In a December 16 post on his ABCNews.com blog, Political Punch, senior national correspondent Jake Tapper wrote: “Some Obama supporters have asked why former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., who endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., today, mentioned her opponent Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's [D-IL] middle name in remarks published in The Washington Post.” Tapper's headline read: “Why Did Bob Kerrey Mention Obama's Middle Name -- 'Hussein.' ” While the question is justified, Tapper himself has a history of referring to Obama's middle name unprompted.

In a May 23 Political Punch post, Tapper referred to “Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, D-Illinois.” Additionally, as Media Matters for America documented, Tapper referred to “Barack Hussein Obama” in a February 9 Political Punch post, asking “What do you all think of Mr. Barack Hussein Obama?” Further, on the January 16 edition of ABC's Nightline, Tapper referred to “Barack Hussein Obama” and asked: “Just who the hell is Barack Obama? And why, in these dangerous times, should he be entrusted with the most powerful job on Earth?”

From Tapper's December 16 post:

Some Obama supporters have asked why former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., who endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., today, mentioned her opponent Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's middle name in remarks published in The Washington Post. (LINK)

“I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim,” Kerrey is quoted as saying. “There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”

Obama supporters see this in the same light that they see Clinton strategist Mark Penn's remarks on MSNBC's Hardball (LINK) -- that, as far as former Clinton campaign co-chair Billy Shaheen's remarks about Obama's youthful drug use, “the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising.”

Too clever by half, they think.

A clear attempt to raise an issue while pretending not to raise it.

Same thing with the “Hussein” middle name?

Reached on the phone Sunday evening, Kerrey said that's not at all how he meant it.

“What I said was an answer to a question,” Kerrey said.

He'd been asked by a reporter from the Omaha World-Herald about the fact that the Clinton folks are hammering home the idea that Obama has little experience, while both Obama today and Kerrey in 1992 ran for president in their first Senate term.

“My answer was yes, but I finished third in the primary. Obama's smarter and more talented than I ever was, and he has two things which are connected to his life experience that give him special capacity,” Kerrey recalled. “First, he is African American and can speak to underperforming Black youth in a way that no other candidate can. He gave a speech in Selma that was incredible (LINK), that no white person could ever give. No government program could ever do what Barack Obama can do.

“Second,” Kerrey continued, “his name is Barack Hussein Obama. I know that middle name is seen as a weakness by Republicans, but I don't think it is. I think it enables him to speak to a billion Muslims around the world.”

Kerrey said he's spoken to Obama and his staffers and told them to “lead with it as a strength. There's this nonsense out there about him being a Muslim Manchurian candidate. He should do a commercial, look the camera straight in the eye, and say, 'My wife Michelle and I are Christians, but my father was a Muslim and my paternal grandfather was a Muslim, and that fact and my name means I can speak to a billion people around the world” who need to hear from the United States.