Senator Clinton is not the only candidate who uses her first name

[Hippo_Tron]

Rudy Giuliani has it on all of his campaign signs



Fred Thompson's website is called fred08.com he has some signs that say "Fred Thompson" and some that just say "Fred"



Now I really hope that people don't think that I started this thread so that I could compare Senator Clinton to these two asshole Republicans, because that's not my intention and frankly that's just silly.

My point is that Senator Clinton isn't the only person to go by her first name in the context of a campaign and therefore I think it has little to do with gender. I think that candidates decide whether they want to go by their first name or last name for strategic reasons.

Going by your first name, IMO, can make you seem more folksy and down to earth. On the other hand, if you don't have high name recognition, you will want to go by your last name so that people get to know who you are. Romney and Huckabee have low name recognition so not surprisingly they go by their last names. Same if you have an extremely common name. John Edwards pretty much has to go by Edwards because there are so many people named John.

That's my analysis, anyway, take it for what it's worth.

[Evergreen Emerald]

1. And despite the fact that they use their first names, when

we, or the media, refer to them it is by their last names...but not so with Clinton.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. I just googled the words "Hillary" and "Rudy"

I got this headline which referred to the candidate as "Rudy", after some searching.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12252007/news/nationalnews/rudy__vote__then_judge_888982.htm

And this headline that referred to the candidate as "Hillary"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20071226/cm_rcp/has_hillary_found_her2

When I google the words Clinton and Giuliani I get several headlines immediately.

[dbackjon]

2. It makes sense for Hillary to use Hillary!, since there was already a President Clinton

Like the Chimp using "W" so people wouldn't think his dad was running again.


Is this a big deal to some?

[Bitwit1234]

3. I think the reason Hillary is referred as such is to distinguish her

from Bill.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. That may indeed be the case

[Captain Hilts]

6. Right, it's to differentiate. It's been that way for headlining first ladies since 'Eleanor'. nt

[mtnsnake]

7. True

It's funny, I didn't even realize it until you posted it that Rudy runs his campaign like that.

Part of the reason I think he and Hillary can do it so effectively (Hillary has for years) is because neither of their first names are very common. Whenever someone says Rudy or Hillary, you pretty much know who they're talking about, even if the conversation wasn't about politics previously. Fred, OTOH, well I'm not so sure...

[Hippo_Tron]

8. Well, Fred was probably just too lazy to type his whole name when buying the domain for his website

Doesn't really matter what name he goes by, he's still not winning jack shit.

[TwilightZone]

9. There may not be a more ridiculous "issue" than the criticism about Hillary using her first name.

Anyone remember "I like Ike"?

[Skidmore]

10. Why is this important?