Technology + Politics + Celebrity + Film + Music + Pop Culture = ?

From: www.static.flickr.com/3558/3339723663_def8c07c2d_t.jpg

Figuring I had the whole blog popularity thing sewn up, I planned to title this post "Make Millions On-line—From Home!" Then it struck me: Why fart around with anything less than a sure thing? After all, I had it from a reputable source exactly what the six favourite Internet topics were, and that was good enough for me.

But how to stitch them together? I closed my eyes and concentrated on each topic in turn, waiting to see what images might come. In a flash straight out of A Beautiful Mind, I quickly saw it could only B. Obama.

Technology
As the first e-commander in chief, Obama freely admits to an intractable addiction to his Blackberry, facing down the security Gestapo who threatened to confiscate it shortly after he was elected. Happily, after some high-tech tweaking and de-Friending a bunch of people on Facebook, his favourite sidearm was safely restored to its holster.

Additional proof of the Prez's tech-savviness is the November, 2008 debut of his weekly Web address, a kind of YouTube fireside chat that manages to straddle the formal–informal line while avoiding his predecessors' annoying habit of interrupting my primetime TV shows.

Politics
Check.

Celebrity
Can anyone really argue against Obama as a celebrity? Not since the saxophone player have we had someone so telegenic. Hasn't he been on Oprah? And Letterman? (Yes, yes, he's also been on Leno and Kimmel, but we all know they don't count.) And do I even need to remind you of Obamania and Obama Girl?

Film
Rumour has it Denzel has been signed to play him in the movie. 'Nuff said.

Music
Obama's impact on the U.S. music industry is undeniable (not counting the aforementioned Obama Girl's "Crush on Obama"). Dozens of musicians leapt aboard the Yes We Can campaign wagon, then jostled for a spot in the winner's limelight. The musical message from the newly funky White House was also received loud and clear: at the Feb. 18 "We Are One" concert, performers including Beyoncé, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban, Pete Seeger, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Renee Fleming, Garth Brooks, Mary J. Blige, and Herbie Hancock did their best to aurally represent the theme. (However, as Jon Stewart pointed out at the time (see 3:10–3:30), a democratic line-up doesn't necessarily translate into pleasing all of the people all of the time.)

And who among us who isn't an active member of a militia didn't get misty when Beyoncé serenaded Barack and Michelle with "At Last" at the Inaugural Ball?

Pop Culture
Lastly, we come to my favourite category. For just a taste of Pop! Goes the Obama, let's troll the e-waters for the history of black presidents in TV and movies, and discussions of whether or not the fictional versions helped the real guy win. In Slate, Troy Patterson looks back at black Hollywood commanders-in-chief, and over at NPR, Scott Simon interviews Weekend Edition's entertainment critic, Elvis Mitchell, who points out that in most movies, "you could only have a black president...when the Earth was about to be destroyed. He would never get to complete his term."

In his thoughtful entry in the Hollywood-casts-the-presidency discussion, Sean Higgins takes a more detailed look at the Pre-Obamas. Higgins applies Shelby Steele's theory of black leaders as "challengers" vs. "bargainers" and finds that like his fictional predecessors David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert in 24) and Tom Beck (Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact), Obama seems to falls squarely in the fatherly "bargainer" category.

Ha! Looks like I've found him—the El Dorado of blogging.

Now...where do I send my invoice?