If it's a completely different matter to utter Barack Obama's middle name, should we now stop using last names like Black, Gaye and Peters? Should European parents stop naming their son's Adolph? The man's middle name is the man's middle name. His parents gave it to him at a time when the world was a much bigger place than it is today and it meant nothing.

That being said, for Christopher Beam to compalin that the Republicans should stop using Barack Hussein Obama when referring to the other Democratic candidate and characterizing it as some "oh what, me" insult just seems stupid. You can't have it both ways. You can't elect the first President of the United States of African American descent and deny the fact that he's of African American descent.

Oh, but that's right, I guess anything that gets in the way of Obamamania being rosey and perfect is not supposed to come to light. These standards only apply to Hillary Rhodam Clinton. Thanks for the lesson in fairness, Chris.

Actually, in post-WWII Germany there was a huge drop-off in the number of males given the name Adolf (Adolph being an earlier spelling.)

Names that should be struck from the books:

Black (racist)

Brown (racist)

White (it implies gentrification is okay, which is racist)

Harry (impolite to the follicularly-challenged)

Little (offensive to vertically-challenged)

Dick, Rod, Peter, Pecker, Dong, Wang (obvious reasons)

Adolf (Hitler)

Sam (could be short for "Saddam" or "Osama")

Bush (obvious reasons)

Ben (short for "Benito" as in Mussolini)

John (bathroom)

Chastity (sexual in nature)...

The list goes on. However, I think the point is valid. Americans have been indoctrinated to have such a knee-jerk reaction to anything Islamic or Middle Eastern (or anything that even SOUNDS vaguely Islamic or Middle Eastern), especially in relation to Saddam Hussein (currently the most famous Hussein), that I think there really IS an argument for saying that people shouldn't use his middle name. Beyond the argument that he doesn't call himself that, and we should call people what they want to be called. Even if it's Harry Dick Peter John White Little-Wong.

The point is using Obama's middle name is gratuitous and pointless. Do the same people use John McCain's middle name when refering to him?