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Humor and Names in the 2008 U. S.

Presidential Election

ByAlleen Pace Nilsen

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• Because presidential campaigns go on so long and are mostly “same-old, same-old,” it’s to be expected that the news media would look for opportunities to bring smiles to readers and viewers.

• It was surprising to see how much focus there was on names. They were used:

To define candidatesTo define audiencesTo grab headlinesTo make serious pointsBut mostly to have fun

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The Influence of One “Foreign” Name• Newsweek (5-5-08) wrote that

“With the exception of such all-Anglos as Monroe, Fillmore, Pierce, and Coolidge, none of America’s 43 presidents has ever borne a name that ends in a vowel.”

• Barack Obama’s name attracted worldwide attention, e.g. a woman in Brazil changed her name to Barack Obama to help her run for City Council.

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My students thought I was joking when I said that Barack Obama’s name is typically American.• Barack was given the exact same name as his

father: Barrack Hussein Obama.• This is an extension of the custom of using the

father’s surname as the family surname.• Mothers in the U. S. explain that they are

willing to do this to increase the father’s connection to the baby.

• “I know, I’m connected,” they say “but it’s not so easy for fathers to feel this same kind of relationship so I try to encourage it.”

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Growing into a Name

• Leslie Dunkling in The Guinness Book of Names observed that when adults change their names (except in the case of marriage) it is usually to get away from something negative.

• But teenagers and young adults do it in a celebratory mood filled with optimism and anticipation. This is what we see with Barack and his mother.

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Barack’s Mother’s Name

• Barack’s mother was named Stanley Ann Dunham, allegedly because her father had been hoping for a son.

• When she was in college, she began introducing herself as Ann.

• Perhaps she was tired of having a “boy’s name,” or perhaps she simply wanted to establish her own identity.

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Barack’s Father’s Name• Barack’s father “Americanized” his

name to Barry when he came from Kenya to the University of Hawaii.

• A generation later when his son, Barry, went to college, he changed his name in the opposite direction.

• Barry’s grandparents and his mother resisted and called him Bar.

• Barack has said that he made the change as part of a conscious decision to “grow up.”

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Newsweek’s Cover Story (March 31, 2008)

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“Name Adds to Obama Allure” (Tribune Headline, 2-18-08, story by Victor Davis Hanson)

• “Perhaps had he taken the name of his maternal family – Dunham – a Sen. Barry Dunham of mixed ancestry from Illinois would not be causing quite the same sensation.”

• “Take away the exotic name, and Sen. Obama’s background is not all that different…”

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“Why Is Obama’s Middle Name Taboo”TIME Headline Feb. 28, 2008

• Jon Stewart, when he was Emcee at the Oscars, joked that today a name like Barack Hussein Obama is as jarring as the name Gaydolph Titler would have been in the 1940s.

• Later, at a charity roast, Obama joked, “I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn’t think I’d ever run for president.”

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• After a rally in which Bill Cunningham warmed up a McCain crowd by jeering at Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., John McCain was asked if it was appropriate to use Barack’s middle name. He replied, “No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate.”

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• Time reporter Nathan Thornburgh teased newscasters for trying to discuss McCain’s fatwa against the use of Hussein, without really saying the word.

• In conclusion, he proposed that the H-word might be like the N-word in that while only Blacks can use the N-word; only Obama supporters can use the H-word.

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• He went on to suggest that Obama was making a mistake to not come out with an open discussion of his middle name because “if the Right wants to start a whispering campaign about the name, Obama is only helping them. . . by banishing his name to the voters’ subconscious, where the dark opposites of hope—bigotry and fear--” can take over.

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Other Middle Name Troubles• McCain, whose full name is John

Sidney McCain III, does not like his own middle name to be used because of its “feminine” overtones.

• When Jimmy Carter was running for president, he went to court to keep the State of Maine from putting his full name: James Earl Ray Carter, on the ballot. James Earl Ray is the alleged killer of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Names Used as Metaphors

• Hockey Moms• Joe Six-Pack • Joe the Plumber • “ Enough Already” said Newsweek

about the Wall Street vs. Main Street metaphor. People don’t live on either of those streets. (October 13, 2008)

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The Bradley Effect in Polling

• “The Bradley effect” is named after Tom Bradley, a popular African American mayor of Los Angeles, who unexpectedly lost a 1982 Governor’s race. The theory is that voters were dishonest about their intentions because they didn’t want to appear racist.

• This time people worried about the possibilities of a “reverse Bradley Effect.”

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Name Dropping

• In the Vice-Presidential debate, Sarah Palin used the name of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad, seven times.

• Critics cited this as evidence of heavy “tutoring” on pronunciation rather than as knowledge of foreign affairs.

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Biblical Connections

• Especially when campaigning in the South, Mike Huckabee alluded to characters in the Bible. But when NPR interviewed listeners, few of them could identify his referents or tell their stories.

• Similarly, many people outside of his base did not know what was meant when Huckabee was identified as a Rapturist.

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Security Code Names• When Jon Stewart asked John

McCain if his Secret Service Detail had given him a security code name, McCain used self- deprecating humor to say, “Yeah, I think mine is Jerk.”

• The only wordplay we saw re. Joe Biden’s name was his security code name of Celtic.

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• Nov. 10th news stories revealed that the newly chosen Obama family’s code names all start with R.

• Renegade for Barack• Renaissance for Michelle • Radiance for Malia• Rosebud for Sasha

• What a far cry these names are from the one that the Secret Service devised for Jesse Jackson when he ran in 1984.

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Teasing with Names

• In May, Garrison Keillor did a funny skit about Hillary Hotrod Clinton and Rocky Obama.

• Sarah Palin was given such nicknames as Governor Gidget, Caribou Barbie, Vice in Go-Go Boots, and Miss Congeniality.

• Her Biblical name of Sarah inspired a nasty joke.

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Having Fun with Names

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Using Names to Insult

• Even serious journalists sometimes refer to the first President Bush as Poppy Bush.

• 2008 bumper stickers about the second President Bush include:“They Call Him ‘W’ So He Can Spell It” and “Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.”

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• Campaign workers assigned to protect Sarah Palin from the press were called Palin’s Pit Bulls.

• The public was amused at the names of her children: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig, and the fact that she calls her husband First Dude.

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Questions re. Married Women’s Surnames• Newsweek devoted almost a full page to

“Hillary: What’s in a Name.” One comment was “There have been four wives of Bill Clinton: Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and . . . the full HRC.”

• For the campaign the decision was to keep it simple, “just Hillary.”

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• There has always been a tendency to refer to women by their first names partly to distinguish them from their husbands.

• But being on a first-name basis also creates intimacy and bonding as opposed to power.

• Note the punch line of a Susan Estrich column about Sarah Palin (10-10-08) “If you can’t face Katie and Gwen, how are you going to face Putin?”

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Poetic Devices in Name Play

• Assonance and Rhythm: Sarah Barracuda and Barack Obama

• Joke Patterns: Obama as Black Irish—O’Brian, O’Grady, O’Bama

• Surprising Contrasts: Governor Napolitano’s joke about Barry Goldwater, Morris Udall, Bruce Babbitt, and now John McCain…

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Allusions

• February TIME cover story: “The Phoenix: Can John McCain Keep Rising?”

• A McCain ad implied that Obama thought he was Moses.

• Karl Rove mocked accusations that he secretly controlled President Bush by saying, “I’m a myth, I’m Beowulf, I’m Grendel.”

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• Bad Rhymes:--“We Must Be Ailin’, ‘Cause we picked Palin.” (Letter to the Editor)

• Bad PunsNo BamaO-bomination vs. ObamaphoriaBamelot cf. CamelotPaleontology and Pail-inJohn McCan’t

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Summary and Conclusion

• Voting for President vs. Voting for School Board Member

• Looking Beyond Sound Symbolism• Humor as a Way to Approach

Serious Concerns vs.• Humor Just for Fun