What's in a name?

What's in a name? When it comes to the names of people, plenty.

After the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of new parents in the Mideast named their babies "Osama" in some perverse, demented tribute to bin Laden. After Hurricane Katrina, the popularity of Katrina plummeted. We once fostered a little girl named "Passion" which always evoked interesting reactions.

So when Bill Cunningham, in warming up the crowd prior to John McCain's appearance in Cincinnati, repeatedly referred to "Barack Hussein Obama", (as reported here) it is either naive or disingenuous to suggest, as some have, that Cunningham was simply using Obamas complete name. We know what he meant, in his anything-but-subtle way.

To McCain's credit, he was unaware of Cunningham's statements before he took the stage, and when he learned of them, he immediately and repeatedly apologized to Obama.

Cunningham's conduct demeans the political process, but may be a taste of things to come. Maybe it's better to get this kind of stuff out of the way now so that if Obama is the Democratic nominee, it has lost any sting it may have.

Either way, it's been only little more than a month since the country celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday, and we were reminded repeatedly of King's dream that one day his children would be judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin. Maybe Dr. King's statement should be modified to add name as another irrelevant consideration.