Obama Fever: I Do Not Have It

Ahh yes, President Obama. The solution to world hunger, the cure for cancer, God's adopted son....well at least that's how he's advertised. Lately in my Political Science class, we've been discussing the presidential greats, and how they got that status. At the drop of a hat I can name a few greats: FDR, Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt. What do these all have in common? They were either presidents during, or ascertained notoriety in, a war. War and all great periods of strife make great presidents. The perfect formula for a great president is a little national crisis i.e. war or recession, a former weak regime on its way out and the presidents alliance with the opposite party of that weak regime. Follow me? War + old guard death + breath of fresh air new party = success? Obama is in a seat to reconstruct the US back to its former glory and prosperity, but can he do it? That remains to be seen. What we do know is for some reason he's already a "great" president in the minds of many, and for what reason? I honestly have no idea. Maybe he's got that look, or maybe his infamy as the first black president somehow correlates to greatness. Or maybe we're just not used to a president who can coherently string words together into a sentence (zing). In any case, he has attained a celebrity status in near actuality. And that my little cyber stalkers is what is the topic today: Obama's Celebrity Title and why I think it's stupid.

One thing we've learned over the years is celebrities are set up to fall. Do we want one of them to be running the government. We stalk celebs for the nitties of the grittiest details. For God's sake, we've been covering what pizza ole Barack has been ordering. "Chicago In Uproar: Obama digs the St. Louis Deepdish." I kid you not, it was a news story. He appeared on Jay Leno, we've been counting how many Sundays he's missed Church, we freaked out when he bowed to an Islamic dignitary (the specific escapes me here), and we actually care if he's getting a puppy. Really now, none of this is worthy news. Have we nothing better to do but hype up his actions and peer at his every action. Accountability is one thing, being peeping Toms is another. If we put an ounce if this tenacity into something productive we wouldn't be in a recession right now. So the moral of the day is this: Get Over Obama. This celebrity status is imbicilic. President's can go ahead and win the people's hearts but keep him out of my newspaper unless it's something important.

/out