Best Dissertation on the Obama Presidency: Entry #2

Barack Obama’s controversial election in 2008 was stunning. It was amazing. It was…well, it was the first time an African American had ever become President. Barack Obama seems to have a penchant for making history books- from his first position of power on the Harvard Law Review to now, he has made history time and again. Of course this unhealthy preoccupation with being known as somebody isn’t new to the scene. But it might as well be, the way some people carry on.

President Obama has consistently tried to catapult himself into the hearts of the American people. Failing the hearts, he must be topmost in their minds at all times. Hence his media pranks- bowing, cavorting, apologizing, kissing up and pretty much every other tactic to ensure he is the number one name on everybody’s lips.

He’s so successful at it, a Google search for ‘Barack Obama’ beats out ‘Britney Spears’ with 140,000 hits! (Britney weighed in at 20,000.) Just for the fun of it, a search for ‘President Barack Obama’ brought up 58,000, and a search for ‘Pictures of President Barack Obama’ generated 55,000,000. (Yes, that is millions.) But you didn’t need to know all of that.

Of course, his media capers and Google escapades aren’t the only tricks up his sleeve. If all else fails, he can always drag out an important decision, keeping America on tenterhooks. That’ll more than guarantee that he gets top media coverage. Like Afghanistan, for instance. To send troops or not to send troops…that is the immortal question. Or maybe not. But he does a pretty good job making sure it seems like the immortal question.

Or if everything else positively fails, there’s always the issue of his name. His middle name can be used to divide and conquer- there are those who think it’s just fine, those who think he’s a demon from hell. All because of his middle name. Stupid, you say?

Yeah well, you’d probably be right.

Then there’re the dreaded words- Congress and bill. These are the two words scary enough to cause children to hide and parents to quail. But add Obama into the mix…well, there goes the Capitol. And Mount Rushmore. And the Tower of Babel, for whatever it’s worth. Obama seems to have a penchant for promoting programs, bills, and ideas that have a notorious track record for failing. Or programs that don’t do much of anything besides create more of a mess. And Congress is, of course, always more than happy to rack up Presidential Brownie Points.

Obama, in his quest for ever more ego-stroking from his eager fans also must have the Media on his side. In return, he offers them a list of rules. For one, he must not have any opposition. None. And if the Media must absolutely put some sort of spin to make it seem unbiased, they must quote the opposition as just that- “A member of the Opposition-” never a credible anybody. For another, they must whole heartedly throw themselves into the task of making him and his cronies look wonderful.

In this area, Obama sometimes seems downright whiny. Like a little kid who whines because big sister got more cookie than he, he generates massive mayhem by whining about Fox News or the radio. “Yes, I have MSNBC, the NYTimes, the Washington Post, CBS, NBC, NPR, ABC, and the entirety of the darn alphabet…but I don’t have FOX.”

A little kid, crying for his cookie.

Barack Obama- quite probably the most recognized, immortal, controversial, media-est, political-est name on the globe. For now. Until, of course, the next politician comes along.