Those Clinton Surrogates Are So Subtle

It's not as if it's news that Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein.

So why does Bob Kerrey feel the need to throw it out there again?

Some Obama supporters have asked why former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., who endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., today, mentioned her opponent Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's middle name in remarks published in The Washington Post. (LINK)

"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," Kerrey is quoted as saying. "There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."

Obama supporters see this in the same light that they see Clinton strategist Mark Penn's remarks on MSNBC's Hardball (LINK) -- that, as far as former Clinton campaign co-chair Billy Shaheen's remarks about Obama's youthful drug use, "the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising."

Too clever by half, they think.

A clear attempt to raise an issue while pretending not to raise it.

Certainly Mrs. Clinton will give us one of those patented "You know, I had no idea" excuses now.

Really, it's no big deal, but I think it underscores a sense of desperation that they're trying to plant anything in the minds of Democrat voters to scare them away from Obama who, quite frankly, doesn't scare anyone.

Now that woman on the right in the above photo? Yes, she indeed does scare people.