The New York Times chronicles a web-based phenomenon surrounding Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama. A growing number of his supporters are taking his middle name as their own in their online identities. It is cropping up on networking sites and discussion boards as a rash of new "Husseins" take their man's Arabic middle name. Sen. Obama has been trying to run down the rumor that he is a Muslim. He is not, but due to his father's Muslim heritage, Obama's youth spent in Indonesia, and that middle name of his, the rumor persists. Now, a rash of new Husseins are appearing online, taking on the controversial name as a way of showing just how inconsequential a middle name is.

Some of the new name takers say that they are doing so out of anger at perceived Republican attacks on Obama using his middle name as a slur. "I am tired of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama's name as if it's some sort of cuss word," said Jeff Strabone of Brooklyn, NY. In fact, the issue of Sen. Obama's middle name was placed before the public not by Republicans, but by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Prominent former Senator and Clinton supporter Bob Kerrey first used Sen. Obama's full name during an interview with the Washington Post.

"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."

About a year ago, I read a post by an AOL blogger the premise of which was that the biggest reason Barack Obama would never be elected president was that his middle name connoted all the wrong things to the American public. At the time, I remember thinking, "Seriously? Americans can't be that short-sighted, can they?"

Well, a poll that's currently up in an AOL News story titled, "Obama Fights False Links to Islam," does not seem to portend well for Obama. Though a self-selecting sample if ever there was, as of this writing 47% of respondents seem to feel there's some truth to the many false rumors that stem, in no small part, from the associations the name "Hussein" seems to conjure for so many.

Indeed, every time you hear one of Obama's opponents speak his middle name, while refusing to do the same for any other candidate or national figure, you know that an assertion is being made. In the past week alone, we've had Bill Cunningham repeat "Hussein" ad nauseum on a stage in Ohio. Not one to rest on his laurels, he also managed to throw in some lynching metaphors for good measure. "At some point in the near future, the media is going to peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama!" Oh that sneaky, concealing, colored bark! Let's strip it off.

There they go again. A day after John McCain rebuked conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham for using Barack Obama's full name, McCain is taking the Tennessee Republican Party to the woodshed. The party issued a press release that included the photo of Obama dressed in traditional African garb and used his full name under the headline "Anti-Semites for Obama."

Tennessee GOP chairman Robin Smith claims she merely wants to "set the record straight about Barack Obama and where he really stands on vital issues such as national security and the security of Israel."