People are still having problems spelling the name of our president-elect, and now Barack Obama has gone ahead and appointed as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel—searched in the past seven days as Ron, Rob, Rom, Ram, Rahn, Rham, and Rohm. We won't even go into the surname variations...although egregiously missing is his old moniker that the New York Times revived: Rahmbo.
However one spells the first Obama Cabinet member, the online frenzy for Emanuel surged an astonishing 75,473% on Yahoo! before he accepted the position. That number makes him the fastest moving search term in the past seven days on Yahoo!. Add up all his misspelled searches, and he pushes past lookups for "miley cyrus" and "thanksgiving."
The Search vetting process looked into his position as Illinois congressman, his bio, his Wikipedia entry, his religious affiliations, his nationality, his wife Amy Rule, his relationship with Israel, and (of course) his Clintonian legacy.
While his name has resonated in computers across all 50 states, the areas conducting due diligence most intensely include Delaware, Alabama, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Drill down to the cities, however, and the people who most want to know about Emanuel come from Victoria (Texas), Lake Charles (La.), Hattiesburg-Laurel (Miss.), Springfield (Mo.), and Chattanooga (Tenn.)
The Buzz had plenty to offer in Emanuel reminisces. The New York Times brought up the steak knife catharsis ritual. Both Defamer and Time offered fun facts, such as his ballet training, and how he inspired the Josh Lyman character on "The West Wing" (which, incidentally, bubbled up 56% in searches). The Huffington Post dug up an old Valentine's Day Politico blog that ran through his wicked political punch lines at a party.
In case all this rough stuff has worried people, NPR does talk about how his infamously short temper may have mellowed with age (he turns 49 on November 29), which would put him more in sync with Obama's calmer "change" mode. If not, at least the new antics could provide fodder for "The West Wing: The Next Generation."
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