A Searching Portrait: Barack Obama's January Start
by Vera H-C ChanApr 28, 2009
As part of our continuing series, "A Searching Portrait: Barack Obama's 100 Days," below are the questions, subjects, and issues that dominated January 2009 searches.
A new year
It's New Year's Day, and some citizens check out the Obamas' temporary digs at Hayes-Adams hotel. Others impatiently scour for an "obama stimulus package." Meanwhile, searches on "bill richardson" surge when the former New Mexico governor withdraws from the Commerce Secretary nomination. This turns out to be the first of such staffing headaches.
Inauguration week
Efforts to get Inauguration Day tickets, already strong in November, get desperate. People are distracted by the president-elect's monster limo ride, which nearly rivals interest in No. 43's china policy (the dishes). Anticipation climbs for Obama's speech, even as the video and site "How Obama Got Elected" circulates. Also hotly anticipated: a Labradoodle-Portuguese water dog face-off for First Pet.
Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, "stimulus package" leads Obama's searches, whereas "hot dog bush" leads queries for the outgoing Oval Office tenant.
On Inauguration Day, the highly anticipated address sobers the nation along with concern for an ill Ted Kennedy. But dizzy gaiety returns with—among many other things—Aretha Franklin's hat and Michelle Obama's outfit. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had a snafu, but No. 44 also shows signs he is human after all. (See this Inauguration Day recap for more.)
The work begins
Obama immediately gets to work (after a presidential oath do-over) and signs executive orders to shut down Guantanamo. Searches not only spike for the detention facility, but many for the first time note "barack obama left-handed."
The clamor begins anew for an "economic stimulus bill," although the "lilly ledbetter fair pay act" receives due online recognition. People also flock to government sites like "astrongmiddleclass.gov." Attention turns to Tom Daschle and his qualifications for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Things will not go well for the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
Next in the series: billion-dollar grants and an animated controversy.