I was reading The Economist on the plane. There was a rather disturbing article about lots of places wanting to name things after Obama. This is rediculous. I expect this from the fringe right cult of personality idiots. There should be some sort of a rule that no public works project / street / aircraft carrier / school / etc… should be named for anybody who is still alive. Apparently there is this kind of rule for us postal stamps. At least at some point someone had a sense of decency.
Just like I think it is wrong to name a street after Obama, I was disgusted (though less surprised) to see the number of things named after Reagan before he died (including an aircraft carrier). At least most of them were named after he finished being president. Equally moronic is the Bush airport in Texas. I mean, come on. Is Bush #1 really such a great texan he should have an airport named after and you had no dead ones to pick from?
There is a real cult-of-personality being created here. This is why dictators always seem so comical. Now we are repeating what they did. If we want to have the world to stop laughing at us, we have to stop doing these things.
So, let’s be happy Obama got elected. But he hasn’t yet even had a chance to become a great president worth naming things after. For all we know he might yet be a terrible president. I mean at one point a large majority of americans thought Nixon was a great guy.
Actually I don’t really think any of the recent presidents are so wondefully great they deserve anything named after them. There is a lot of great dead people we can pick that most people can agree on. For presidents I can think of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt. Advantage of politicians long dead is that they are generally well liked. Also it is better if current politicians ego’s are kept in check.
