In Cairo, Times Decides It's OK to Use Barack Obama's Full Name
The biggest takeaway from Friday's lead story on President Obama's speech in Cairo: It's now acceptable in Times-land to mention the president's middle name "Hussein," at least in Muslim contexts when it works to his advantage. This comes after the Times flayed Republicans on the campaign trail for identifying Obama by his full name.
Here's the nut graph to "Addressing Muslims, a Blunt Obama Takes On Mideast Issues," by Jeff Zeleny and Helene Cooper.
Mr. Obama offered few details for how to solve myriad problems and conflicts around the globe, but he offered up his own biography as a credible connection to his audience. While the message touched upon a litany of challenges, it boiled down to simply this: Barack Hussein Obama was standing at the podium as the American president.
And from the "well-that-was-quick" file, check the opening line of Nicholas Kulish's Friday story. The original wording from the New York Late Edition presented Obama's Muslim outreach as already successful, a fait accompli:
After mending fences with the Muslim world inCairo on Thursday,President Obamamight want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with ChancellorAngela Merkel.
That's since been altered in the online version to the more provisional "sought to mend fences"
A day after he sought to mend fences with the Muslim world in Cairo,President Obamadeclared Friday that "the moment is now" to press for a Middle East settlement, but he put Israelis and Palestinians on notice that it was up to them to make "difficult compromises."
