If Microsoft has its way -- via the Cupertino effect -- maybe so. The spell-check options suggested by Microsoft Word 2003 for "Huckabee" include "Chickadee", "Checkable", "Chickoree", "Hoecake", and "Huskies". And web search turns up things like this:
... in 2005 he appeared on "The Jane Pauley Show," in a spot on obesity, where he met, Arkansas Gov. Mike Chickadee, who lost 100 pounds through diet and exercise ...
Proposed substitutions for "Barack" include "Barrack" and "Barracks"; and for "Obama", suggestions are "Bema", "Bam", "Boatman", "Abeam", "Ocala". It's out there:
Barrack Bema (D-IL) I'm thinking about how Barrack Bema supported Condoleezza Rice's nomination for Secretary of State.
[Actually, though it spoils the joke a bit, there are very few Governor Chickadees and Senator Bemas out there.]
[Also see "Surging Candidates Have Spell-Check Issues", which is based on the spell-check facilities of (some version of) Outlook. (Hat tip: Victor Steinbok)]
[Update -- Thierry Fontenelle (from the Microsoft Natural Language Group) writes:
The latest versions of the Office speller include the word "Obama"and users can freely download an update from the following sites, depending on their version of Office:
1) Office 2007: the Service Pack 1 (SP1) update includes the fix: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx
2) Office 2003 users can request the fix following the steps described on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935305/
3) Two KB articles from the Microsoft Knowledge Base were posted in Spring 2007 and address this topic:
a. For Office 2003: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935305/
b. For Office 2007: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933699
4) Individual users who have not installed these updates can also right-click the flagged word, and then click Add to Dictionary.
]
Posted by Mark Liberman at January 7, 2008 10:16 PM