From a lighthearted article in the New York Times about keeping track of political bias:

Did you know that OBAMA has appeared six times in New York Times crossword puzzles since January 2005, and MCCAIN has not appeared once? I didn’t either, but Politico noticed. Will Shortz, who edits Times crosswords, said the explanation has nothing to do with politics. “OBAMA is a godsend for crossword constructors because the name is short and has three vowels out of five letters,” he said. MCCAIN, with its successive c’s, is much harder. (Bob DOLE has been in Times crosswords 10 times, Bill CLINTON never.)