Kerrey Off: His "Barack Hussein Obama" Remark in Press Stirs Criticism

By: E&P Staff The big 2008 campaign kerfuffle today concerns remarks by former Sen. Bob Kerrey in endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday.

After delivering his prepared remarks in Iowa, he was asked by a reporter (from the Omaha World-Herald, according to some sources) about Barack Obama. He said, "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."

After the Washington Post and ABC News and others carried these remarks far and wide, some campaign watchers on the Web charged that Kerrey was only the latest Clinton backer to stab Obama -- this time with the word "Muslim" instead of "cocaine."

Kerrey replied that his words were only meant in praise for Obama's potential to communicate abroad. Critics came back with: Why, then, the use of his middle name "Hussein," a favorite game of the far-right?
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