What’s in a Nickname?

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Our question for today is: How do the potential Republican presidential nominees stack up on Libya?

Also, who has the best name? It has come to our attention that the most likely candidates at this point are Newt, Mitt and T-Paw. A country with a president named Barack is obviously willing to go with the flow on these matters. Still, the lineup for the Republican debates is going to sound like a wrestling tag-team match.

I love this subject! Perhaps if we talk about it long enough I will get a chance to point out once again that Representative Connie Mack of Florida, who surprised everyone by announcing Friday that he would not run for Senator Bill Nelson’s seat in 2012, is actually named Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy IV.

O.K. About Libya. Earlier this month, Newton “Newt” Gingrich told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News that if he was in charge of the country the first thing he would do about Libya would be to “exercise a no-fly zone this evening.”

(More here.)