The president of the United States is in the market for a "First Dog" for his daughters to play with. Apparently the Obamas have settled on a Portuguese Water Dog (see photo above).

It came to me that the TPM Café folk would love to participate in a presidential dog naming contest, which I hereby propose.

Here is my entry, but first a little background on the breed:

In Portugal, the breed is called Cão d'Água; literally "water dog" Wikipedia 

In Portuguese  the word for "dog" is "cão", but there is a trick here. The "ão" in Portuguese is pronounced "an", so that that the word for  "German" in Portuguese, which in Spanish would be "aleman" and in French "allemande", in Portuguese is written "alemão", but pronounced the same: "an".

This means that the word for dog in Portuguese, "cão" is in fact pronounced "can" as in.... You guessed it....

"We are in trouble today because we have allowed a culture of corruption and dishonesty to permeate our institutions and pollute our public discourse." Stephen M. Walt

Who would expect that such a noted "realist" in foreign affairs as Stephen Walt would say something so innocent. If only it were that simple. In reality the problem is systemic, not a result of individual or collective frailty.

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There are different strategies for confronting the crisis.

Me, I use what Woody Allen calls "the old Indian trick", (crying and begging).

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