Mo Rocca On Obama's Name Problem

According To Rocca, Obama's Name May Sound A Little Scary For Some — But What Linguistic Possibilities!

(CBS)  Barack Obama is exciting people in a way Democrats have not been able to do in a long time, but Sunday Morning commentator Mo Rocca said he may have trouble getting support simply because of his name.

Never mind Barack Obama's color. The real challenge will be getting Americans to vote for a guy whose name is Barack Obama. It's just so foreign sounding. Strange, maybe even dangerous. Ted Kennedy already slipped up and last year called the golden boy/junior Senator from Illinois "Osama." And they're in the same party!

The first name isn't the problem. We've had Rutherford, we've had Grover, we've had the suspiciously-Muslim-sounding Abraham.

Besides he can always just go with the first initial followed by the middle name, like former FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover. That would make him B. Hussein Obama. Hussein's his middle name?! He'd be better off with Milhouse. Or maybe he should just go with J. Edgar Hoover.

But I digress. The last name, Obama, is the tough part. It's not Adams or Coolidge. It's not even an anagram for anything remotely WASP-y sounding. Amoab? Too many vowels.

Yes, some of this would be mitigated if he were Caucasian, even Irish-Catholic. But would candidate Barack O'Bama have a much easier shot? Nope.

And yet the name presents such possibility. There's just so much you can do with it. A gathering of Obama lovers becomes an Obamarama.

A triumph at the New Hampshire primary? Obamatastic.

Mothers for Obama? Obama-mamas.

Star Wars fans will naturally call him Obama-Wan Kenobi.

And followers of Emeril Lagasse who plan on voting for the Senator will be shouting "o-BAM-a!" (an example of what your English teacher might call Obamatapoeia).

The mantra of his doo-wop supporters? I've got a candidate named Obamalamadingdong!

Of course not everyone is an Obamaniac, marching behind their leader like some Obamaton. Certain Democrats even are probably downright scared. Just call it Obamaphobia.

[loulitz]

Mo Rocca's piece of Barack Obama was in bad taste, to say the least. He says it's "so foreign sounding ... maybe even dangerous." Talk about bigotry! Where does someone with the name Mo Rocca get off commenting about someone else's name and planting the seed that because he's black and has a foreign-sounding name that he might be dangerous. And it's the first time I've ever heard Abraham Lincoln had a "supiciously-Muslim-sounding" name, a name that is, in reality, biblical. Does CBS screen it's commentary?

[genotex]

Maybe comedy. It's like saying that Bush is a bushman although he talks and acts like one - to me anyway.

[bashinsk52]

Give me a break! It's comedy and I think it's hilarious. It's obamariffic!!

[jes_sea]

You can't really take this too literally. It's simply poking fun at a name and do you honestly believe that his name will affect how much support he receives? I think America's a little smarter than that, although, we did re-elect George . . . Anywho, it's a joke. Don't take it to heart. I like Obama, but I have to admit, this made me laugh. I don't think he's trying to be racist. Even if he is, it's an opinion, not a fact, hence the title "commentary."

Peace.

[magsgolden]

Shame on Sunday Morning! If this wasn't a prejudiced slam on someone's name I don't know what is. Reminds me of when I was a teenager and I wasn't allowed to date anyone whose name ended in "ski." I thought by 2006 we were finally past things like this and finally looked at a person's character rather than name and/or nationality. What difference does his name make if he can do the job. Mr. Obama is a bigger, more knowledgable, and more competent person that our "American" named present president, that's for sure!