This is how history is made. And the history he is making is his story.
You imagine it should be a simple, straightforward business.
Not so. At least not the way the media is going about it.
From Japan to Kenya, the stories have been piling. Some news correspondents unearthed Obama Senior's home and got "bicycle" stories out of a tiny Kenyan village.
The Obamamania smote Japan hard and fast.
In the US? Forget it! The madness is spreading fast beyond Washington. A column in Time magazine talked said, "There is a new economic stimulus plan, and his name is Barack Obama."
This is the sort of thing the media dies for. BBC, Sky, CNN, Fox, even C-Span all want to outdo each other. The gimmicks on-air are breathtaking, as is the banter between anchorpersons. CNN claimed it had the only DV camera overlooking the square where hundreds of thousands gathered to watch the inauguration. It also claimed it got exclusive access to a security camera showing the entire area around the Mall and the Capitol. The shots were so many, it split its onair screen in more than twenty places to accommodate all the shots.
In faraway Nigeria, its national broadcaster NTA--which has luckily gone international on cable--stationed an OB van to cover the event. The private-operated Channels Television is also on cable and is not about to be outdone. Terrestrial broadcaster Confluence Television promoed the inauguration hours before Obama even got out of bed and panelled guests to discuss the far-reaching implications.
Reports are already pushing responsibilties onto Obama's shoulders--from closing Guantanamo Bay and pulling America out of Iraq to ending the conflict in the Sudan and DR Congo.
Questions are flying through the airwaves. What no one is asking is whether Obama can chew what the world has bitten off for him.
technomist
They haven't bitten off that much. Most of it is froth.