Secret Service Code Names for the Obamas

I reckon this is safe to print. It was on the internet. I would have gone with Remus for Obama. It seems like a natural fit. Remus was a black man who was always spinning the obvious.

The Secret Service code names for the First Family-elect are another odd assortment of seemingly random words, all starting with the letter R.

John McCain may have been a self styled Maverick, but Barack Obama's Secret Service code name is Renegade. Michelle Obama, a woman of wide interests, is Renaissance (which sounds like the beginning of a perfume campaign). Malia Obama did not get named after one of the Jonas Brothers (no fair -- wasn't Clinton named after Elvis?). Instead, the 10 year old is Radiance, which sounds like a little New Agey. The littlest daughter Sasha has a name that was once the last utterance of newspaper mogul turned politician Charles Foster Kane: Rosebud.

Why R names? Well, that's the tradition - the President gets one name and everyone in his family gets one with the same letter.

Joe Biden, I should tell you, is Celtic (do they pronounce it like the Boston team or the original Irishmen?); his wife Jill is Capri. Together the two are kind of perfect: "Celtic n' Capri." Sounds like a sitcom team. Or new suburban clothing outlet.

Anyway, the Secret Service must have had a whole list of R words to distribute among the Obamas. We can only assume these were passed over. (But only assume, because their workings are by definition Secret):

* Ramen
* Regular
* Rhapsody
* Rooster
* Reet-Petite
* Rendezvous
* Redeemer
* Romulus
* Remus
* Rimsky Korsakov
* Rockin'
* Recompense
* Rudolph the Red Nosed