Obama is the Executive Nerd (Hodgeman Correspondents Dinner vid)

Posted by blainegarrett on Jun 24th, 2009 | 0 comments

At the TV Correspondents dinner the other day, John Hodgeman (daily show, mac commercials, etc) spoke on Obama being our nerdiest president.
He related the ongoing struggle of "Nerds vs. Jocks" to the divide between the administrations of this past decade as well as politicians whose main asset is their charisma rather than their
analytical minds. As Hodegmen noted, he had to question how "nerdy" Obama actually is since he walks in both worlds. I liked the analogy.

Everyone has multiple sides/interests, so I don’t think I am being elitist in saying this, but I always feel like I am part of multiple worlds as well. Anyone who knows me knows how schizophrenic my interests are.

An old acquaintance of mine with her PHD in physics and masters in Quantum Computing used to ironically joke how we were "nerds". My afterthought on this was that a "nerd" is merely someone who has a passion for something and engages that passions. As such, if you are not a "nerd", then what the hell are you doing with your life?

On that note, I guess I am a "podcast nerd" since the other night at Jobot’s JEMF party podcasting seemed like what most people wanted to talk about with me. I suppose that is a struggle with nerds as well – the terms by which you define yourself versus the terms that others define you. Interesting thought.

As an aside in the Correspondant’s dinner video, Obama gave the vulcan salute.
I found this pretty funny since Bill Shattner was on Conan the other night and couldn’t give the Vulcan salute. His excuse "I didn’t have to do that – that was Nemoy’s thing"

Related Links:
• Is Obama Our Geekiest President Ever @ Propeller (via Asylum)
• Shatner on Conan (via Hulu)

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