Barack Obama Foundation Drops the Middle 'H'

(Reinhold Matay/AP Photo)

The foundation dedicated to erecting President Obama's presidential library quietly changed its name from the Barack H. Obama Foundation to the Barack Obama Foundation today.

As early as this morning, the Foundation's website sported the president's middle initial, for Hussein.

(Barack Obama Foundation)

But later in the evening, after they blasted out requests for initial bids to host the Obama library, the 'H' was gone.

(Barack Obama Foundation)

The conspicuous absence of a once-controversial middle initial might raise some eyebrows.

In the 2008 campaign, his critics (and conspiratorial) used it to suggest that Obama was secretly a Muslim (he is in fact, a Christian). And the president chose to use all three of his names during both his 2008 swearing in and his 2012 swearing in.

So what gives?

A spokeswoman for the foundation said the name was deliberately changed.

"We think it's pretty clear which organization is which, but we wanted to eliminate the potential for any confusion," she said.

Here's where some of the confusion might have come in. Google "Barack H. Obama Foundation" and you won't get a hit for the President's real foundation, but the foundation dedicated to Obama's father, who had the same name, Barack H. Obama.

(Barack H. Obama Foundation)

That charity, according to the website, was founded by the president's half brother and operates in the U.S. and Kenya.

The Barack H. Obama Foundation has also snagged the URL, barackhobamafoundation.org leaving President Obama's foundation with obamapresidentialfoundation.org.