Driving Political Opinion

Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would still smell like a rose, only he said it a bit more poetically. Movie makers have known how important a name can be to making or breaking a star. When Joan Crawford walked into the MGM studios her name was Lucile FayLeSueur. Alan Alda started out as Alphonso D’Abruzzo. Iowa’s own John Wayne was born Marion Morrison. Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson.

Back before Google. Aye, there’s the rub…

Companies too know that naming or branding their product with the right  name can affect the marketing, position and the consumer’s awareness, all factors that help sales. Google was once named Backrub. Bridge Gate Computers became Compaq after NameLab became involved and Ben Rosen, one of the companies first investors insisted. Anderson Consulting, fortuitously, became Accenture after a major corporate reorganization, a name change which allowed Accenture to carry on without the baggage of the Anderson scandal.

Java was once Oak Software and Tokyo Electron Corp became Sony. Montgomery Wards tried to become more relevant by becoming just Wards, but a major corporate make over rebranded it as Circuit City, one of today’s major big box electronic stores. Many companies invest thousands with naming consultants, such as NameLab, today to come up with the right name for a product, money often well spent. NameLab is responsible for such corporate and name brands as CompUSA, Olive Garden, Acura, and Acuvue. Masters-McNeil, Inc. developed PayPal, Member’s Mark, and named the new fleet of Holland American’s cruise ships.

Most politicians get the name their parents pick for them, without any thought to future branding and campaign advertising. When it comes to candidates, what difference does it make if we call them by their first name, or even by a nick name? And what if the politician running for office is aiming at being the leader of the free world?

In November The Boston Globe ran a story about Rudy, Hillary, Mitt and Fred and how familiarity brings rapport with the voters. Their first names appear on their yard signs and bumper stickers.

John Edwards and John McCain are not on a first name basis at this time with voters. They are either referred to by both their first and last name or just their last name alone. With Mike Huckabee surging in the polls in Iowa, will we see “I like Mike” or “Huck” bumper stickers?

Barack Obama’s last name has unfortunately been mispronounced unintentionally as “Osama” by quite a few people, as Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) did in a speech before the National Press Club on January 12, 2005, (“There you go. Why don’t we just ask Osama bin Laden, I say, Osama Obama, Obama what his sense is why he won by such a big event.”) and not just mispronounced but also confused with Ossama bin laden’s name as Gov. Mitt Romeny did in a speech October 23, 2007 before a South Carolina chamber of commerce audience (“Actually, just look at what Osam — uh — Barack Obama, said just yesterday. Barack Obama calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq. ”).

We haven’t known many of our Commanders in Chief by their first names, though we have had many nicknames over the years for the POTUS, or President of the United States as the Secret Service calls their boss. I n terms of first names, we became familiar with President Carter as “Jimmy.” He was a down home Southern man who had been known as Jimmy his entire life and becoming president wasn’t going to change that for him. One of his bumper stickers read “Gimme Jimmy.”

President Clinton was known as Bill Clinton, not William Jefferson Clinton, but he never really campaigned as “Bill.” President Reagan’s wife called him “Ronnie,” and he had the nickname “Dutch” due to his haircut style as a boy, but he did not campaign as “Dutch Reagan,” nor “Bonzo,” a reference to Reagan’s 1951 role as Prof. Peter Boyd in the comedy Bedtime for Bonzo, a movie about teaching human morals to a chimp in an academic laboratory setting as a way of testing the hypothesis of nature versus nurture.

President Nixon had been known by the tag name “Tricky Dick” since the 1950 senate race in California when he beat Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, author of She Who Must be Obeyed, by suggesting Douglas had Communist leaning sympathies. She in turn branded Nixon with the infamous nickname.

Several presidents were known by their initials: LBJ, JFK, FDR and T.R. for President Theodore Roosevelt. Some were known by what became famous slogans: “Give ‘em Hell Harry” for Harry S. Truman (he had no middle name, just the initial), “Honest Abe” for Abraham Lincoln, “Old Tippecanoe” for William Henry Harrison, and “Old Hickory” for Andrew Jackson.

Today’s trend toward first names reflects how relaxed our culture is with the traditions of pomp and protocol. A first name, like initials, suggests an intimacy the public may have with the persona the candidate has. It is somewhat like our obsession with celebrities that we call Britney, Angelina, Brad, and Paris – as if we know these people! It also suggest a major paradigm shift in how we look at the person who is the President.

During President Bill Clinton’s scandal with Monica Lewinsky, one of my children was six, going on seven. One warm winter day, he approached my car in the after school pick up line. I had the windows rolled down to enjoy some of the fresh January-thaw air and he heard the sound of the radio broadcasting a news update. As he approached the car dressed in boots, mittens, a snow jacket and missing most of his front teeth, he said, “Mommy, did Bill Clinton really have sexual relations with Monica?” I immediately snapped off the radio and replied, “Since when are you on a first name basis with either President Clinton or Miss Lewinsky, young man!” That ended the conversation that day, but his question made me realize that the Clinton sex-scandal not only would have an impact on the kids who are teenagers today, but that respect for the person holding the Oval Office had perhaps forever changed because of the causal familiarity and indiscretions of one of the office holder.  I was in second grade when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I can’t imagine ever calling him John” or even John Kennedy as a child. He was always, and still is, either President Kennedy or possibly JFK. In the words of Bob Dylan, “the times, they are a-changing.”