Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Political nickname update: Obama edition

This whole campaign, as regular readers will know, I've been keeping an eye on political nicknames. They continue to bubble up — was it Olbermann who just used McFlailin? Still, I'm finding a lot of the action on the campaign trail too alarming to joke about.

But Barack Obama hasn't gotten much in the way of usable monikers that I can see, positive or negative. In fact, the best one I've found, and I herewith abandon the search, is Hopey. Urban Dictionary has an entry for it (here) and wonkette uses it pretty regularly.

9 comments:

GAC said...

Hmm... Barry Bammy? No, that just sounds stupid.

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's a sorry state for nicknames. Of course, the kind of nicknames McCain's camp is throwing around is more like, um, "fightin' words" or "hate speech." So I'll take Hopey anyday!

John Cowan said...

There is a well-known moniker (negative) for Barack Obama, namely "Barack Hussein Obama".

Mr. Verb said...

Thanks. You know, I had thought about commenting on that particular way of referring to him, but it hardly seems to count as a nickname.

The Ridger, FCD said...

You haven't seen "Nobama"?

Or "That One" ;-)

Anonymous said...

Thing is, I have yet to hear that as a nickname rather than a slogan. Are you hearing people say 'I'd never vote for Nobama'? There's a negation issue in it as an actual name.

But That One, that's golden. Have you seen the "That One '08" stuff?

GAC said...

Nobama is definitely a slogan. As far as "That One" -- that works beautifully -- I'm very tempted to buy one of those shirts (and I'm generally not one for political swag).

I wouldn't use "Barack Hussein Obama" -- it's just his real name, albeit used disparagingly. I believe some people call him "Hussein", again, as an insult/conspiracy theory intensifier.

But yeah, I guess Hopey is the most positive one I've seen. That One is good too, for satirical effect.

The Ridger, FCD said...

We frequent different places, I see. But you're right - it's a slogan.

I've never seen Hopey. (It took me quite a while to figure it out, in fact, leaving me feeling slightly dopey myself.)

Anonymous said...

Hey, after last night, I suspect that Obama's gonna have a NEW nickname: "President". I kind of like the ring of it.