Has the Whole World Gone Crazy?

First off let me say that I voted for Obama and am excited about him taking office. For the first time in my life our president will not have a humorous accent. While this might be a disappointment for Saturday Night Live, I think it's good for America. Well, I guess Reagan didn't really have an accent, but you could visualize (audialize?) him yelling "Yeehaw" as much as the others.

It's not that I don't think having an occasional yeehaw-yelling president is good thing, but it was time for a break...change, if you will.

Somehow though, Obama has turned into more celebrity than politician. Maybe it was the cool campaign artwork or the way he simplified his campaign slogans down to two simple words that didn't confuse anyone.

One thing's for sure, people love to make witty puns from his name. Obama Mamas, Obamanation, Barack the Vote, Obama Mia, and the very embarrassing Barackstar just to name a few.

The whole thing is out of control right now. Like the worst of flash-in-the-pan fads, his face is everywhere and on everything.

Novelty t-shirt shops which once had entire racks dedicated to the Taco Bell dog and "Show me the Money" shirts now have Obama. There are a lot of really bad ones out there too. I think the one that made me think things had gone overboard was the one with Obama, arms folded, smiling in front of the White House with a sign that read "Under New Management."

I mean, I'm as thrilled as the next guy that George W. is leaving town, but let's try to maintain our composure. Obama seems to be a classy guy and out of respect to him I think we should refrain from buying this crap.

There are Obama bobbleheads, Obama shot glasses, jewel-encrusted Obama jackets and let's not forget the Obama commemorative coin collection which is being pitched by Obama sound-alike Montel Williams. Even I got suckered in by the surrealism of it all and bought myself a delicious Obama chocolate bar.

Then there are all these people flooding Washington DC for the inauguration not so they can actually see the ceremony (because we all know there are a lot of distant and obstructed views in a crowd of 4 million), but so they can tell you they were there. I'm in America and that's "there" enough for me.

The success of the campaign has spiraled out of control. Maybe we should have waited for him to actually take office and do something before we began our celebrity worship of him, but I guess that kind of hope is just too audacious.

How dumb will we all look if we throw this kind love at the guy and he ends up being the worst president ever? Of course the bar for "worst president ever" has recently been set at an all-time low, so I'm fairly certain that's not going to happen, but still we should try to control ourselves.

While I'm optimistic about Obama being great leader, no one can live up to the hype that we've created for this guy and it will be interesting to see how it all goes down.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this chocolate bar and hope for the best.