the buzz log

Barack Obama may have campaigned on change, but some citizens may be looking at No. 44 to evoke souls of presidents past.

Planning and hiring aside, Obama hasn't spent one formal day in the Oval Office. Yet for months people have been comparing him to one past president after another. Obama has, among others, pointed to Abraham Lincoln as his preferred presidential archetype.

Reviving the ghosts of presidents past says much more about those making the comparison than the president-elect himself, and what direction they'd like the country to go—with a 21st-century twist, of course.

As for what ordinary citizens think, in the past three months, Searchers have actually paired Obama's name the most with a public figure who held no office, and whose national birthday commemoration precedes the inauguration. Not only have people pored over "traits shared" between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama, but the November win drove lookups for memorabilia of the two. One Search what-if: "would martin luther king jr have voted for obama."

However, people have also checked out comparisons between Obama and other members of the select White House club. Below are the five presidents mostly linked to Obama in Web searches over the past three months.

1. Obama as Lincoln: During his run, Obama reached out to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about her biography, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." After his win, Newsweek devoted a cover story in the presidential-elect's Lincolnesque qualities. Obama himself continues to hammer the analogy, visiting the Lincoln Memorial 10 days before his inauguration, taking his inaugural theme from a Lincoln speech, and making plans to take the rails to the inauguration and swear on the same bible. The analogy has prompted Searchers to seek specifics on "similarities between obama to abraham lincoln," with some karmic reflections that wonder about "obama lincoln reincarnated," "obama trying to channel lincoln," and "psychics say obama is lincoln reincarnated."

The No. 16 emphasis may have triggered "an early rumblings of a backlash" among scholars, reports Politico. A small number of detractors may share that sentiment with queries "how obama is not anything like lincoln" and "obama is narcissistic thinking he is lincoln."

2. Obama as Kennedy. Perhaps the most invoked comparison during the early campaign run, his likeness to John F. Kennedy, may have been cemented with Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's political blessing in a January 2008 New York Times op-ed piece. The Kennedy halo doesn't stop with JFK: Lookups have also examined the political metaphor of "robert f kennedy and barack obama," and the whole family with "the obamas the new kennedys."

3. Obama as Reagan. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg wasn't the only presidential offspring endorsing Obama: Ronald Prescott Reagan also backed him in October. Even before that thumbs up, a few Searchers scrutinized "obama using reagan's playbook" (often referring to the Republican's rhetorical skills). Others looked at "how is obama's tax policies similar to reaganomics," and "obama reverting taxes to what they were in reagan era." Obama himself did cause consternation among liberals when he compared his moment in history to Ronald Reagan's own crossroads. The Wall Street Journal earlier this month dreamily resurfaced the comparison between the Great Communicator and No. 44.

4. Obama as Carter. The policies of one-term president Jimmy Carter were combed through for their similarities and differences to Obama's, but the notion of "obama the next jimmy carter" became explicit with a few asking outright, "obama is jimmy carter's second term."

5. Obama as Roosevelt. Time magazine bypassed the Lincoln model and put Obama in the driver's seat (with a little artistic license) as Franklin D. Roosevelt on its Nov. 24 cover. FDR stepped into a steaming mess of an economy 75 years ago, but many point out that his New Deal couldn't single-handedly salvage it. A few have done their due diligence, checking in "obama roosevelt behind high depression" and examining "roosevelt top notch intellect barack obama." And yes, a handful wondered about how Obama resembles the earlier Roosvelt back in October, but not since then.

Obama as ...? Yes, there is someone notable missing from the above list: Bill Clinton. Queries on Obama and his most recent Democratic predecessor mostly revolved around their uneasy relationship during the campaign. Given so many former Clinton staffers' return White House gigs, it'd probably be fair to say that Obama is awfully similar to Clinton the Recruiter.