I notice that in our history, we've never had a president with a very ethnic name, nor one with a highly unusual name. The only 'ethnic' name exception was Kennedy, and with over 10% of our population having an Irish background, it's hardly ethnic anymore. Then there were two Roosevelts, of Dutch extraction. Granted, a very unusual name.
OK, back to basics. Whenever there's a competition between a person with a familiar name and one with an unusual name, the familiar named person is almost always the winner. and people with unusual names ...Dukakis, Goldwater, Obama, Giuliani, Kucinich, etc are usually the losers. Do you think voters just feel more comfortable with a familiar name and thus vote for the common names rather than the uncommon? Just wondering. What are your ideas?