This is fascinating (from The Corner). There's been a lot of criticism (rightly) of the nudge nudge, wink wink 'his middle name is Hussein' message about Obama.
So who started it? Who said this (the first recorded such example)? Well, I think if you've got a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, that's a pretty good contrast to George W. Bush. Have a guess.
This man did it first:
This is from Bret Stephens' WSJ column: Sometime before Barack Obama's middle name slipped into the realm of the unmentionable, it was supposed to be a selling point of his candidacy. "Well, I think if you've got a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, that's a pretty good contrast to George W. Bush," Mr. Obama told PBS's Tavis Smiley on October 18, 2007. "If you believe that we've got to heal America and we've got to repair our standing in the world, then I think my supporters believe that I am the messenger who can deliver that message."