Obamania! The Obama Phenomena

Barack Obama’s spectacular achievement to become the first African American President is historic not only for its celebrated breaking of the racial barrier but also for the unprecedented favorable treatment he received from the mainstream media as the first “post racial” presidential candidate. The media elite were so enamored with his historic candidacy it became readily apparent to media watch groups that many of the national newspapers, news magazines, and television networks were obviously in “the tank” for Obama actively supporting his campaign. Taking advantage, Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod shrewdly exploited this sympathetic press coverage to promote a powerful “cult of personality” campaign in the Democratic primary to defeat Hillary Clinton the first “post gender” candidate and Democratic establishment frontrunner.

Then in the general election with his personality cult in full bloom generating gobs-and-gobs of money from both the internet and celebrity donors, Obama broke his earlier pledge to John McCain to accept public financing. Now with no restrictions on his fund raising Obama was able to attract a record amount of money (more than half a billion) to ensure his personality cult would dominant in his campaign to defeat John McCain the former media darling and become the 44th President of the United States of America.

Obama fashioned his mixed racial background and diverse cultural upbringing into a phenomenal personality cult built on soaring rhetoric and grandiose themes of hope and change packaged into pithy slogans like “Change We Can Believe In”, “Yes We Can”, and “The Change We Need”. Wikipedia defines a Cult of Personality or Personality Cult as “arising when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Personality cults are often found in dictatorships [and are] similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders.”  This perfectly describes Obama’s relationship with the media establishment.

Obama’s raw charisma and telegenic visage has made him the new darling of the media. His speeches and interviews are all over YouTube and his face has been on the cover of nearly every major news and celebrity magazine such as Time (15 covers) and Newsweek but even lesser known magazines including Men’s Health, Wired, Vibe and Rolling Stone. He was Times Magazine’s person of the year and recently a shirtless photo of Obama made front page news on the New York Post under the headline “Fit for Office” with the subtitle “Buff Bam is Hawaii Hunk”. Obama is so photogenic and so universally appealing he even made the cover of the teen magazine Tigerbeat. Obama even has his own online magazine and two YouTube channels featuring everything Obama.  Obama’s face seems to be everywhere on magazines, bill boards, T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, bumper stickers. It was recently spotted on a retaining wall of graffiti in Berkeley CA. The Obama mask was the most popular for Halloween.  Someone even spotted a Hawaiian license plate with the tag O-B-A-M-A.

 I was in Reagan National airport and walked past a store front with a life size cut out of Barack Obama. Of course I couldn’t resist having my picture taken with it. On my ride home on the DC metro  when I purchased my smarTrip card I noticed on the top side a gray scale photo of Obama in honor of his inauguration on Jan 20th. Then I see on a passing bus a large picture of Obama promoting the inauguration. I was only out of town over the Christmas break and find when I come back Obama’s face everywhere I turn.

Obamania is not only a personality cult in the US but a worldwide phenomenon. A French paper headlined “Obamania sweeps France”. Candidates in South America have even changed their names to Barack Obama to increase their name recognition and chances of being elected.  And Obama is an idol in Kenya his father’s homeland where they have published a calendar “The Obama Year”. 

Obamania is also becoming lucrative business with the mass marketing of Obamabellia. There are mementos and souvenirs galore with Obama’s image on it from patriotic gold coins to hip sweatshirts.  You can buy Obama picture books and Obama calendars. NBC has recently produced a commemorative DVD titled “Yes We Can the Story of Barack Obama”. A number of news magazines are publishing commemorative issues on Obama’s inauguration including Newsweek and Time on which he has been on the cover a record number of times. 

Obama has been described as “The One”, “The new face of the 21st century” “The New Messiah”, “The first post racial candidate” “A New Hope”.  Angelina Jolie has said “Obama is more popular than Jesus” and she probably thinks he can walk on water too, Obama that is, we know Jesus can.  Obama even has an action figure and a bobble-head doll.

Obama has two New York Times #1 best selling autobiographies “Dreams of My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope”.  The New York Times young reader’s edition plans to release appositely on President’s day “OBAMA the Historic Journey”. Newsweek is publishing an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the Obama’s campaign and historic election called “A Long Time Coming”. The Washington Post published a commemorative inauguration edition complete with a full spread of color photos from the historic swearing in ceremony and parade.

Of course the coverage hasn’t been all positive. There are a number of books critical of Obama including “The Case against Obama” by John Feddesso and the controversial titled “Obamanation” by Jerome R. Corsi. There was even a New Yorker magazine cover that depicted Obama in a rather negative light albeit the cartoon parody of Obama was satire and published to emphasize rightwing misperceptions of Obama. Obama has made the cover of a number of conservative magazines including the Economist, New Republic, and the Weekly Standard where he is heavily criticized.

I am sure there are plans to eventually make Obama’s historic inauguration as the first African American President a national holiday which being immediately after Martin Luther King Jr’s holiday could be easily combined to create a new holiday celebrating civil rights that would also include other civil rights leaders and pioneers. There is precedent for such unification when in 1971 Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays were merged into president’s day and celebrated on the third Monday of February.

Obama’s personality cult has truly created the first “celebrity in chief” and with his historic election appears to be on his way to becoming an American icon (Obamamerica) surpassing even the iconic symbolism of JFK’s Camelot. I overheard a rumor that Obama is getting his head measured for Mount Rushmore for a bust right next to his hero Abe Lincoln but that is just a beltway rumor. Couldn’t possibly happen, right?