Obama, Obama Everywhere …

J.J. Jackson* | October 2, 2008

Filed Under Barack Obama, John McCain, Liberal Media

The Politico reports on something very interesting. Apparently the New York Times crossword editors have a fondness for Barack Obama and are working his name into their puzzles whenever they can. But as for McCain? Well …

I am partly to blame.

On Jan. 8, 2005, I purposefully and unapologetically became the first person to ever construct a crossword puzzle for The New York Times that featured this five-letter answer:

OBAMA.

Earlier this week, Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s senior campaign adviser, lambasted the Times for being “totally, 150 percent in the tank for the Democratic candidate.” The GOP, it seems, is finally catching on to a once-hidden truth:

Crossword puzzles heavily favor Democrats.

According to the puzzle database maintained by Cruciverb.com, ever since that game-changing day in 2005, OBAMA has appeared regularly as an answer in New York Times crossword puzzles. With its wonderfully convenient alternating series of commonly used vowels and consonants, OBAMA has been the answer to the clues “Senator who wrote ‘Dreams From My Father,’” “Future senator who delivered the 2004 Democratic convention keynote address” and “Presidential candidate born in Hawaii.”

But what about MCCAIN? Shockingly, not once has MCCAIN been an answer in a crossword in the New York Times, The Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times. No MCCAIN, no JOHNMCCAIN, no SENATORMCCAIN, not even his most recent sobriquet, the presidential-sounding JOHNSMCCAINIII.

Oh but lest you think that this is some sort of conspiracy or backhanded means of support, you vile, racist conservative, the Times has a response to that:

Contacted by Politico, Diane McNulty, a New York Times spokeswoman, said, “The answer is obvious for anyone who does crosswords. It is because ‘Obama’ is a five-letter name that alternates vowels and consonants. It’s got three vowels out of five letters, starting and ending in vowels. So it is much more crossword-friendly than ‘McCain,’ which is a harder word to put in a crossword. If McCain’s name was Obama, then his name would have been used many more times in crosswords.”

Why do I get the impression the first draft of the response was more like, “Yeah! So … uh … so because … uh … crap … what’s a good excuse? … uh … yeah it has something to do with the way the name is constructed and that means we cannot use McCain’s name in our puzzles EVER!”

Hey, uh guys? Your bias is showing again!

You cannot tell me that you cannot find some way to work McCain’s name in the way you have gone to great lengths to campaign for the messiah.

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