Great Caesar’s ghost!

Weeeell, according to rumor, he dressed up as a wizard to go with his kids to a midnight new Harry Potter book party.

And slightly less known is something a learned from a find of mine, intern for the campaign, that ran hospitality for the now-President-elect when he was in town.

The job involves getting him something to eat, maybe playing a little basketball with him, and basically chatting and getting whatever he needs between important things. During the conversation, apparently Zero Wing came up.

You know, the Sega Genesis video game. I don't know how.

And apparently, my friend made the off-hand comment of "All your base are belong to us".

And Obama leaned forward in his chair, quirked his eyebrow a bit, and responded "What you say?"

The case for

The case against

I'll take him. :)

@tazo85 #1
Oh to be a fly on the wall of that room!

I've heard apocryphal stories of Obama attending Comic Con—obviously not this year, but in years past.

Although, to see Obama walk down the exhibit hall at SDCC with, say, a Jedi honor-guard pulling security detail... w00t!

Obama's also the first president to earn the bulk of his fortune as an author...without a ghostwriter...BEFORE his presidency. While I can't vouch for Comic Con, I bet he's seen the inside of a BEA Convention.

Currently I've been experiencing a little known side effects of elections. Today everything is of or for Obama:

ObamaMuffins!
LeftoverChineseFud for Obama!
Kitten for Obama!
and my current favourite:

Obamahangoverkitten.

In related news, Sasha spent Halloween dressed a corpse bride. Do you think they are Tim Burton fans?

(Also, did Barack intentionally dress as a secret service agent? For grate lolz?)

From Chapter 3 of Newsweek's "Secrets of the 2008 Campaign" tick-tock, just posted today:

On May 20, the night of the primaries in Oregon (a satisfying win in a liberal state) and Kentucky (another discouraging blowout in Appalachia; he had lost West Virginia the week before by 41 points), he stood off-stage at the Des Moines Historical Society Museum in Iowa. He had wanted to go back to the state of his first great triumph to give a speech unofficially kicking off the fall campaign, even though Clinton officially was still in the race. "That's an interesting belt buckle," he said to Michelle, mischievously. She feigned offense and said, "I am interesting, next to you. Surprise, surprise, a blue suit, a white shirt and a tie." Obama grinned and bent down until he was almost at eye level with her waist. He jabbed a playful finger toward her belt buckle, and let loose his inner nerd. "The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!" Obama squeaked, laughing at his own lame joke as Michelle rolled her eyes.

"He jabbed a playful finger toward her belt buckle, and let loose his inner nerd. "The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!" Obama squeaked, laughing at his own lame joke as Michelle rolled her eyes."

Dilithium. DILITHIUM!

Probably Newsweek's failure, not Obama's. Anybody who knows to make dilithium crystal jokes probably knows the right name.

@ 9:

It's probably easy enought to mishear "Dilithium" as "The lithium", depending on how it's pronounced. I think in context, "The lithium crystals" doesn't even make sense.

@9, @10: Yeah, I'd pin this one on Newsweek. Obama's Trek enthusiasm is clearly not an isolated incident.

"One of us!"
"One of us!"
"One of us!"

tazo85 @ 1: Hmm. Might I say that our president-elect is aware of all internet traditions?

Yes -- and this time, it's true.

T. Nielsen Hayden
Yes -- and this time, it's true.

(squints with his good eye) arrr... We will see if that be true, yarrr....

hehehe!

Sinfest is getting in on it, too!

And all I want for Christmas is for the story @1 to be true. I can really picture it.

Ah, just imagine... January 20th, 2009. Inauguration day:

"My fellow Americans, today is a great day, a day for change. Because today, all your base are belong to us."

And the crowd goes wild.

Aw, heck - maybe he's not merely a geek but such a purist that he only considers episodes made before the series first aired to be canon. Hence, "lithium crystals" as in the episode "Mudd's Women." Not exactly wrong, no more than "Vulcanian" is.

Lithium crystals is not necessarily a mistake. Lithium crystals are clearly referenced in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Startrek.com's encyclopedia says they were used prior to dilithium in early starship designs. Either way, the reference is pure Trek.

I'm coming to this late, but I'm amazed that no one has yet addressed the most relevant question: is he a TOS, TNG, DS9 or V fan? Hopefully not an Enterprise fan because then I have no idea what to do with him. Personally, I'm pulling for a DS9 fan--good at interspecial diplomacy, able to deal well with religious fundamentalism--but I am willing to accept a TNG fan as well.

I saw on boing boing today that Obama's FCC nominees (probables) are serious gamers...this is getting good!

THANK GOD!!! Someone else is talking about "The Lithium Crystals" as a misquote. This article was just posted on Yahoo! http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090508/pl_politico/22270 . My inner geek died just a little bit just hearing that phrase. I'm guessing Obama said it correctly and whatever non-geek wrote it down, wrote it down incorrectly. If it was an accurate quote, Obama would lose any geek cred he was establishing.