He proved he was electable - now he's collectible!

I wish that I could take credit for that snappy little headline, but alas, I can not. I just got home from the concert at the Lincoln Memorial, and was interested to see how various on line sites had covered the event. I checked out the regular news sites. Then I decided to see what People.com had to say. (It was a celeb studded event, so it only seemed appropriate that I should check out a celebrity site.) That's where I came across the above headline, and a photo gallery of some crazy Obama collectibles.

http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20252016,00.html

In an economy as bad as ours is at the moment, it's great that all of these souvenir sales are probably putting some money into some people's pockets. Yet, I have to question the ways in which the Obama image is being marketed. Buttons and pins have been a standard for the last century. To see the president's face on a button or even a t-shirt doesn't raise too many eyebrows and still seems presidential, loosely speaking. However, when your president's picture appears on a shoe or a skateboard, has he moved from being an elected political figure to an iconic celebrity? Many of our former presidents have reached iconic status: Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, and JFK to name a few. It's hard for me to know this for certain, but I believe that a lot of their iconic value came after they left office. When you haven't even had your first day in the oval office and you are already an icon, what will the outcome be? I wonder if people will expect super human works from Obama because of this status and anything less will be a disappointment. Perhaps it will be that an icon can do no wrong and anything that he does do will be viewed as super human simply because he was the one that did it. Can Obama both enter and leave office as an icon? Once someone is given an iconic image, is that image able to change at all?

My favorite Inauguration related headline...

"Inauguration-Bound? Just Walk, Metro Says." This headline ran on November 25, 2008 in the Washington Post.

Every since the election ended, I am oddly fascinated (okay, semi-obsessed) with reading the Washington Post's coverage of inauguration preparation. I look forward to the facts and figures that the paper contains and love relating them to family and friends. I have a feeling that they are starting to dread when I start a sentence with, "I was reading about the Inauguration today in The Post. Did you know (insert latest statistic here.)" For example, I've read that packing 1 million people on the National Mall would be like standing 2,000 people on a basketball court. (So much for personal space.) If there were 1 million or more people on the National Mall, and they all tried to leave the area at the same time using the surrounding Metro stations, it would take over 8 hours for trains filled to capacity to clear out the revelers. (I am sure that everyone will exhibit supreme patience as they wait 8 hours for a train.)

So, despite the fact that I find it amusing that Metro's spokeswoman, Candace Smith, would encourage people to walk instead of taking advantage of her organization's services, it makes sense. Smith encourages anyone within two miles of the Capitol to walk. That seems like a no-brainer. I am within two miles of the Capitol and could make it there within 30 minutes or so. Consider that you can briskly walk a mile in 15 minutes. Instead of waiting 8 hours for a train, you can use that 8 hours to walk 32 miles! That will easily take you as far, if not farther than Metro's outermost stations in Maryland and Virginia. Perhaps they can run a new headline in The Post..."Inauguration-Bound and Closer Than 32 Miles? Just Walk, Metro Says."

Why all the fuss?

With all of the preparations currently taking place for Barack Obama's inauguration, many people don't realize that there is only one requirement for a president to be inaugurated: the oath of office. Article II, section 1 of the United States constitution requires a mere 35-word pledge. That's all there is to it. Place a right hand on the bible, repeat 35 words, and the president-elect officially becomes the President of the United States. The rest of the activities on Inauguration Day... the speeches, the parade, the inaugural balls... are all key features of the day, but not required for one to officially become president. Would the predicted crowds of 1 million to 2 million people still travel to DC if the 35-word oath was the only part of Obama's inauguration? Yes. For Obama they would. There seems to be a strong sense of nation hood that has not existed for a long time. People feel that they know Obama, that he knows them, and thus, they need to be part of the inauguration. The surrounding celebrations are all exciting and fun, but the people who are traveling from near and far want to be part of history. The true history will be made when Obama is sworn in as President. So, whether that is a 350-word pledge or a 35-word one or even a 3-word pledge, people would come to say that they were part of history.