Renegade, Radiance and Rosebud Are Playing With The Dog on the White House Lawn. Over and Out.

Who is Rosebud? (Image from Citizen Kane)


According to a June 17, 2007, report in The Washington Post, the U.S. Secret Service gave the code name "Renegade" to Senator Barack Obama during the campaign (as far as I can tell, it still holds).

Some people ponder the possible symbolism in these code names (How exactly did George W. Bush "tumble"?), but the claim in the article was that “according to a Secret Service spokesman, all code names are chosen by military officials, suggesting that they should not be examined too closely for deeper meaning.”

Some other code names past and present:

Hillary Clinton .................Evergreen
John Kerry ...................Minuteman
Al Gore ......... Sawhorse, then Sundance
George W. Bush ..................Tumbler
Bill Clinton.........................Eagle
Jimmy Carter .................... Deacon
George H. W. Bush ...........Timberwolf
Ronald Reagan ...................Rawhide
Dick Cheney ........Backseat, then Angler
Josiah Bartlet ............. Eagle; Liberty
Zoey Bartlet ...................Bookbag
Claudia Jean “C. J.” Cregg ..... Flamingo

There are also general code names:

POTUS - President of the United States
FLOTUS - First Lady of the United States
VPOTUS - Vice President of the United States

There is an initial letters thing going on - for the Obama family:

Michelle Obama - Renaissance
Malia Obama - Radiance
Sasha Obama - Rosebud

There are some funny and kind of mean ones too.

Scott McClellan - Matrix (which might be a generic name for the White House Press Secretary
Andy Card - Patriot
Josh Bolten - Fatboy
Rahm Emanuel - Black Hawk
Queen Elizabeth II - Kittyhawk

There are even ones for locations.

The Harry S Truman Building (Department of State headquarters) - Birds-eye
Camp David - Cactus or Buckeye
The Vice President's office - Cobweb
The Vice President's staff - Pacemaker


Of course, none of this is Top Secret and Wikipedia is trying to keep up with it.