Over at the rather marvellous website Language Log, Benjamin Zimmer misses a trick:

Journalistic silliness over Obama's first name is nothing new. Back in July 2004, when Obama was first running for Senate, Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online was already depicting him as the Democrats' dream candidate:

Before ducking off from the press scrum, Obama took a moment to explain that his first name is Swahili, and means "one who is blessed by God." It also relates, through Arabic and Semitic roots, to the Hebrew baruch, which means "blessed."
An African-American Senate candidate who can speak a little Hebrew? Could focus groups have come up with a better candidate for a diverse America?

Arabic barak(a) is cognate with Hebrew baruch, so Obama can "speak a little Hebrew"? I'm hoping Geraghty was just joking about that.

What he's missing is that the "speak a little Hebrew" is a reference to the equally silly urban legend that Colin Powell could speak Yiddish. Note that the right-wing Snopes.com concludes it is "true" that Powell speaks Yiddish even though their own story shows that he doesn't - "even if Powell knows but a few words of Yiddish, it's one more admirable facet of a man who has led a varied and distinguished life in the service of his country". Right. Anything to praise a Republican, those guys.