Take the Hint

Well, the joker who came up with the "Big O" is just not going to take no for an answer:

At first, Rick Husong was stunned by the overwhelming wave of negative and sometimes crude reactions to his bid revealed in Whispers last week to build a pro-Sen. Barack Obama movement around a hand salute dubbed the Big-O. Among the hundreds of comments posted on the Whispers site were those comparing it to a gang gesture, a Nazi salute, or worse. "This is how Sieg Heil got started. And, no I'm not saying Obama is Hitler. I just think people should be careful about slipping into a personality cult for a charismatic leader," wrote Jake of Tennessee. Husong tells me that he was pretty depressed by the reaction to his idea and free design offered on the website of Loyalty Inc., his California creative company. That is until he heard of a fan walking on Venice Beach wearing a T-shirt displaying the artwork. In fact, despite the tsunami of criticism, the artwork has been downloaded 7,700 times and his site has been hit 214,000 times since the first Whisper went live. "I would call that a raving success," he says, adding that he plans to make his Big-O the "peace sign of our generation."

Well, don't let abject failure and public humiliation keep you down, right?

And then Husong, the founder of this "movement" goes off into space cadet territory:

He also E-mailed me last night to say that the hits on the artwork have inspired him to push even harder to build a movement around the hand signal. Here's what he wrote: "Our symbol 'O' is about much more than Barack Obama. It's a symbol of unity, hope, solidarity, and an end to the divisiveness that has plagued this country for too long. It is the peace sign of our generation; a sign for those who are tired of the fear, the hatred, the greed, and the ignorance. There will be resistance, democracy requires it, but we believe that the good in the American people will persevere.

The peace sign of our generation? A slick, corporately produced hand symbol that is reminds people that Barack Obama is little more than a slick, media production? All flash, no substance. That's what he wants to publicize a hand symbol for? At least the peace sign was an organically developed hand gesture, developed by people who were part of a movement. It was not something that an advertising agency came up with, like this one is, for a candidate who is desperately trying to create an air of substance around his candidacy.

The good news is that while Obama supporters figure out new and creative ways to show their loyalty and subjugation to Obama cult, their savior is out losing the election, so I suppose they need to find something to pump them up.