By Joseph Farah

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It’s going to be a strange presidential election year, no question about it.

For one thing, major party presidential nominees almost always have middle names.

In the past, it’s been, “All the way with JFK.” I think that was used again with LBJ. We all knew Richard Nixon’s middle name was Milhous. He wasn’t ashamed. There was Gerald R. Ford, then James Earl Carter, better known as Jimmy. Then came Ronald Wilson Reagan before the first George Bush who had two middle names – Herbert Walker. Bill Clinton was actually William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. And then, of course, came George Bush – known around the world by the initial of his middle name, “W.”

But this year looks different.

For if Barack Obama should get the Democratic Party nod, he’s made it clear we can’t use his middle name.

All I can tell you is it starts with an “H.” Even his Republican opponent has said it’s just not appropriate for anyone to cite his middle name.

It is the middle name we dare not speak?

Isn’t this going to be unusual?

I’m not quite sure why Barack H. Obama is so sensitive about his middle name. Why doesn’t he just legally change it if it is a source of shame to him? If it is not a source of shame, why would he try to conceal it from the American people?

Perhaps it is because he opposed the war in Iraq so vehemently – a war designed to topple the world’s worst living mass murderer. Must we also avoid speaking the last name of that dictator known as Saddam? Is Barack H. Obama concerned that some Americans might actually think they were kinfolk?

I don’t get it.

It can’t be the Arab-African connection, because, after all, his first name is Barack and his last name is Obama. These are not exactly household Anglo-Saxon names.

Of course, there is no compulsion to using one’s middle name. For instance, few people know my middle name. But I’m not adverse to telling you what it is. It’s Francis – as in Albert Francis Sinatra or Francis of Assisi. It’s a good name. But I don’t use it much. However, if I were running for president and insisted that no one reveal my middle name, I suspect Americans might be a little concerned about my reasoning.

People might ask if I were part French, which I am.

People might ask if I hide the name because I don’t like France, which I don’t.

People might ask if I had a problem with the person or persons who gave me the name, which I do not.

When you’re running for president, people believe your life should be an open book. When you start placing parts of your life off limits, it raises more questions than it stifles.

I think I know the real reason Barack H. Obama doesn’t want us to use his middle name.

I think you know the real reason Barack H. Obama doesn’t want us to use his middle name.

I think his middle name is a matter of public record and not a state secret.

So why the game-playing?

Because, like any candidate seeking the presidency, Barack H. Obama wants to control the debate. He wants to set the rules of fair play. He wants to be able to cry foul when tough questions are asked. He wants to be able to dodge and bob and weave and deflect. He wants to create and maintain a carefully crafted image. And he doesn’t, under any circumstances, want anyone to suggest that he is anything other than 100 percent American – no matter his lineage, no matter where he was raised, no matter how long he and his wife lived in this country without feeling a sense of pride about it.

That’s what I think about Barack Hussein Obama. Whoops! Strike that middle name, please. Make that Barack H. Obama.

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