Yes, We Can

That's what I hear surprisingly often from the kids at school. "Sit down please." "Yes, we can!" "Can you clean the board please?" "Yes we can!" "Follow me." "Yes, we can!" Always with the same upbeat and somehow hopeful tone as I would expect to hear from an Obama supporter after one of his speeches. I was just thinking the other day about how huge Obama is over here. This is a picture of the magazine section of my library taken just after the results of the US elections:



Clearly, Americans weren't the only ones celebrating. Headlines from left to right, roughly translated, are: "What the world is expecting of him," "The man who can change the world," and "An Obama Revolution." I forgot to take a picture at the time, but I even saw a headline at a station once that read, "The first president of the world." Wow. I mean, I'm not in any position to speak for citizens of the whole world or anything, but I can say that on the whole, the French are pretty damn happy that Obama won.

The hype has worn down a little. But I still do see signs of Obama everywhere. Some kids still shout "Obama" at me in the halls and wait for their high-fives. Kids who haven't met me and have the opportunity to ask me questions often ask if I love Obama. And then, as I was walking to the library today, I saw this poster promoting annual sales in a store window:



When I saw this, I immediately thought about this recent Sociological Images post about advertising with Obama's "brand." I don't know that I'm equipped enough to argue about what kind of ramifications this type of advertising might have. I'm just adding my example.

PS, I was going to use the Urban Dictionary definition of Obamania for this blog, but then was put off by the negative connotation I gathered from entries two and (most definitely) three. But it's still interesting. I'd say go take a look. And what got me were all the obama- entries on the left side bar. I wonder how many will stick?

PPS, Am I a terrible person because I want the Obama chia pet?