"I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think I would ever run for president"
~ Barack Hussein Obama,
The 63rd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner
On his Sunday morning, Chris Matthews raised this question: will Barack Hussein Obama include his middle name when he is sworn in as President? Matthews showed clips going back as far as FDR showing Presidents including either their middle name or middle initial when swearing to uphold the Constitution. Only two Presidents since FDR did not include either: Jimmy (Earl) Carter and Ronald (Wilson) Reagan.
When I started writing this diary, I was asking the question, "Should Obama include his middle name when he is sworn in?" As I wrote the diary, I realized the answer to that question, at least among Kossacks, seemed pretty easy to predict: of course Obama should use his middle name. It is his given name and he should be proud of it. In addition, what a signal it would send to the world - especially the Islamic world - that we not only have a President with a middle name like Hussein, but is proud to use it when he swears to uphold the Constitution. (At least that's what I believe. If I'm wrong about this assumption, I'd love to hear from those who think he should not include it.)
Then when I started to edit the diary to ask whether Obama will include his middle name when he is sworn-in, the question again seemed not interesting or important enough. After a drawn out campaign season where everyone was making predictions and most people got them wrong most of the time (except, of course, Nate Silver), predicting whether Obama will say Hussein while his hand is on the Bible seemed somewhat frivolous. What I think is more important to ask is: will it matter if Obama includes his middle name when he's sworn in and will that influence his decision to include it?
Consider this: so many of us in the blogosphere, as well as a number of those in the MSM, made a point of criticizing those on the Right who went out of their way to include Obama's middle name when they campaigned against him. The Right claimed there should be no problem with their using his name since that is his name. Their critics argued that, while it may be true that that his is middle name, the Right used the name to paint Obama as a Muslim or less than American. And if the Right was not trying to paint Obama as alien or other, why did they never mention Kerry's, Gore's, Clinton's, Dukakis' etc last name when they ran against them?
So now the question is: what if Obama decides - like Carter and Reagan - not to use his middle name when he is sworn-in, will it matter? It would probably be one of the most conspicuous exclusions in recent memory. Will the Muslim world take that as a slap in the face? Would his inclusion of it be taken as vindication by the Right? Or will it just not be important in either the long or short run?
I have my own beliefs surrounding this but I don't want to include them - at least not yet. Maybe I'll include them in an UPDATE. But I'd rather see what others think without giving too much influence on the debate.
Anyway, what do you think?