Obama's Impact On The Crossword

Humankind has been abuzz with talk of Obama throughout the last year. The world of cryptic crosswords has been no exception.

The name 'Barack Hussein Obama' gives a goldmine of wordplay options to setters. A single-letter substitution in 'Obama' results in the name of the infamous terrorist head. A letter added to 'Barack' transforms it to the word for housing for soldiers. 'Obama' within itself has a convenient letter placement, enabling creative telescopic, charade or reversed clue constructions.

I'd posted about this clue some time ago. Here are a few more from UK publications in which Obama made an appearance. (These were published before he assumed office.)

Guardian 24442: Democrat retaining right ways to circumvent order to dance in 19th century poems (7-4,7) BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS
Definition: poems
Democrat = BARACK (Obama), holding right => BAR{R}ACK
ways = ROADS, order = OM (Order of Merit), dance = BALL, 19th century = AD
ROADS to circumvent OM, BALL AD => RO{OM, BALL AD}S

Guardian 24351: Democrat circle upset a fairy (5) OBAMA
Definition: democrat
circle = 0, a fairy = A MAB
O upset {A MAB} => O {BAM A}<-

There were some other nice ones, I wish I had recorded the exact wordings. One used a neat transpose: the clue talked about morally condemned candidate becoming a wanted man ('Obama, Sin Laden' to 'Osama Bin Laden').

Nothing on Obama in THC! Or was he there and I missed spotting him?

Related Posts: Osama Bin Laden

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