Barack Obama: 2008 Celebrity of the Year
by Reg Seeton

Wow! After an exhausting two-year campaign for the highest office of the United States and the votes were finally counted, it sure was amazing to watch President-Elect Barack Obama take to the stage in Chicago to address the nation. Not only was it truly remarkable to see an African American elected President of the United States after so many years of suffering and civil rights struggles, it almost didn’t seem real. In a day and age when celebrity is king, Obama’s address at Grant Park in many ways felt like the final scene of a movie. With hundreds of thousands in attendance, millions of Americans tuning in, and a massive international audience watching the post-election speech, it certainly was a spectacle befitting of the big screen on many levels, with Barack Obama taking the lead role in a script that has yet to be written. And with the eyes of the entire world upon him, Barack Obama has become the leader of the free world and biggest celebrity on the planet.

In the blink of an eye, an older generation of politicians were ran out of town to make way for a new era of political figures who are not only elected officials but also celebrities. How that will evolve in this new era of change remains to be seen, but it’s truly astonishing given the mindset of the people just 50 years ago. As Obama himself admitted during his Chicago speech, he ran the best Presidential campaign in U.S. history. And quite frankly, he couldn’t be more right. Obama managed to simultaneously tap into the hope and inspiration of the Kennedy era, run a near flawless ground campaign, organize the nation around his messages, market himself to a computer savvy Google generation, and take advantage of the peoples’ hunger for all things celebrity by becoming one himself. Even if he wasn’t trying to become a celebrity, it happened anyway. If you own a Barack Obama bobblehead doll or Pez dispenser, well, enough said.

Looking back at the past two years of non-stop political campaigning, Obama dismantled the inevitability of Hillary Clinton and rendered the Republicans powerless. It’s doubtful that you’ll find too many people, if any; who thought that this is how the 2008 Election would eventually shake down. I certainly didn’t. My early money was on a clash of the titans between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guilianni, which was a movie that managed to get financing but didn’t get made. Although Hillary and Rudy are traditional political celebrities in their own right, Obama is in icon of deeper, worldwide, historic proportions.

When I reflect on the origins of "Obamamania," Barack Obama possessed a secret weapon that none of the other candidates had in their arsenal - Oprah Winfrey. Of course it’s common knowledge that Oprah is one of the most powerful celebrities in the country, but she’s more influential than I ever thought possible. When Barack Obama appeared on Oprah’s daytime talk show twice, Oprah single handedly introduced him to a huge segment of the population none of the other candidates could reach. And now when I think back to Obama’s campaign, it only makes logical sense since we’ve all felt the "Oprah Effect". How much does celebrity play a part in today’s political landscape? In recent weeks, rumors have been circulating that Oprah could possibly become an ambassador. And when asked about it during an interview in the crowd at Grant Park, Oprah didn’t say no.

During the last two debates between Obama and John McCain, I paid particular attention to CNN’s "Undecided Voter" ticker at the bottom of the screen that tracked the reactions of a group of men and women who hadn’t decided on a candidate. What I noticed was that when Barack Obama spoke, the undecided women responded favorably to almost everything he said, almost every time he began to speak. The consistently high arc of the ticker certainly reflected that women had a much favorable image of Obama than undecided men. I’m not saying that’s definitive data on anything, but it does speak to a certain aspect of Obama’s popularity. It’s not like the crowd in Chicago for his first President-Elect address was a boy’s club affair. If I had to bet the farm, I’d go as far as saying that Obama appeals to more females than Bill Clinton. Did the origins of "Obamamania" and his aura of celebrity begin on Oprah? It’s an interesting question, one that also makes me wonder what it would be like if Oprah decided to run for the White House.

While much of the mainstream media and many celebrities have rallied behind Barack Obama, the new President-Elect wouldn’t have struck such a nerve with the public if it weren’t for the anti-celebrity of current President George Bush. In many ways Obama is the right guy at the right place at the right moment in the history of the United States. Appearing on the covers of Time, Rolling Stone, Wired, Vibe, Esquire, People, and GQ only helped to turn him into a celebrity. And for the millions of African Americans who thought they’d never see one of their own elected to the highest office in the land, Obama’s election is the most significant event in their long struggle throughout American history. And above all, they can celebrate a victory that serves as a new, positive turning point that lays the foundation for a new and exciting future.

However, more importantly than anything else, Barack Obama is not only black, he’s also white, which is the true celebrity within Obama that unites two cultures as one as we walk together down the long road ahead into the future. That alone is change we can believe in, which is why we’re voting Barack Obama the "2008 Celebrity of the Year", and possibly the next decade.