Sure. But I don't think anyone is "missing" this. It's a pretty obvious tactic. And it's not going to gain much traction, I don't think. Here's why:

1. If there's anyone in America who doesn't know by now that Barack's middle name is "Hussein," then they're not tuned in enough for it to suddenly matter. That is NOT a revelation - it's like the first thing that most people hear about him.

2. The people who have made the most of this fact are the right-winged-est hate mongers, e.g. Ann Coulter, who seem to think that calling him "B. Hussein Obama" will somehow shape public opinion.

3. Coulter and her ilk are bleeding credibility. The only people who take them seriously are *not* people who would vote for Obama anyway, and/or people whose default position is "Democrat = Terrorist"

4. Everyone else in the world - I mean, *EVERYONE ELSE* - is smart enough to separate the fact that the man's name is "Hussein" from anything else that may be true of him. While the rumors about Barack's "muslim background" and "anti-Americanism" are potentially damaging, and need to be debunked, these are not inherently connected to his name.

5. The more the Republican smear machine tries to make that connection, i.e. "Barack Obama = Hussein = Muslim = Terrorist/Sympathizer," the more ridiculous the claim becomes on its face. Why? Because the primary pushers of the meme are already ridiculous. Because "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and voters are smart enough to know it. Because people can see the difference between repudiating the lie and repudiating the truth - and it is not an "insult" to call the man by his name, but it is insulting to make his name a code for something else.

As I said before, anyone who falls prey to the "Hussein" logic wouldn't have voted for Barack anyway. They are, indeed, only going to use this to foment their most rabid, racist, hate-filled base. And that is not independents, nor (in many cases) true Republicans.

I think it's a bone-headed move, actually, that will come back to bite them on the ass. If they'd made it later in the game, maybe. But by November, no one in America will be worried about Barack Obama's middle name, nor his religious credentials.

Q: Was Barack's mother racist for giving him the name or is it just racist for someone to use it?

It is the man's name and I assume that he's proud of it, or he probably would've changed it at some time or another. Heck, Gary Hart's real last name was Hartpence, but he changed it when he was 25. I assume that because Sen. Obama has never changed his own name, then he's probably comfortable with it and for others to project their own meanings onto it, whether pro or con seems to say more about the others than it does himself.

Agreed- great observation. But I disagree with the premise that the "smart" voters will see past this and this is only for the "base".

Yes, some will see past it. But there are a lot of rural/heartland independents that make much of the patriotism thing (no matter how misguided in their evaluation of what patriotism is). This sort of whisper campaign worked effectively on Kerry by combining it with other half-truths and labels to create the architypical New England liberal. Here, the muslim/hates America smear with be front and center by using all these misrepresentations.

Also, we haven't paid enough attention to the fact that they are going to play both sides of this- using it when the need it (and it works) and repudiating it when it does not. We seem to be so caught up with the irony of Rove mentioning this that we don't see the entire play.