by LISA CHIU
Observer staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Barack Obama pronounces his name phonetically, but at a gathering of his volunteers on the streets of downtown Manchester Monday morning, there were at least two different pronunciations of the Democratic front-runner’s surname.

The crowd started with the standard pronunciation, a quick “Obama,” then moved on to the elongated “O,” followed by a staccato-ed “bama”– think “Ooooo bama! Ooooo bama!”

Crowds also have been known to emphasize his name’s three syllables, as in “Oh-baa-maa, Oh-baa-maa.”

One would think a quick call to the campaign’s Manchester headquarters would solve the riddle of the proper way to chant for the candidate who pushes the audacity of hope.

But the campaign itself doesn’t start the chants, said Obama press intern Drew Lewis.

“It’s really crowd-driven,” Lewis said.

Over at the Edwards’ campaign, the first syllable of his last name is simply elongated, as in “Eh eh eehed-Wards!,” said Colleen Murray, a spokesperson for the Edwards national campaign.

So how do the names of GOP frontrunners get group-uttered?

Mike Huckabee volunteer Dave Nichols said that Huckabee has many different chants, such as “I heart Huckabee” or “I like Mike.”

But there’s really only one way Nichols’ has heard the candidates’ name pronounced by a crowd.

“It’s just… Huck-aaa-bee, Huck-aaa-bee,” Nichols demonstrates in a low tone in a telephone interview from Huckabee’s Concord headquarters.

Nichols adds in jest: “Well we’re Republican. We’re not really used to chanting. But we better get used to it, because chanting is a cool thing to do.”

Some calls to other candidates vying for president have led to the conclusion that:

• The Clinton campaign’s Manchester office needs to empty its mailbox as it is preventing such dire reportorial and linguistic questions from being answered.

• Sometimes it’s easier to go with a first-name chant, as does the Romney campaign.

“We just say: ‘Mitt, Mitt, Mitt,’ ” said Deirdre Carson, an intern at Mitt Romney’s headquarters in Manchester.

“We also say: ‘When I say Mitt, you say Romney,’ ‘Mitt’ and the crowd says ‘Romney…,’” Carson added. “Mitt…. Romney…”

Rudy Giuliani also follows the first-name option as in: “Rooo-di…. Rooo-di”

• Sometimes, what you see is what you get.

“They just chant McCain,” said McCain volunteer Kim Maas. “Or they say ‘Mack is back.’”

The same is true for Ron Paul. At the candidate’s Manchester office, volunteer Joshua Baker said they simply chant, “Ron Paul, Ron Paul.”

But they make it fun by adding: “Ron Paul Revolution, Give us back our Constitution.”

While the way a candidate’s name is pronounced in a chant hardly makes or breaks a campaign, clearly they are given some weight.

Case in point: In response to this journalistic query, one campaign said, “Hang on, I’ll transfer you to the person that starts our chants.”