We've all heard that Obama is the first black or biracial president. What other "firsts" is he? I asked this question elsewhere on the Internet around the time of Obama's inauguration, before I had joined this site. It may be a little late, but I do want to hear people's ideas here.
Here are some of the ideas I came up with, to start:
-- the first president whose surname begins and ends in a vowel
-- the first president with close-cropped hair
-- the first president who was a member of United Church of Christ
-- the first president born in Hawaii
-- the first president who listens to rap music
-- the first president with a rabbi in the family
-- the first post-boomer president
-- the first president with a gosh-darn funny name (you could make a case for Millard Fillmore)
-- the first president to appear on O'Reilly
-- the first president to dance on Ellen and look like a total dork
Predictably, when I asked this question, some of the answers I received were of the "first Muslim president," "first Marxist president," etc. variety. I knew there would be people who took that approach, and I accepted it, and didn't try to shut them up. I wanted as many ideas as possible on the table. That was the point of the exercise. I just hoped the loons wouldn't scare the rest of the people off.
But others saw what I was trying to do and came up with some real ideas. Unfortunately, I didn't save the thread and it eventually disappeared from the board I was on. (It was the Internet Movie Database in the Barack Obama section. I also posted the question at Yahoo Answers and got relatively few replies.) I know it's all just a silly diversion, and there are far more important issues to be talking about, but we all need a break every now and then, huh?
So, I ask again: what "firsts" is Obama?