18th rant: The use of Obama's middle name (Part 2)

In my 16th rant entitled The use of Obama's middle name I went on about what happened when Alaska Governor (and at the time Republican Vice Presidential Candidate) Sarah Palin came into Southwest Florida and Lee County Sherriff Mike Scott used Obama’s middle name. The backlash from that was astronomical and (in my opinion) led to the downfall of Senator John McCain’s bid for President of the United States. Well, this article coming from Politico.com yesterday just made me have to laugh.



Swearing in: 'Barack Hussein Obama'
By: Mike Allen
December 10, 2008 12:17 PM EST

President-elect Barack Obama says he plans to use all three of his names when he takes the oath of office in January, giving voice to a name that was was rarely used during the campaign except by critics.
In his first post-election newspaper interview, with reporters from the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, Obama was asked: “Do you anticipate being sworn in as Barack Obama or Barack Hussein Obama?"
He replied: “I think the tradition is that they use all three names, and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement one way or the other. I'll do what everybody else does.”
In fact, all presidents have not used their middle names when taking the oath of office. Jimmy Carter famously went as “Jimmy Carter.” Ronald Wilson Reagan took the oath as simply “Ronald Reagan.”
Harry Truman, of course, didn’t have a middle name — just an initial that didn’t stand for anything — and was sworn in as “Harry S. Truman.” (We've gotten a lot of e-mail about the period after the 'S.' Despite the urban myth to the contrary, the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum says Truman put a period in his signature and posts a photo to prove it.)
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gerald R. Ford took the oath using their middle initials.
The last three presidents have used their middle names: George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton and George Walker Bush. So did Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, in the hasty ceremony aboard Air Force One, went nameless — prompted to say only, “I do solemnly swear.”
The insertion of the name is a tradition not specified in the U.S. Constitution, which directs about the president in Article II: “Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”
Obama’s middle name was largely taboo during the campaign, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) apologized when it was used by Bill Cunningham, a talk-radio host who was introducing McCain at a rally in Cincinnati.
The Associated Press reported at the time, “Asked whether the use of Obama's middle name — the same as former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — is proper, McCain said: ‘No, it is not. Any comment that is disparaging of either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is totally inappropriate.’”
Here is a transcript of Obama’s interview with the two newspapers, which have a joint Washington bureau as Tribune Co.

© 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC

17th Rant: The lack of knowledge of those who vote

As I was listening to the radio, I tune into the Neal Boortz radio talk show and he mentioned something which I found disturbing and will even make mention of it here.

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2008/11/how-obama-got-elected.html

HOW OBAMA GOT ELECTED
By Neal Boortz @ November 19, 2008 8:26 AM Permalink | Comments (40) | TrackBacks (0)
Now that the election is over, this report by John Ziegler is making some waves. Maybe because it exposes some of the Obamamania. Also because it shows how the lamestream media was in the tank for Barack Obama in this election. And also because it demonstrates the fruits of our government education system.

Now I really don't care what else you do today .. so long as you don't abuse any small animals .. but please watch this video. On Election Day some Obama voters were chosen by the producers of an upcoming documentary "How Obama Got Elected." These voters represented a cross-section: young and old, black and white, male and female. They were chosen based on their verbal abilities and willingness to express their feelings to a large audience. Listen to these people. I promise you, you will be entertained.

Certainly it was hard to judge the true nature of Obama supporters based on the random ones selected for this video ... So the Zogby people were commissioned to conduct a telephone poll to ask a greater number of Obama supporters the very same questions asked of the people in the video. Oh and one other thing to keep in mind. The people were given multiple choice answers to these questions. Even with multiple choices, here were some of the results.

94% of Obama voters correctly identified Sarah Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter.
86% of Obama voters identified Palin as the candidate who spent $150,000 on a campaign wardrobe.
86.9 % of Obama voters though that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though the quote actually came from Saturday Night Live.
Now for some news about the candidate they were supporting ....

57.4% of Obama voters could not correctly say which party controls congress.
82.6% of Obama voters could not correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot
88.4% of Obama voters could not correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket
56.1% of Obama voters didn't know that Obama started his political career at the home of Bill Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist.
Now you have a measure, for good or bad, of some of the voters who went to the polls on Election Day awash in Obamamania. Do some of you now think that there are people voting who shouldn't be allowed to vote? Remember, there is no constitutional right to vote in a presidential election. Shouldn't we be weeding some of these people off the voting rolls?

Also, here's an interview with John Ziegler by Nate Silver. Oh my is it full of bad words!

 

I had followed the comments and also the callers to Neal's show, and most of what I had read and heard was rather disturbing especially in regards to the fact that people just pick and choose that which they want to hear and learn.

16th rant: The use of Obama's middle name

Yesterday during a rally for Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, the sherriff of Lee County referred to Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama by his full name which is Barack Hussein Obama. The McCain-Palin ticket distanced themselves from the comment, even going so far as to have their spokespeople saying, as Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmidt did, that they "do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric, which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November."

I personally see no problem with it for the simple reason that if you watch the presidential innaugurations, you notice that the Chief Justice uses the President-elect's full name (for example George Walker Bush for the current sitting president) when giving the oath of office. For McCain and Palin to distance themselves from it is beyond me.