Hillary Drops Maiden Name From Campaign

    While she is known to millions simply as "Hillary," New York's junior senator is having something of an identity crisis in her official life.

    When it comes to running for president, she is "Hillary Clinton," according to her campaign Web site. But when it comes to her official Senate releases, she is still "Hillary Rodham Clinton."

    The Clinton camp appeared to be at a loss to come up with an explanation when the Albany Times Union newspaper asked about it.

    The name game has been going on for some time in Clinton's world.

    When Hillary Rodham married Bill Clinton in 1975, she kept using her maiden name as he pursued his political career in Arkansas and she built her reputation as a lawyer in Little Rock. But, in the wake of his loss in a re-election race for governor, she began using "Hillary Clinton." He won back the governorship.

    "Hillary Rodham Clinton" became the standard in 1993 as the Clintons moved into the White House. She continued to use that when she ran for Senate from New York in 2000.


The Boston Globe also wrote about this a while back.

They're both missing the real story. I would note that if you look on her web site, the logo in the top left hand corner says, "HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT," no last name. All around the home page - "Join Team Hillary", "HillRaisers", Join "Women for Hillary". Now look at the event descriptions:

    Hillary continued her tour of the four corners of Iowa and met with the nurses of Finley Hospital...

    Hillary spoke about the amazing example set by the Rutgers University women's basketball team at the school's Center for American Women and Politics...

    On Sunday, Hillary joined nurses from Finley Hospital in Dubuque who have been without a contract since last summer...


Nevermind Rodham - she's just about dropped the "Clinton."

Do I think this is something that is particular relevant to her qualifications to be President? Nah. People were calling Eisenhower "Ike" fifty years ago.

But I do find it interesting in terms of how modern campaigns work and whether or not it signifies that they are becoming even more "sound bite" and focus group driven.

I'd bet some focus group result suggested that voters are more likely to vote for a candidate that they think of the first name instead of the last name. Thus, the all-first-name, all-the-time campaign.