What's In a Name?

Before a conservative talk show host in Cincinnati caught flak for referring to the full name of the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, "Barack Hussein Obama," other sympathetic or unaligned commentators were trumpeting it as one his attributes.

Take, for example, Chris Matthews of MSNBC. Back in December, he cited the name in a paean to the international promise Mr. Obama offered. "Barack Hussein Obama, a guy whose father comes from Kenya, who was raised at least in his youth in Indonesia from a third world perspective, almost a third world presentation," Mr. Matthews gushed. "He's a man with a global perspective because he comes from the world to us. He's sort of a gift from the world to us, in so many ways … It just seems to me that if I were a Kenyan newspaper editor on Friday morning next week and Obama wins this caucus, I'm leading the paper with it."

What's behind the explicit use of Mr. Obama's middle name is the perception that because of his ethnic background he would be welcomed around the world, ushering in a new era of American international relations. A Time magazine columnist, Joe Klein, speaking in Boston in December, said, "A teenager wakes up in Karachi or the West Bank to find the president is Barack Hussein Obama — Wow. That changes everything."

Newsweek's Evan Thomas left out the candidate's middle name, but provided a similar sentiment on a Washington D.C. public affairs television program, "Inside Washington": "If the United States elects a black man, the impact of that abroad is just enormous and it gives an — opens a door if he can take advantage of it, to change America's image in the world. And that is real change."

Given the growing exuberance about the potential of Mr. Obama's ability to transform American policy, it's fair to investigate the reality behind it. Can a man, by virtue of a multi-ethnic biography and a Muslim-sounding middle name, transform America's reputation in the Islamic world?

Not so fast, to paraphrase a professor at Brandeis University who spoke at a forum on "The Obama Phenomenon" yesterday, Ibrahim Sundiata.

"I think that people paint a too rosy picture of Obama being the world, that in the Muslim world, being the son of an ex-Muslim is apostasy and it is a very serious crime," Mr. Sundiata, a historian and expert on Africa, said in formal remarks.

"In a place like Kenya, where he is from, there is currently a battle going on over this election. If Obama were to go to Kenya today and say 'I as a black person of Kenyan descent say stop fighting' it probably wouldn't happen. People would say 'you are also a Luo and not a Kikuyu.' He would have no more success in certain African conflicts as Condi Rice."

In a later interview, Mr. Sundiata reiterated his point. "His name is not a panacea. His face is not a panacea," he told me.

As far as Mr. Obama's standing in the Muslim world, recent statements such as telling "60 Minutes" "I have never been a Muslim, am not a Muslim," could actually damage it, said Mr. Sundiata. "The more forcefully you say it, in Pakistan and Iraq and Indonesia, it's like saying 'I'm not you.'"

This reality check comes from a man who is no conservative. In his remarks, for example, Mr. Sundiata referred to Rush Limbaugh as a member of the "radical right."

Mr. Sundiata did say he saw Mr. Obama as providing a boost to the perception of America in Europe and in Brazil. "He will have an attitude towards the world which will be liberal anti-imperialist," Mr. Sundiata said, noting Mr. Obama's opposition to the Iraq War. "As an African-American and as an African-American of the Left, he's a liberal anti-imperialist." So if we put aside excessive hope, on the one hand, and unfounded fears, on the other, we are left with a candidate who, as president, would likely touch liberals and others in Europe much as he has those here. He will impute energy and excitement and set expectations afire.

In much of the Middle East and even Africa, however, there is no quick fix, even for someone with a familiar and seductive sounding name.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.