"Why the hell is it suddenly wrong to use a candidate's middle name," my friend asked me this afternoon during a conversation I, regretfully, started about the right-wing smear campaign. I tried to explain that my issue was with the motive, but that fell on deaf ears. That his middle name was being used to further the idea that Obama was unamerican, that if it were "Robert" or "Paul" we wouldn't even be hearing it, but he still wouldn't budge.
"Nothing wrong with saying the man's middle name. You guys seem to think it's ALL about race this year."
I thought about it for a moment and then looked at him. "Do you know George Bush's middle name?."
You know that look someone has when they're about to say something they know is stupid but they just can't stop themselves? He had that look for about five seconds or so before uttering "W.?"
I really couldn't stop myself from going on the offensive.
"Come on... obviously Presidential middle names are important. We're talking about the guy who's President right now and you don't know his middle name?"
He stammered something about how we weren't talking about George Bush's middle name, so I bluntly asked "Then why are we talking about Obama's?"
And finally I got a shred of truth from the man... "Because it's Hussein."
I certainly didn't convince this lifelong Republican to not vote for McCain, but it was a fun minor victory.
(I did take a vote away from McCain yesterday though, when I showed my mother the "my fellow prisoners" line.)
Oh, and don't bother telling me it's Walker. I'm not a lawyer, but I've learned not to ask any questions I don't already know the answer to when debating.