I'm gonna get flamed, I like Obama, but with that name, I've set his "electability" rating at......

[ShaneGR]

1.4% chance of winning the presidency in this country with the name Barrack Hussein Obama. Not gonna happen. Little grandma vote will crush that one.

Srry, NOTE, I'm not a Clinton supporter.

[Cha]

1. Obama transcends his name..

You gotta think outside the box on this one.

[maddiejoan]

10. Obama CAN transcend his name

He has yet to do so.

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. Good luck getting most of America to think at all

Never mind "out of the box" thinking - once again, are the Democratic leaderships going to succeed in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

[JackORoses]

32. Hillary is the one who can't transcend the name Clinton

[bunnies]

2. "Im gonna get flamed"

Yes you are. :popcorn:

[zabet]

3. ....

:popcorn:

[bunnies]

6. care for a beverage?

:beer: :beer:

[zabet]

23. I think I will,

thank you.
:hi:

[BeyondGeography]

4. I see you've given this careful thought

mispelling his name and all.

[ProSense]

5. Oh cut it out! He's been raising funds on par with Clinton and is ahead of Edwards in the polls.

He was just endorsed by the Boston Globe. His name has nothing to do with anything except to racists and political opportunists.

[DS1]

7. That is absolutely absurd

The real number is 1.4001221

[Vickers]

8. Who you gonna vote for? Robinette? Willard? Freddie? Blaine?

:shrug:

There's all KINDS of fucked up names in this election cycle.

[Joe the Revelator]

9. I would think that a ditzy name like Hillary would be just as dangerous

and Joe? How boring is Joe?

[DesertRat]

18. The name Hillary is "ditzy"?

:eyes:

[Joe the Revelator]

19. People won't vote for a guy named Barrak?

:eyes:

[Teaser]

20. You never watched "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air?"

.

[DesertRat]

35. No. n/t

[earthlover]

12. delete...never mind...why even respond to flame bait?

.

[Olney Blue]

13. I don't trust data from people named Shane.

[still_one]

14. Unfortunately, I tend to agree with you, and I will vote for either Obama or Edwards in the primary

However, the racist tendencies that have occupied much of this country still exist, and the fact fuax and other so called MSM outlets have left the question whether he is a Muslim or not open to interpretation, in spite of the fact that he is a Christian, and in spite of the fact that religion should have NOTHING to do with running for an elected office

I hope my low estimation of the American people is wrong, but looking at our history, including over a hundred years of slavery and women's suffrage makes me doubt it

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. OK, this is the second time I've posted this today

They can try pulling this crap, and Obama might lose the hard core wingnut vote in a landslide of historic proportions because of it, if anyone ever kept seperate vote tallies for the hard core wingnut vote. Yeah they are out there, and they are out there in sizable numbers, but guess what? They don't vote for our candidates anyway. They vote Republican or something further to the Right.

Are there a small percentage of voters who can emotionally be influenced by someone's middle name? Yeah sure. It's a big enough country that it contains all types. Of course if you look at it that way than you also have to count the smaller number of voters who would vote for Obama out of pride in an Islamic name that has been revered by billions for centuries before that Iraqi bad guy ever showed up. So you get a partial offset there.

There are so many so much more powerful potential rasons to vote for or against our candidate vs the one offered up by the Republicans, that Obama's middle name won't even make the final cut of things to give a fleeting thought to for anyone who is open minded enough to consider voting for a Democrat for President in 2008. Maybe it can be used to motivate some of the crazies to work harder to defeat Obama if he is our nominee. Maybe. But I bet those very same crazies are more likely to hurt the Republican's chances through their overall craziness than help them.

I have some real concerns about Obama but his middle name ain't one of them.

[quinnox]

16. You are right and its obvious to most people

The Obama crowd is in denial about this serious liability.

Now I might disagree with the percentage you give but I do agree generally that this is a theme the republicans would successfully exploit.

[Franc_Lee]

17. That's pretty weak, do more reading, do more research...

[proudmoddemo]

21. Wrong

If you look at the state by state data, Obama does better than Hillary in southern and midwestern states. He beats Romney and Huckabee by substantial margins in Kansas (heard that right), Missouri, Kentucky (tied with Romney, way ahead of Huckabee), Virginia, etc. Hillary runs neck and neck, but is behind Romney in some states like that. Obama runs better among Republicans than Hillary. I just got this e-mail froma Republican friend of mine that lives in Ohio:

"Hillary way too polarizing. I am ashamed of my party. If I had to pick, I guess Rudy. But still, I'm leaning towards Obama. He reminds me of Lincoln." (Who is what this person wants her party to be).

I think voters don't care about name, and are looking for change. Obama is a very compelling case for change, and a gifted public speaker. If he wins the nomination, he wins the presidency. Hillary, I am not so sure about it. I don't see how she can win now that she's pissed off the entire base of the Democratic Party (labor, African Americans, and the anti-war crowd). She already starts out with 47% of the country against her. Unless she carries every Democratic vote, she's toast. And with her shameful primary campaign, she's lost a lot of votes in the general election--including mine.

[emilyg]

22. I'm a little grandma

His name has nothing to do with why I don't support him. Happen to think Sen. Clinton is better qualified.

[NYCGirl]

24. People do realize he DIDN'T CHOOSE his middle name, right? It was given

to him by his parents, OK?

[zulchzulu]

25. The people of Illinois sure had a problem with the name

He only won by 70% in one race. They must all not be as smart as you.

:sarcasm:

[annie1]

26. polls already having him beat all pubs.

[Occam Bandage]

27. I have a pretty easy one-step test to see how informed people are when they raise concerns

about Obama's name. It is this:

Did they spell Barack correctly? If it's "Barak" or "Barrack," I move on.

[goclark]

29. I agree, the name that freaks me out is Huckabee

I can see where that is going. :bounce:

[maddiejoan]

31. after he loses the primary

he's going to open a chain of family restaurants.

[ginchinchili]

28. The Repubs will use his name against him, but...

it's his lack of experience against the backdrop of our current challenging times that would prevent him from winning the presidency, should he win the nomination. It also depends on who he's running against. If McCain picks up momentum and grabs the Repub nomination, both Obama and Clinton can hang it up, because to the Independent they both have stronger down sides than McCain (remember, we're talking about people who backed Bush to a large degree).

What the Repubs will do is try to create a caricature of Obama. Something like a book-smart brainy type schooled at an East Coast Ivy League college (and don't even bother with, "but so did Bush," because it's beside the point) whose middle name is Hussein, enjoys French cigarettes, and will try to claim that he can keep America safe even though he's had zero military or foreign policy experience. Now, if, as I mentioned earlier, McCain is running against Obama and McCain's people are making this argument about Obama, Obama's in trouble. Obama's one chance would be to go after McCain's Achilles' heel, his support for the war. For most of us here that seems like an easy argument to make, but McCain will argue that we've almost accomplished the mission and we'll start pulling out troops in 6 months, but if we pull them all out now, those 4,000 American soldiers who gave their lives will have done so in vain, and he'll have generals, etc. doing ads backing this up. It'd be tough. If Obama had more experience to point to, particularly in foreign policy, he could win the argument, but he doesn't have that experience and it will be hard for him to convince America that he's right about our foreign policy and McCain is wrong. But that's if McCain wins the nomination, and right now it's not looking that way. However, the caricature thing will happen no matter who wins the Repub nomination, that is if Obama wins the Dems'.

[Quixote1818]

30. The sad truth is that many Americans are this shallow

As they have reported when applications have African American names and not "white" sounding names they are less likely to get and interview or get the job. It's really disgusting and it's too bad his name isn't Jim Smith or William Huntington. And just so everyone knows, I have been arguing in support of Obama on several threads tonight on this Medrassa thing. I still think Obama can win but it's just a fact that his name will turn off some voters.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

34. who do you think will be turned off?

the Republicans?

[Quixote1818]

36. Thats jut the thing

The bigots were going to vote Republican anyway, so it may not hurt him much at all.

[ripple]

33. You say that

As one of my best friends' ultra republican parents in Storm Lake, Iowa are actually considering switching parties to caucus for Obama. And not because she has promoted him to them- they tell her what they think, not the other way around. They have actually listened to him and the other candidates (more than once) and they are far more impressed with Obama than any other candidate on either side. I know this doesn't speak for the electorate as a whole, but knowing these folks (nice enough, but serious republicans), it speaks volumes to Obama's electability.

[calteacherguy]

37. The OP is straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

It has absolutely no basis whatsover in reality. It's rather like saying the Earth is flat. There are, of course, people who still believe such things.

[ShaneGR]

40. Actually, I live in Florida

And last time I looked, it's not flat here. Sorry.

[TeamJordan23]

38. ShaneGR, it is quite funny that Obama is killing the competition among independents, huh?

As can be seen in the Independent poll numbers in NH.

[ShaneGR]

39. Ermmm, NH??? NH isn't representative of overall America

And neither is America, I'm not talking about Iowa or New Hampshire. I'm talking about a general election, in the whole nation. And I'm not talking about a Democratic primary, where these attacks are extremely mild compared to the attacks Obama has seen so far. Wait until he's running vs a Republican and they're capatilzing his full name in their ads.