[BeautifulBurnout]

I will agree that there is media obsession with him, because he is the first non-white US Presidential Candidate/President Elect. But it is largely whipped up by the media themselves who are anxious to ride the wave of his popularity, and know that, irrespective of the political colour, it is something that interests everyone either positively or negatively.

In contrast, those who refer to it as an Obama Cult, or talk of people thinking it's The Second Coming of Christ and so forth tend to be from the loony right in the US. In other words, they are claims made by people who hate or fear him about the people who admire and support him - on the Guardian Comment is Free section, it was frequent that anyone supporting Obama in a thread would be told by the right-wingnuts that they had "drunk the Kool-Aid", which is both spiteful and derisory.

I think he is more treated like a celebrity than a "god", and the example of the coffee cup would have happened if it had been George Clooney drinking from it. What's more, he has been able to tap into the youth of the States and energise them enough to actually get their asses away from their puter screens for long enough to go out and vote for him, and they feel like he speaks for them. And given today's obsession by the young with celebrity - a recent survey showed that most teenagers think that being "famous" is more important that any other ambition for their future - it is understandable that they react to Obama as they would a celebrity. But it is incorrect to describe this as "cultish", any more than being a fan of George Clooney would mean there was a "Clooney Cult".

So, no. There is no "Obama Cult" other than that which is being invented as a way of smearing his supporters, imo.