Renegade. Renaissance. Radiance. Rosebud.
Those, says the Chicago Tribune, are the Secret Service code names for Barack Obama and (respectively) Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama.
Presidential code names aren’t used for security any more, says The Tribune, and the Secret Service can’t seem to keep them secret anyway. Even so, don’t Renegade and Renaissance seem just a little complicated? And similar? Why not something simple, like Rock and Ruby?
I prefer to think that the Secret Service really DOES have short, useful code names for the First Family, but they leak these flowery phony ones to distract us all from the real items.
That story lists other oddball nicknames from years past. Gerald Ford was Passkey? Ted Kennedy was Sunburn?
Maybe Renegade isn’t so bad.
And I do wonder if the name is a sly twist on Maverick, the nickname of the guy Obama defeated to get here.