Bill “Willie” Cunningham

Most of us liberal left-wing Air America listening progressives never heard of Bill “Willie” Cunningham until he spoke at a John McCain campaign rally. When Cunningham three times referred to Barack Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” it reminded anyone who lives under a rock that Obama has a more worldly background than the Republican candidates or White House incumbents.

McCain, of course, called out the talk radio personality, but said he took responsibility for the comments. Adoring editorials commending McCain for his chivalry are gushing forth.

• Admirable Stance
• McCain: Campaigning with Class
• Score One for McCain, Fairness

But what about the guy who took the fall? On his blog, Cunningham lists YouTube clips of the whirlwind interview circuit he’s been riding, a cartoon of McCain feeding him to sharks, along with editorials condemning him for what was actually an unoriginal idea, since many other Republicans beat him to it. He also supplies clips of himself on his show, saying how he feels about John McCain now.

“I’m angry at John McCain. Why would John McCain repudiate me? I’ve been able to unite McCain and Obama — against me.

I might become a supporter of Ralph Nader.”

That would be fickle, Bill, since you were supposedly spoken for.

Appearing on CNN Tuesday, talk-show host Bill Cunningham said he has “had it up to here” with McCain after the Arizona senator criticized him…Cunningham said he is joining another conservative commentator, Ann Coulter, and support Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

As part of the fallout, the Republican National Committee asked the Tennessee GOP to stop using Obama’s middle name. The Volunteer State’s Republicans complied, but the spirit of their assent was a little lacking.

The Tennessee GOP web site today contains a “clarification” beneath a press release from Monday entitled “Anti-Semites for Obama…”

“In order to diffuse attempts by Democrats and the Left to divert attention from the main point of this release — that Sen. Obama has surrounded himself with advisers and received endorsements from people who are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel — we have deleted the use of Barack Obama’s middle name,” the Tennessee GOP corrective reads.

Some success in this messaging has registered among the rock-dwellers.

An AP-Yahoo poll in January asked people to volunteer the first few words that came to mind about each of the candidates, and 4 percent of the respondents, unprompted, mentioned the word Muslim when describing Obama.