{"id":390,"date":"2008-02-27T13:19:08","date_gmt":"2008-02-27T13:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html"},"modified":"2008-02-27T13:19:08","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T13:19:08","slug":"obamas-middle-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html","title":{"rendered":"Obama&#8217;s Middle Name"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/AFceLPhAC28&#038;rel=1\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/AFceLPhAC28&#038;rel=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"355\"><\/embed><\/object>John McCain yesterday repudiated a conservative talk radio host who introduced the presumptive Republican nominee at a Cincinnati rally by taking a few swipes at Obama&#8217;s middle name. <em><a href=\"http:\/\/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com\/2008\/02\/26\/mccain-repudiates-hussein-obama-remarks\/\">The New York Times<\/a><\/em> captured the scene:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Bill Cunningham, who hosts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was part of a line of people lauding Mr. McCain and revving up the crowd before his appearance here before several hundred people at a theater here.He lambasted the national media, drawing cheers from the audience, for being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican candidates, declaring they should \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.\u00e2\u20ac\u009dHe went on to rail, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153at one point, the media will quit taking sides in this thing and start covering Barack Hussein Obama.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Asked about the remarks at a press conference later in the day, here&#8217;s how McCain responded:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong. I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Still, God-o-Meter doubts the case is closed on the use of Obama&#8217;s middle name for the rest of the campaign season. In this instance, Cunningham went further than merely invoking Obama&#8217;s middle name and played into the false rumor that Obama is Muslim by pointing to the need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But what about more innocuous mentions of his middle name? <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-vetting.html\">As Doug Wead notes<\/a>, it&#8217;s hardly unusual for presidential candidates to be known by their full name. Take Hillary Rodham Clinton. Or George Herbert Walker Bush. Or W. So will it ever be fair game for Obama&#8217;s opponents to cite his middle name?<!--more-->5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John McCain yesterday repudiated a conservative talk radio host who introduced the presumptive Republican nominee at a Cincinnati rally by taking a few swipes at Obama&#8217;s middle name. The New York Times captured the scene: Bill Cunningham, who hosts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john-mccain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Obama&#039;s Middle Name - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obama&#039;s Middle Name - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John McCain yesterday repudiated a conservative talk radio host who introduced the presumptive Republican nominee at a Cincinnati rally by taking a few swipes at Obama&#8217;s middle name. The New York Times captured the scene: Bill Cunningham, who hosts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-27T13:19:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dgilgoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Obama's Middle Name - God-O-Meter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Obama's Middle Name - God-O-Meter","og_description":"John McCain yesterday repudiated a conservative talk radio host who introduced the presumptive Republican nominee at a Cincinnati rally by taking a few swipes at Obama&#8217;s middle name. The New York Times captured the scene: Bill Cunningham, who hosts \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Show\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html","og_site_name":"God-O-Meter","article_published_time":"2008-02-27T13:19:08+00:00","author":"dgilgoff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html","name":"Obama's Middle Name - God-O-Meter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-02-27T13:19:08+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-27T13:19:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/#\/schema\/person\/b7e97412c87d7a3b866e9972cc090db4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/02\/obamas-middle-name.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Obama&#8217;s Middle Name"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/","name":"God-O-Meter","description":"A scientific measure of God-talk in the elections","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/#\/schema\/person\/b7e97412c87d7a3b866e9972cc090db4","name":"dgilgoff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/858\/858da2927809a8352512cd24712c020cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/858\/858da2927809a8352512cd24712c020cx96.jpg","caption":"dgilgoff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/author\/dgilgoff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}