That Republicans are adopting the strategy of mentioning Obama's middle name reminds me of Richard Nixon's Jew-baiting during his 1950 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

In both cases, the Republicans stoke the latent or overt prejudices of the electorate.

In 1950, Nixon's opponent for the U.S. Senate was Helen Gahagan Douglas. Douglas, a former actress was married to actor Melvyn Douglas, who was born Melvyn Hesselberg (his father was Jewish).

During the campaign, Nixon playfully referred to his opponent as Helen Hesselberg by "mistake".

McCain lets some hack do the deed for him, and scores points by "distancing" himself from the comments after the fact.

Nixon Jew-baiting Article