Tutorial for Bill Cunningham

As a former teacher I have a lot of experience explaining things patiently to people who are ignorant. Most of the time those people could be excused for their ignorance because they are 14 years old.

But even the 14 year olds I know wouldn't be so clueless as to not understand what's wrong with what Bill Cunningham did in Cincinnati.

So using all of the patience I honed in 13 years in the classroom, I'm going to explain it to him, since he continually expresses his disbelief that anyone would have a problem with his repetition of Barack Obama's middle name.

So here goes. Here, Mr. Cunningham, is wrong with what you said.

You say that it's just his middle name. That's it's no different than Hillary Rodham Clinton or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But you see Willie, it is different. It's a lot different.

When Barack Obama's father named him, he was very proud of the name, as you've pointed out. It is, after all, a great name, reminiscent perhaps of King Hussein of Jordan.

But something happened in the intervening years, since 1961 when Obama was named, that his father could never have anticipated. A great tyrant by the name of Saddam Hussein emerged in Iraq and was in fact supported by the United States. That is, until he invaded Iraq after misreading the public statements of the father of our current president.

So the name "Hussein" has connotations. And it's not so much that they are Muslim connotations, although that's part of it. They have connotations of being attached to our enemy in Iraq, the purported reason we went to war. And so there is an attempt on the part of those who use his full name to associate Obama with Saddam and with our enemies in general.

You see, "Delano" doesn't do that. Neither does "Rodham", or "Jefferson", or "Sidney", McCain's middle name. And you're right when you say, "if someone thinks his name is racist, then that's their problem, not mine." You're right, because the connotation only works if the listener isn't thinking about it very deeply, and is prone to making false associations based on the connotations words might carry. Anyone can see that.

But you depend on that. You depend on your listener to associate Obama with "Hussein", you depend on the worst parts of the human psyche in order for your smear to work. And that's why people call you racist when you say it.

So let's not have any more juvenile pretending you didn't know what was wrong with what you said. Just be a man. You were making a smear, and you know it. You want McCain to be a stand up guy, but you won't be one yourself.