Obama - too cool to be a geek?

While the rest of the country breathlessly waits to hear what kind of dog the Obama family will take to the White House, us geeks, nerds, and dweebs are engaged in an intense discussion of whether the new president can actually be a geek himself. Wired magazine first laid out a list of reasons why they consider the president-elect to qualify and both mainstream media and the blogosphere have all weighed in. [right, a Photoshopped image posted on MacRumors Forums last April. The contributor also did photos with Clinton and McCain in Star Trek costume]

My colleague, Dan Sarewitz, at Arizona State University, is quoted in an AP story as saying calling Obama a geek is unfair both to the president-elect and geeks. "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."

But Alan Leshner, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in answering the question, Is Obama a Geek? probably speaks for many of us when he says "I hope so."