‘Change’ Clothes

To paraphrase a childhood TV show, "Like the old saying goes, it's the man who makes the clothes."

Considering the fairly extensive course of the American political landscape, I find the current presidential race incredibly unique. There have been 43 individual candidates for US president and as we begin to elect our 44^th, beyond the obvious, one of the most incredible things about our current election may be the omnipresent marketability of the Obama name, campaign, and face.

Now, I do recognize that there have been plenty of other political figures that have found their way into our closets (Che, Martin, and Malcolm come most readily to mind), but none with the intensity of Barrack Obama, especially while they were alive. In fact, in the some 200 plus years of campaigns and candidates, I believe we would be hard pressed to find another presidential race that spawned nearly as many t-shirts, hats and tote bags as the 2008 race for the White House. It stands to reason that the Obama campaign should draw a considerable amount of pop culture attention from the majority of society. His dizzying run to the top of the democratic ticket is probably one of the first things to draw the collective attention of white and black American cultures simultaneously since 'Birth of a Nation'.

Aloud (when I'm bold enough to dare question anything about his Barrackness) I wonder what statement that this phenomenon makes about this race and our society as a whole. Has the visual immediacy of our communication reached the point that our political contests are feed for the pop culture cash cow? The point of this post is not necessarily the advancement of any particular point. Rather than question the implications for our society at this more than pivotal point in American history, I simply wonder what statement does this Obama "fad" make about our culture as a whole. How will history regard our obsession with Obama tees (as well as a conspicuous lack of McCain wear for the fashionable Republican)? We've stepped beyond wearing hearts on sleeves, and moved to displaying wholesale political affiliations on our shirts.