and as such comments such as faux-cowboy are appropriate to our time. Comments about McCain as curmudgeon are also fair game, any man who sings about bombing a nation to a Beach Boys song has lost his gravitas and has opened himself up to scorn.

All that said, your point about simplistic name-calling, puerile manipulations of Obama's name are indicative of a coarsening of the discourse. It's a reason why the comments sections on many mainstream right-wing sites are to be avoided. The non-mainstream right isn't nearly so juvenile. People feel they are quite clever and have scored points by adding a vowel or two to the name and altering it to something else.

But all of this indicates a crisis of leadership; our leaders are a collection of mediocrities, liars and scoundrels, who themselves have coarsened the discourse by maudlin appeals to the lowest common denominator, except when deflecting criticism of their paymasters.

And the population, as most populations have since ancient times, respond to the example set before them. This isn't just about the internet, and politicians no longer being able to be understandably flawed persons in private. This is about falsehoods, pious frauds, and demagogues, the same sort of stuff one reads in histories. This is about the political and senior bureaucratic classes who have discredited themselves outrageously in the past ten years, although the seeds of much of this were laid over the course of the last 40 years. This is also about the commentariot, a class of stenographers and court historians.

Whilst making fun of Obama's name is puerile, I've little pity for the man considering how he was actively marketed to naive young people, and has since gone back on his promise of transparency.

. . . make fun, when necessary. But let it be witty, let it be original, let it be illuminating. Remember at all times that you're being read, and that there should be something in your writing that's worth the reader's effort. If all you're doing is making yourself feel good, don't be surprised if folks encourage you to do the decent thing and lock the door first.

Ha! Charlie, that's indeed witty and original. Thanks for adding some class to this thread. Of course a political personality should not be immune to "witty and original" mockery. But maybe I'm old fashioned....I still think our President and C-in-C (from whichever party) should have a modicum of respect. Criticize his policies all we want, but the title "President" should be left alone, for otherwise we end up devaluing the office itself. Just one man's opinion....

"....I still think our President and C-in-C (from whichever party) should have a modicum of respect."

I agree, but then, I'm old-fashioned to. I hated it just as much when it was the left calling President Bush "shrub," or "chimp," or whatever. It's an attempt to create contempt for the president without really doing the hard work arguing well--instead taking the lazy route of creating negative emotional connotations. For that alone it should be condemned.

I'm a little torn on the whole "respect" thing. Yes, there should be respect--because we respect the nation, the Constitution, our society, and the office.

On the other hand, I'm old enough to recall the Nixon years, when such considerations were callously and cynically manipulated in such a way as to suppress dissent--or even asking hard questions of the administration.

But I do resonate on most days with what you're saying.

The problem is the lack of originality and hyper-partisanship. The same folks who will make crude word-plays, funny only to the originator, on Obama's name will also mouth off about Bush derangement syndrome.

FG42, I understand your point. If you have no respect for the office eventually governance becomes impossible. I'd only counter that, partisanship aside, the President, by virtue of being President, in our culture becomes almost a king. His person is largely immune to prosecution in a way the rest of us aren't. Nixon solidified this; presidents, no matter what it seems, do not go to jail.

There is an easy path from dignity of the office to divine right and infallibility. Indeed, the hatred for Obama, and to a lesser degree for Bush, is the sort of hatred for perceived usurpers and pretenders to the throne.