What’s in a Name?

The United States of America is in the midst of choosing our next President and the leader of the free world. And yet, are citizens allowed to discuss all the issues associated with the candidates? In the same week when the liberal New York Times does an “unsubstantiated” hit piece on Senator John McCain, the other side of the aisle is attacked for using the middle name of Barack Obama.

Why is the middle name of Barack Obama not allowed in public discourse anyway? You see Obama’s middle name is Hussein. The geneses of the name Hussein, sometime also spelled Husayn, Hussain, Husain, Hosein, is an Arabic name, which is the diminutive of Hasan, meaning "good" or "handsome". It is commonly given as a male given name among Muslims. Barack Hussein Obama’s father was a Muslim from Africa and his name is from an African-Muslim decent.

But why is it politically incorrect to use Obama’s middle name? Remember John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B Hayes, William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, Dwight David Eisenhower, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, George W. Bush, Martin Luther King, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard Milhous Nixon, William Jefferson Clinton. In fact, when President Clinton’s name was on the election ballot it even said, William Jefferson Clinton. Then there is Hillary Rodman Clinton. Why are we allowed to use her maiden name?

The reason is political correctness, that’s why. Is Obama’s middle name a big deal in the context of running for president? No, however, the bigger picture is the media’s undying love for Obama and the inability to appropriately vet the candidate. Obama is a two-term state senator from Illinois and a recently elected one-term US Senator and ranked as the most liberal Senator in Congress.

Michelle Obama who often has decried "the fear bomb'' that opponents have used against her husband for his middle name said in Canton, Ohio, today, “that it is happening again and shows why it's so important that he wins election as president.” So let’s understand. If someone uses his legal and correct middle name, he should be elected president and we are fear mongers. Is that correct?

The fact is Obama’s middle name is Hussein and he is running for the president of the United States. The fact is that we should be able to discuss every faucet of Obama as well as McCain. These investigations should be in included in discussions, but not be limited too; names, careers, religion, lifestyle, politics, and anything else we see fit. The job is too important to be politically correct and Obama needs to get use to a heavier vetting process in the months to come.

By the way, my full name is Lynn Currier Myers IV and it’s okay to use it!

Sheriff (Ret) Currie Myers, PhD, MBA is the former sheriff of Johnson County, Kansas and a career law enforcement officer. He currently is the editor and publisher of the Kansas Federalist. He is also the owner of Sheriff Myers & Associates, a security management and consulting company and an adjunct professor for St Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, Florida.