Ga-Ga For Obama

Written by bill-schulz on May 21, 2008

Have you caught the latest on YouTube? I’m talking about that video that shows clip after camcordered clip of babies being prompted by parents to announce who they’ll be casting their Gerber-stained ballots for, where an overwhelming amount of the runts spastically yell, “Obamaaaa!”

That said, many of the cheers sounded more like “Oflaahflah!” or “Shmoopapa!” (Stupid babies — Senator Oflaahflah and Governor Shmoopapa bowed out of the race months ago.)

Reporter (and media icon to drag queens everywhere) Jeanne Moos explains that the glut of videos featuring five-month-olds squealing out the Senator’s moniker over that of Clinton or McCain is either a testament to the passion of Obama’s more fertile followers or simply that Obama sounds like Mama and is therefore the easiest of the three names to say.

“So what?” you say. “This is a non story.”

You couldn’t be more wrong. (Also? Never speak to me in that tone of voice again.)

There are actually three factors at play here: For starters, with parents this fervently liberal, their kids are guaranteed to take the Alex P. Keaton route and grow up to become rabid Republicans (I can already see the little bastards asking for monogrammed sweater vests before Obama’s first term is up).

Secondly, this trend is a moneymaking opportunity just begging — possibly crying — to be exploited.

Why not try investing cash in companies like BabyPolitico? Let’s face it, “My Mama’s for Obama” is a onesie that’s way more funsie than the typical fare.

Or even better, start your own incumbent infant site with products like “Reverend Wright Sucks” pacifiers and “I Spill On Hill” bibs.

As far as Democratic diap-diaps are concerned, where to begin? How about with “BMs For BO,” “Filled For Hill,” “Barack’s Number One (And Here’s Number Two),” and “Defecate On The Deficit,” to name just a few?

And thirdly, Columbia professor Gita Johar recently told New York magazine that the reason Obama is so appealing to voters is that he himself is some sort of adorable man-baby hybrid. She showed photos of Clinton and Obama to 150 undecideds and noted that Obama’s greater appeal with the test subjects had a lot to do with his toddler-esque face, button nose and large eyes.

Indeed, Johar attributes Hillary’s poor showing with the very fact that she looks “more mature.”

So are infants identifying with the Senator from Chicago because they see themselves in his full-of-wonder gaze and begging-for-a-pacifier lips or are parents motivated by a message of hope simply more likely to prompt and then videotape their children?

Who can say? All I know is that when people said that Obama was inspiring the youth of America, they weren’t kidding.

– Bill Schulz