On a Mood

I don't think I've ever experienced the strangeness of the world we live in now--optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. The economy is getting worse and worse, and many people couldn't be more excited about the new Obama administration.

Obviously they are not related by cause and effect--Obama is not even president yet, and has had no impact, save for perhaps a small positive one on the stock market, since he has been elected. 

But they are related in other ways. For one, people seem to be feeling part of something larger than themselves in both a positive and negative way (or just negative, I guess, if you're not an Obama supporter). The optimism about Obama is related to the economic downturn. It certainly would have been more difficult for Obama to get elected in a good economy. And one feels the optimism because there are problems in the United States and the world that many people believe Obama can solve.  Without significant problems, the basis or need for optimism is less tangible. Which is what hurt Al Gore in running for president--there was no seemingly urgency to elect him. 

--J.S.

Meet the Obamas!

Thanks to Laura Burke for turning us on to this article in Time.

One of the many keen observations James Poniewozik makes has to do with how popular culture deals with the semiotics of a popular black family and a popular black president--topics that have interested SemiObama from the start:

After Obama won, there was talk of a "Huxtable effect"--the idea that pop-cultural portrayals of African Americans from The Cosby Show to 24's David Palmer readied white America for a black President. But maybe there's an opposite factor at work here too--the 50 Cent effect. The impact of the Obamas comes partly from the unspoken contrast to a decades-old media archive of images of black people as problems or threats, from news to cop shows to hip-hop. Broken families, perp walks, AKs and Cristal.

Suddenly the most photographed black man in America was giving speeches and calling world leaders. Suddenly the most discussed black women in America were two adorable kids and their lawyer mom. Suddenly you had a news story involving a black man and dogs, and it wasn't Michael Vick.

As Obama's profile and presidency matures, it will be fascinating to see how popular culture coverage of him (and his family) also evolves.

---D.R.

Obama Soda

Obama Soda!

Read about and listen to the full story on NPR.

Interview with the Designer of the Obama logo

Via Kottle.

An interview with Sol Sender, who designed the Obama campaign logo (shown here on the campaign home page).

Mental Floss on odd Obama portraits

Check this out. 

How Soon Is Now?

Found: Storefront, Geary Boulevard, San Francisco.

On Cult of Competency

Chris Cillizza ("The Fix") notes that Barack Obama is doing his best to show competence as he prepares for becoming president. As we've said before, we think this is one of the most powerful narratives that Obama has going for him--that he's going to run the government efficiently and without drama. In other words, that he is going to run the country as he ran his campaign. This is different than "running the government like a business," frequently heard as George W. Bush, armed with a Harvard MBA, took office.* 

Given the struggles of the financial industry and now the automobile industry, running anything like a business now has multiple and conflicting meanings. Businesses care about products, efficiency, and cost control. Governments can care about those things, but their obligations are to the people, where corporations do have obligation to some people, the shareholders. 

Obama himself has identified with at least one company, Google, a company known for innovation as well as the same reluctance for internal drama. At a talk in front of Google employees in late 2007, he noted that his campaign and the company also shared a belief in delegating and innovating from the ground up rather than solely from the top.

"There is something improbable about this gathering," the Illinois senator told a packed cafe auditorium of hundreds of Google employees. "What we share is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up."

And one notable hire from industry has been Google's Sonal Shah, who is on Obama's transition team. In any case, it's clear that Obama is focusing on competence as at least one of his organizing principles (the previous mentioned Rivals metaphor is another), and one that has at least started to get the attention of outside observers.

--J.S.

*In the same Google search, I also discovered that Microsoft donors favored Hilary Clinton while Google favored Obama (and in the above article about George Bush, the writer compared him to Jack Welch, the legendary president of General Electric.) That's not surprising considering the cult of personality that ran through both Microsoft and the Hilary campaign.