suggests that he has never even been near Tikrit and that he is not related, at least closely, to Saddam Hussein. If Saddam were going to plant a puppet amidst the American power elite, it is much more likely he would have chosen one of his close relatives, such as his cousin “Chemical Ali.” To refute the idea that Barack Hussein Obama and Saddam Hussein are closely related, one need only compare Obama’s smooth beardless skin with Saddam’s luxurient Village People push-broom moustache. The Illinois senator looks as though he could get by shaving once a week!
In sum, it seems to us very unlikely that Saddam would have chosen Barack Obama as a willing agent or unwitting dupe for some grand secret plan. And even if he did, so what? Obama has always prided himself on his ability as a bridge builder. What better way for an American president to build a bridge to the Iraqi people than by being able to say, truthfully, “I am one of you.”
Clearly, Bill Cunningham did not think through the consequences of attempting to connect the two men though a shared name. In his mind it was a slur (a gratuitous one, we think), pure and simple.
As for a possible connection — either through consanguinity, hidden political allegiance, or shared religious beliefs — between Barack Hussein Obama and the late King Hussein of Jordan, that possibility comes without the taint of Saddam’s brutality since King Hussein was always regarded as a force for reason and moderation in that troubled part of the world. If he or his mind-control specialists implanted any ideas or secret mission or hidden agenda in the brain of the young Barack Obama, we can be confident that like the King himself, these ideas, mission, or agenda will be sensible and tolerant ones.
– The Editors
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Barack Hussein Obama: An Old Yorker Commentary
Cincinnati radio talk show host Bill Cunningham ignited a firestorm of controversy at a John McCain rally earlier this week when he repeatedly referred to Senator Barack Obama by using his middle name “Hussein.” Although Cunningham maintained that his use of Obama’s full name was entirely normal and innocent (and cited “John Fitzgerald Kennedy” and “Franklin Delano Roosevelt” as proof), McCain called Cunningham’s comments “inappropriate” and pledged that Obama’s middle name would not be used as an issue by anyone from his campaign.
Underlying the incident is the question of what exactly the significance of Obama’s middle name is and what exactly Cunningham might have been implying by using it. To assume the worst (always a safe bet when talk radio personalities are concerned), Cunningham may have been suggesting that Barack Obama is a sort of “Manchurian Candidate” for the Islamoterrorists, implanted with radical fundamentalist ideas as a child and poised to enshrine them as American law if he were elected president. A recent widely-circulated photograph of Obama wearing traditional Islamic garb may have given credence to this notion.
To give this suggestion consideration it is probably not due, let us first consider the name “Hussein.” It is, of course, an extremely common name in the Muslim world, especially among Shia Muslims who revere Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Muhammed and the first Shia Imam. Barack Obama is, at least publicly, a Christian, a member of the United Church of Christ and not beholden to any Muslim sect, Shia or Sunni.
Then there is the association, perhaps more familiar to American voters, with Saddam Hussein, the brutal Iraqi dictator, deposed and eventually executed following the American invasion of Iraq. Saddam Hussein, it must be pointed out, was a secular ruler until it became politically expedient late in the game for him to embrace fundamentalist Islam. If, in fact, Obama was in league with Saddam Hussein it would not be to advance a religious agenda but rather for some other purpose, like to help Saddam obtain advanced weapons that would cement his regional hegemony. In this case, Obama might have acted as a moderating force on the hot-headed Saddam and, perhaps, eventually brought him into the Western fold. Any childhood implantation of post-hypnotic suggestions that would render Obama susceptible to Saddam Hussein’s will might, ironically, have ended with Obama being hailed as a statesman and a more stable Middle East. Who cares where Obama’s secret loyalties lie if the result is a safer, better world?
The reality of Saddam’s rule is that his power base was actually quite narrow consisting almost entirely of kinsmen from his home village of Tikrit. Everything we know about Barack Obama’s well-documented childhood and youth suggests that he has never even been near Tikrit and that he is not related, at least closely, to Saddam Hussein. If Saddam were going to plant a puppet amidst the American power elite, it is much more likely he would have chosen one of his close relatives, such as his cousin “Chemical Ali.” To refute the idea that Barack Hussein Obama and Saddam Hussein are closely related, one need only compare Obama’s smooth beardless skin with Saddam’s luxurient Village People push-broom moustache. The Illinois senator looks as though he could get by shaving once a week!
In sum, it seems to us very unlikely that Saddam would have chosen Barack Obama as a willing agent or unwitting dupe for some grand secret plan. And even if he did, so what? Obama has always prided himself on his ability as a bridge builder. What better way for an American president to build a bridge to the Iraqi people than by being able to say, truthfully, “I am one of you.”
Clearly, Bill Cunningham did not think through the consequences of attempting to connect the two men though a shared name. In his mind it was a slur (a gratuitous one, we think), pure and simple.
As for a possible connection — either through consanguinity, hidden political allegiance, or shared religious beliefs — between Barack Hussein Obama and the late King Hussein of Jordan, that possibility comes without the taint of Saddam’s brutality since King Hussein was always regarded as a force for reason and moderation in that troubled part of the world. If he or his mind-control specialists implanted any ideas or secret mission or hidden agenda in the brain of the young Barack Obama, we can be confident that like the King himself, these ideas, mission, or agenda will be sensible and tolerant ones.
– The Editors
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on February 29, 2008 at 10:49 pm Leave a CommentTags: Barack Hussein Obama, Manchurian Candidate
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