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Hail To The Geek

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The Associated Press

Published: December 26, 2008

WASHINGTON - Get ready for the geek in chief.

President-elect Barack Obama used to collect comic books, can't part with his BlackBerry and once flashed Leonard "Mr. Spock" Nimoy "Live Long and Prosper" sign.

That and other evidence has some of Obama's nerdier fans thinking he'll be the first U.S. president to show distinct signs of geekiness. And that's got them as excited as a Tribble around a Klingon.

GEEK, IN WIRED

MAGAZINE'S WORLD

•Wired magazine was the first to crow about Obama the geek, complete with five reasons in its GeekDad blog.

•To Wired, being a geek is a compliment.

•GeekDad contributor Matt Blum, a software engineer in Reston, Va., defines geeks as having high intellects, embracing technology, "getting excited about things in the future especially, particularly fiction," having a science viewpoint and being steeped in the geek culture of science fiction and fantasy.

•Geeks know and use references from "Star Trek," "Dungeons and Dragons" and comic books.

WAY TOO COOL TO BE A GEEK

Some experts say Obama is too cool, too athletic, too normal to wear the geek cape.

•Obama used drugs and was a high school athlete, missing out on two prime nerd qualities, said Benjamin Nugent, author of "American Nerd: The Story of My People."

•"He's too cool to be a geek; he's a decent basketball player; he knows how to dance; he dresses well. It's too high a standard for geeks to possibly live up to," said Dan Sarewitz, a professor of science and society at Arizona State University.

OBAMA GEEK CULTURE CHECK

•Technology: He's the candidate who tried to announce his vice presidential pick by text message and embraced Facebook as a campaign tool. He's seldom seen without a BlackBerry and talks of a chief technology officer for the nation.

•Comic books: As a youngster, Obama collected Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comic books. His Senate Web site used to have a photo of him posing in front of a Superman statue, and in October at New York's Alfred Smith dinner he joked: "I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet Earth."

• "Star Trek," the long-running TV show: In May in Des Moines, Newsweek caught Obama teasing wife Michelle about her belt buckle, saying it was studded with Star Trek-powering dilithium crystals and adding, "Beam me up, Scotty!"

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