Renegade Obama, meet Napoleon Sinatra

by Gordon the Gnome • Nov 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 pm • 8 comments

Secret Service codenames are, in a word, awesome. How cool that the most powerful people in the country are given Hollywood-worthy nicknames by their bodyguard teams?

 

Since learning that Obama’s Secret Service codename is “Renegade”, I thought it would be fun to check out all such codenames going back to when it all began. Here’s a thorough list.

 

Some noteworthy codenames:

 

JFK: Lancer. A cavalry nickname for a Camelot knight.

Ronald Reagan: Rawhide. For the former cowboy actor.

George H. W. Bush: Timberwolf. The codename is so much cooler than the man.

 

Besides sitting presidents, the Secret Service also has codenames for presidential candidates, VPs, members of the First Family, and even noteworthy individuals that may require their services. Some more fun examples:

 

Ted Kennedy: Sunburn. What?

John McCain: Phoenix. Mythology meets Arizona. 

Hillary Clinton: Evergreen. Had that name since her First Lady days.

Prince Charles: Unicorn. Bwa ha ha ha!

Pope John Paul II: Halo. So cool.

Frank Sinatra: Napoleon. My personal favorite.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 23 November 2008 at 10:59 pm:

    Sweet post, thanks man.

  2. Comment by Joshua on 24 November 2008 at 9:20 am:

    Thanks Gordon – I checked out the list and found a few other cool ones:

    Karenna Gore – Smurfette
    James Baker – Fencing Master
    Zbigniew Brzeziński – Hawkeye
    The Vice President’s staff – Pacemaker (how appropriate!)

  3. Comment by Gordon the Gnome on 24 November 2008 at 10:26 am:

    Pacemaker…how’d I miss that one?

  4. Comment by Joshua on 24 November 2008 at 11:01 am:

    It’d be better if Pacemaker was Cheney’s secret service name. I think Hawkeye is appropriate for Dr. Brzezinski b/c he looks a lot like a hawk.

    And Smurfette just cracked me up

  5. Comment by Joshua on 24 November 2008 at 2:44 pm:

    Love this picture Shach. Sometime you’ll have to teach me how you do things like this…

  6. Comment by Gordon the Gnome on 24 November 2008 at 10:36 pm:

    It’s all Photoshop, Josh. Happy to help you out if you need something done, just give me a few hours’ notice.

  7. Comment by Joshua on 25 November 2008 at 9:00 am:

    I’ve been wondering, what have Gordon the Gnome, Hale the Snail, Buzz and Katy been up to since they left the U of I? Would love to see a strip to bring all the Blue Rice devotees up to speed :)

  8. Comment by kofi the my code name is pete on 25 November 2008 at 9:54 am:

    I propose a code name for Tet: clairvoyant

Post a Response