The Illinois Renegade vs. the Arizona Phoenix

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from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2008/sep/12/sarahpalin.uselections2008?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews


The Secret Service agents who guard the four candidates and their families have the job of giving them code names, which the Washington Post is now reporting. And leaving aside the questionable publicising of supposedly secret codes, the names are surprisingly relevant to the personalities of Obama, McCain, Biden, and Palin.

Obama is named Renegade, a nice allusion to the initially insurgent candidacy he mounted last year against overwhelming favourite Hillary Clinton. His wife Michelle is Renaissance, a fitting code for a woman whose personal style has sparked frequent comparisons to the heyday of Jackie Kennedy.

McCain's name is Phoenix, which sounds like a clever double-shot at his home base in Arizona and his rising-from-the-ashes victory in the Democratic primary. His wife Cindy is dubbed Parasol - not that she's been spotted carrying a ruffly umbrella, but her fashion tastes do run on the ritzier side. (If it's not already apparent, each family chooses one letter of the alphabet for their Secret Service codes.)

Biden's code word is Celtic, a likely reference to his Irish roots as opposed to any fandom of Boston basketball. His wife Jill's name has not yet been reported, but she is a college professor who spends a lot of time on campus, so there's a lot to work with.

Palin has perhaps the cleverest name of all: Denali, the name of Alaska's lovely national park but also of the natural-gas pipeline that major oil companies are building in her home state in a bid to undercut her authority. One wonders what she makes of the symbolism there.

Speaking of symbolism, Todd Palin's code name is Driller. Yes, he works on oil rigs, but it's still a little bit funny.


WaPo post: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/10/palin_code_name_denali.html