A Name You Can Trust?

CBS' Kathy Frankovic: Some Voters Think Barack Obama's Name, Background Will Give Him Problems

(CBS)  By Kathy Frankovic, CBS News director of surveys

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Do names matter?

Barack Obama raised this question at the Democratic Convention in 2004, when he described himself as “a skinny kid with a funny name, who believes that America has a place for him, too." But does his “funny” name really matter to voters? What can pollsters find out about how open the American public is to candidates whose names (and backgrounds) are different from those of typical presidential candidates?

It takes time for rare or unusual names to be accepted. In the Broadway hit “Fiorello” (the story of Fiorello LaGuardia – the former mayor of New York City) by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, a group of Republican Party bosses turn their poker game into a search for a candidate to face the powerful Tammany political machine, a search for “Some qualified Republican who’s willing to lose.” One possible candidate with a polysyllabic ethnic name is rejected because, as one of them sings: “Nobody likes a candidate whose name they can’t spell!”

John Kennedy’s obviously urban Irish background, along with his Catholicism, was new to many voters in 1960. The 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Mike Dukakis, the first U.S.-born member of his family, had name issues with some voters. During his campaign, the country singer Loretta Lynn pointed out that Dukakis was simply not her kind of politician…. “Why, I can't even pronounce his name!'”

There don’t seem to have been any polls taken that year about Mike Dukakis’s name and how it affected voters. But in the most recent CBS News poll, we tried to see how voters reacted to the name “Barack Obama.” It was hard to formulate such a question. Media pollsters who are measuring public opinion (as compared to the candidates’ own pollsters, who may be trying to learn how to influence voters) don’t want to put ideas into people’s minds. We need to learn what ideas are there already.

So in the latest CBS News Poll we asked a number of questions that we hoped would tell us whether Obama’s name was an issue. For some people, about 10 percent of registered voters, it was actually top-of-mind. For nearly four times as many, it was a worry, perhaps not for them personally, but for how it might affect other voters.

Late in the questionnaire, we reminded registered voters of the speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention that had catapulted Obama to public consciousness, and in which he’d said he had a "funny name." We then asked “Do you think many people would have a problem voting for him because of his name, or not?” Thirty-eight percent said many voters would have a problem voting for him because of it. And while that doesn’t mean the individual respondent would, it clearly says something about their perception of other Americans, and perhaps other Americans they know. More Republicans than Democrats (45 percent to 36 percent) say it will be a problem with voters.

For some people, the concern was personal. Long before we asked the question that mentioned Obama's name and his characterization of it, and before we mentioned any of the Democratic candidates, we asked this question: “Other than running for President, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Obama?”

Ten percent of registered voters said the first thing that came to their mind when they heard the name was the foreignness of it, and/or a perceived association with “Osama bin Laden.” And those voters who did NOT have a favorable opinion of Obama were twice as likely as those with a favorable opinion to mention this. Those who thought his name would affect others also were more likely to be thinking of it themselves. Nearly one in five of those who said that they thought many voters would have a problem voting for Obama because of his name said in the earlier poll question that the name’s non-American associations were the first thing they thought of when they heard his name.

Name and ethnicity work together, of course. And Obama’s race is part of voters concern, especially for African-Americans. In our polls, black voters have consistently been more likely than white voters to say America might not yet be ready for a black president, although they do think Obama could win the presidency if he won the Democratic nomination.

Obama could overcome this problem, because the foreign connection is much more likely to be made by those who are paying less attention to the campaign than by those paying closer attention: Fourteen percent of those paying little or no attention to the campaign say it’s the first thing that comes to mind when they hear Obama’s name, compared with just 7 percent of those paying at least some attention.

As Obama keeps campaigning, and as voters start paying more attention, pollsters like me will continue to try and find out what voters see and whether their focus moves beyond his name, to the candidate himself and his platform.

[kansas1946]

I am white, middle-class, former Republican, now Independent, in my sixites, and I love Barack Obama and would not be the least bit worried about him being president. We have a sociopathic liar running the country right now and people are going to worry about a name??
If that is all that the American people can focus on, then we deserve what we get. Sub-standard leaders.

[toongal4u]

I really believe the majority of white people do not know how bigoted they really are, and this includes the media. And I believe black people who are against Obama will always continue to live with a noose around their necks. If the media hadn''t started this another anti-Obama-ism, the public wouldn''t be stirring it up. Just your quote here: "As Obama keeps campaigning, and as voters start paying more attention, pollsters like me will continue to try and find out what voters see and whether their focus moves beyond his name, to the candidate himself and his platform."
So it is not the voters who are focused on Obama''s name, it is YOU, bigoted you, who don''t want to move beyond his ''name''. Are the American people so brainwashed, so spoiled ''Americanized'' they cannot accept a president with an unusal name? Maybe. But I also think creating this headline is another media attempt to turn voters away from Obama. So what, his name isn''t Bobby or Harry. I think you and the rest of the media need to grow up, and expand your mind, like this great red-blooded AMERICAN man running for the presidency has done and is doing in his cause to bring together one America! And I suggest you and the rest of the media get on board, because you all, more than any, it seems, need Obama''s "Change for America"!!! And if that doesn''t do, reach down into his other heritages and simply extract -- his Irish.

[charliemudca]

I think the results of this poll are mostly reflective of worries that voters will have problems with his name rather than actual bias against his name. Yes, there are a few wackos out there (you can find their postings everywhere) who love to say "Obama Osama" and think they are really clever. However, the vast majority of people who express concern about his name are concerned that OTHERS have problems with his name, rendering him unelectable. It is the same difficulty they have visualizing a black president. Nonetheless, I have the "audacity of hope" that says these misgivings can be overcome if we are just willing to believe that the majority of Americans are capable of seeing a great visionary in Barack Obama and getting beyond the superficial aspects of his name and his color. I, for one, have the audacity to suggest we will all be saying "President Obama" in January 2009. I am not willing to support someone other than Senator Obama for such idiotic reasons.

http://www.freedomsenemies.com/_more/obama.htm

Above is a website every American should visit if they want to understand Obama.

It''s only my opinon but I do believe Obama to be a danger to America.

You know a person by the company they keep, and Obama associates with many suspect people and organizations.

[katg21]

katg21, your vapid comments as usual, are so shallow as to be just the scum on the puddle, not even the water itself. Shameful!
Posted by WogerWabbit at 09:55 PM : Aug 22, 2007

Touche''

[wogerwabbit]

katg21, your vapid comments as usual, are so shallow as to be just the scum on the puddle, not even the water itself. Shameful!

[gcgray-2009]

not now.I am 71 after Sen Clinton is in two terms I will be 80 so I won;t have to much to fuss about then he might change his mine.

[katg21]

Me, I just keep getting Obama and Osama''''s names mixed up.
Posted by One_American at 05:26 PM : Aug 22, 2007

Now that''s funny! Barack HUSSEIN Obama...we''d have to be crazy.

[peter776-2009]

It''s quite simple. No one with the middle name of "Hussein" will ever sit in the White House.

[one_american]

"Voters don''''t need to spell or pronounce "Barak Obama" for him to win, they only need to be able to read "Democrat" on the ballot."

Posted by random_radar at 02:33 PM : Aug 22, 2007


That, unfortunately, probably describes the majority of voters who would vote for him; just-vote-for-anything-with-a-"D"-behind-their-name, seems to be their main strategy.

Me, I just keep getting Obama and Osama''s names mixed up.

Maybe it''s because Obama wants to meet and have tea with terrorist-supporting dictators, and conversely, wants to bomb our friends and allies...

[genmalia]

"he plays black people for fools for votes. He continues to use the message of hate perpetrated by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton...he could have had [y support] had he adopted a message more in line with that of Bill Cosby or other Balck leaders who are not affraid of the truth." by cbscrash07

Obviously you live in a closet and have never heard Obama speak. Obama is about empowering all people, not just black people; that can hardly be construed as a message of hate. In fact, he has criticized negative lyrics in rap music, and called on black men to be fathers in response to a growing population of single black mothers. If that is not leadership in the black community, or any comunity for that matter, I don''t know what is. And also very reminiscent of Bill Cosby.

Obama means what he says and says what he means, even if it is unpopular for the crowd he is addressing. Take his speech to the United Auto Wrokers where he called for more energy efficient cars, or calling for troop withdrawal to veterans.

I, for one, will be proud to have him as president; someone who speaks truth, even if is inconvenient to do so, and who won''t pander and flip flop to whomever they are addressing like other candidates. Feel free to wthhold your support cbscrash07, but if truth is what you seek, Obama is, and has consistently been, the only one to offer it.

[darkhorse212]

CBS News Director Kathy Frankovic dredges up singer Loretta Lynn''s infamous moment of nativism during the 1988 Republican Convention, when she stood at the podium purposefully mangling Mike Dukakis'' last name, but Frankovic neatly twists this old bit of history as being "during his campaign...." No, it was clearly during the campaign of George H. W. Bush, a part and parcle of it''s strategy. Loretta Lynn was brought in by the Bush gang specifically for the all-American poking fun at the Democratic candidate''s European immigrant-heritage name. Bush''s 1988 campaign was marked and marred by nativism and racism noteworthy for the "Willie Horton" advertisements, mass mailings, creepy push polling calls, and other tactics. George W. Bush and Karl Rove were on the team that devised the plan, with the late and repentant Lee Atwater.
There is no need for CBS pollsters or journalists to carry their dirty water as if "raising this question" about "this problem" that pollsters like Frankovic are themselves creating. Instead, go after the underlying nativism and racism inherent in such voters'' minds; and why do white Southerners prefer Republican candidates since 1964? There is as much burdern for the GOP to explain this as for Democrats.

[darkhorse212]

What has CBS News got against Obama? If it isn''t a story about his experience level, it''s this lame poll question about his name? What''s next, his wife? (I forgot, that''s been covered.) I guess his children are fair game now?

[infidel_us]

Why not do more news reports about the issues instead of pandering to a small minority of Americans who will base their votes on race and ethnicity.
Posted by edjohn66 at 12:37 PM : Aug 22, 2007

Because they''re New Your liberals and they can''t thelp themselves?

[clestes-2009]

Oh for God''s sake, surely we are passed voting for someone based on how their name sounds! I think the American people are more sophisticated than that. Besides, anyone is better than the whitebread bushites the rep party is offering.

[clestes-2009]

Oh for God''s sake, surely we are passed voting for someone based on how their name sounds! I think the American people are more sophisticated than that. Besides, anyone is better than the whitebread bushites the rep party is offering.

[random_radar]

Voters don''t need to spell or pronounce "Barak Obama" for him to win, they only need to be able to read "Democrat" on the ballot.

If he gets the nomination, he will likely poll between 45-55% of the vote in the general election, depending on who the Republican candidate is.

I would love to see an election between Obama or Clinton and Romney. That would be both historical and hysterical. In fact, Obama/Clinton versus Romeny/Lieberman would be great--take your pick of black, woman, mormon, and jew!

Upset fruitbasket!!!

[Syndicate]

Its not his name or his Background. YOU don''t get to pick your name or your background. ITs the here and now that counts and in the here and now Obama keeps putting his foot in his mouth. I don''t care if our president is black. Excuse me half black. I do care that he plays black people for fools for votes. He continues to use the message of hate perpetrated by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Remember his black rage comment? It doesn''t matter Obama is not seeking my support and I am not offering it. Although he could have had it had he adopted a message more in line with that of Bill Cosby or other Balck leaders who are not affraid of the truth.

[edjohn66]

"Some Voters Think Barack Obama''s Name, Background Will Give Him Problems"

Read:

Some voters think that a black man should not be president.

Come on, do we really need to waste time with this? Why not do more news reports about the issues instead of pandering to a small minority of Americans who will base their votes on race and ethnicity.

[jack3213]

Quite understandable, as most people are superficial and if they can''t pronounce a name or spell it they just won''t bother to vote for it. Although we have much more serious issues to contend with than name anaylsis, the general population ( as agreed upon by most) are "Herd Followers" meaning that, what is wasy to say, easy to write, and easy follow along with will ultimately come out ahead.