Barack Obama, in an attempt to appeal to as many niche political groups as possible, has splintered his support so much that — in the end — there is no single coalition of minds that leads to results instead of mere yearning. Here is one of the lapel buttons for sale on his website:


Here’s the Obama button supporting Gay Pride.

 

Here’s the button for African Americans:

This “Asian Americans Pacific Islanders” button seems like an overdone, politically correct, joke — until you realize each button costs a serious $3.00USD:

If you’re Latino — here’s your button!

If you fought in a war, Obama has a button for you:

Female?  Button?  Youbetcha!

Independent?  Not any longer… if you’re with Obama!

Obama Republicans?  Uh… sure… as if…

I don’t understand why one button can’t be used to unite all of us.

What’s the point in this splintering and “niching” of American political interests?

If you stand for everything — then you mean nothing — and all these buttons speak to a scatter-shot philosophy of uniting and that’s bad for America and really bad for Barack in November if we don’t all cast away out self-interested buttons in favor of a single semiotic.

Here’s my favorite Obama Button.  It unites.  It speaks to everyone in a single image:

Unfortunately, that great button is the last button on the last page of Barack buttons for buying — and that’s
precisely what Barack Obama needs to fix within himself before he can even begin to fix us as a nation. 

Bring us together. 

Don’t separate us by lapel semiotics.

4 Comments

  1. Hi David,
    I didn’t expect this from Barack Obama – it seems childish and directionless – I wonder what prompted him to do it!
    And I agree with you, the last one looks most significant – it should definitely go to the first page, or else people will lose interest before reaching there.
    In fact, too many choices would leave all confused.

  2. Those buttons do show a real problem with the Obama campaign, Katha: He’s trying to be everything to everybody. He’s gone mainstream, bland, and he lost his focus. It will be interesting to see if he can bring home a win in November now or not.

  4. Anne —
    Let’s hope the Obama-Biden ticket creates one button to unite us all.

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