Bahamas Changes Name

(NASSAU) The government of The Bahamas today announced the official name change of the country to The Commonwealth of the Obamas. The change will take place immediately and will be reflected in all official government operations, to include embassy locations worldwide.

Working closely with the Bahamian Tourism Board, government officials acted quickly to make the change after viewing the new will.i.am Obama video.

"We voted on this in a hastily called assembly of Parliament," said Prime Minister Hubert A. Ingraham, "and the decision was unanimous."

"It is clear to us that Obama is some special kind of politician, maybe even God made flesh," said a tourism official, "and we are only the first country or region to pay homage to him with a name change."

Reports indicate that the state of Oklahoma is considering a resolution to rename their state Oklabama and that Alabama is entertaining a name change to Olabama.

Obama campaign officials, while pleased, are downplaying the Messianic undertones.

"Barack only walks on water and heals the sick," said David Axelrod, chief strategist for Obama, "He has never raised the dead or turned water into wine. Yet."

Axelrod quickly pointed out that 25 states have a city or town named Clinton and that there are many counties in the United States with the name Clinton.

"That is clearly an unfair advantage that I think the Clinton campaign needs to address," said Axelrod, "We see no problem with a sovereign nation exercising its freewill to rename their country to reflect the momentum of our candidate."

Particularly hurtful to the Clintons is the fact that they have taken many vacations to the islands. Pressed for comment, a visibly shaken and red-faced former President Bill Clinton scolded, "Shame on you! Shame on you, Bahamas."

The Fastest Rising Brand Ever

Those who visit Where's My Jetpack? with any frequency know that I love politics. It is drama in real time, changing from day to day, and on any given day, crazy things can happen. It's an unpredictable soap-opera. I also love politics because it's about branding, public relations and advertising on an accelerated and ever-changing schedule. It's impromptu theater in-the-round, and in this election year, some amazing and astonishing things are happening.

Before I go on, I will divulge that I have never voted for a winner in a presidential election, which made me a loser when it came to Clinton I as well as Bush II. I always end up on the disappointed side of the electorate. I am a registered voter, but I am registered Independent, which means I don't get to vote in my state's primary. I am a bystander when it matters - when we are selecting those who will contend in our national election.

That said, there is a brand emerging in American politics the likes of which has never been seen. Chalk it up to a Connected Age, where a person can create a video and have it seen by millions in a matter of days (if it's good enough), or where a speech can be broadcast worldwide with the click of a mouse. Or maybe we can write it off to good speech-writing , where the finely tuned pen of a young wordsmith can put words into the mouth of a politician and cause a nation to dream.

Imagine a young, upstart new cola, challenging Pepsi and Coke for a majority of market share, and you have the candidacy of Barack Obama. Imagine Obama Cola suddenly replacing Coke and Pepsi on the convenience store shelves. Imagine consumers creating Obama Cola videos that suddenly went viral and made the Diet Coke + Mentos video look like a bad and forgettable episode of The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Imagine sales of Coke and Pepsi falling. People would be plenty pissed. Especially the makers of Pepsi and Coke.

Those who visit Where's My Jetpack? with any frequency know that I love America. I make fun of her, of course. She's an easy target. But stink though she does, she's the best thing afloat. I do not, however, confuse my flag with my God, (apologies to my many atheist readers) and my star-spangled banner never died for me. I don't think we rule the world, and I don't think this land is somehow magically destined to keep the universe safe for democracy. Politics and religion don't belong together, and anyone who brings their God into politics had best be watched closely.

But not since I was a regular attendee at a Black Pentecostal church in Springfield, Missouri have I been so inspired by the orations of a preacher. Or rather, a politician. Obama does not out-and-out invoke God in his speeches, in fact, he keeps God pretty separate. But he has injected something spiritual into American politics, and I hope it can't be stopped. It certainly can't be duplicated, and anyone who tries (and they all have) only ends up looking like a late-to-the-game pretender. I suppose it really isn't all about speech writing. because if you put any of Obama's speeches in front of any other candidate, they would ring false - and fall flat.

I don't know if I'd vote for the man if he in fact does win the nomination of his party, but his brand is something to behold. I likely disagree with him politically more than I agree with him, but I can't help being stopped in my tracks when he's got the mic.

The video below, with uncountable viewings in only four days, sums up what I'm trying to say quite nicely. You can't watch this video and not be moved, regardless of your political persuasion. It was created from a speech delivered only one month ago.



While I would of course welcome the comments of my fellow Americans on this subject, I'd be most interested in the views of my Aussie, Canadian, English, European, African, Indian and Asian readers on what is happening in this country. What do you folks make of what's going on over here? Or does it even matter?

Thanks to Catch Up Lady for alerting me to this video.