President Obama is called Sleeping Barry. Who in the world is this "Sleeping Barry"?

Today’s (September 10) New York Times carries Maureen Dawd’s article titled ‘Sleeping Barry Awakes.’ The headline is followed with the following beginning lines:

WOW, what a relief.

The president was strong and House Republicans were conciliatory. There was only one teensy-weensy problem: The president is weak and House Republicans are obstructionist.

Congressional Republicans, heeding polls indicating that their all-out assault on President Obama was risky, finally tempered their public comments after the jobs speech on Thursday and stopped acting like big jerks.

I understand Maureen likens President to “Sleeping Barry.” But who is “Sleeping Barry” to begin with? From where it came from? I know all and sundry know “Sleeping Barry” in English-speaking countries. But I couldn’t find the definition on Google Search, though it was flooded with the clips headed by “Sleeping Barry Awakes.”

"Sleeping Barry" is simply Obama himself. "Barry" is a playful nickname based on Obama's first name Barack, and he's referred to as "Sleeping Barry" to allude to Sleeping Beauty and the idiomatic expression "sleeping giant".

• Sleeping Beauty is a traditional European fairy tale about a princess who is put to sleep by an evil sorceress until a prince can wake her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty.
• The phrase "sleeping giant" refers to someone of great strength or significance, but which is currently dormant or "asleep".

"Sleeping Barry" isn't a reference to a figure named "Sleeping Barry." Obama's first name, Barack, has often been shortened to Barry. So this just refers to Obama.

Here, "sleeping" is just another way of saying "inactive." The image that the author is conjuring is of a man at work sleeping at his desk; he's not getting anything done. That is, Dawd implies that he is not pushing for change or using his powers as President, but rather he's just letting the House Republicans do what it will without interference.

This is also a pun because "Sleeping Barry" sounds a lot like "Sleeping Beauty", the name of a very popular fairy tale and (more importantly for recognition's sake) Disney movie.

By saying that he is awakening, Dawd is saying that she expects this to change, which she says is a huge relief. She expects Obama to begin fighting against the "obstrunctionist" politics of the House Republicans.