The Obama Pin

As all of my non-Amish readers know, Barak Obama was elected president in November 2008 and took office in January 2009. I'm assuming that Amish people know this as well, although I doubt I have any Amish readers and also have no clue as to how Amish people get their news. The news of Obama being president was probably reported by a "town crier" sort of fellow and was probably met with some skepticism. This is because I don't think there are any African Americans in Amish country (I visited there once 15 years ago, so my information is somewhat reliable), so the Amish have never seen an African American before. They probably think that the country is now being led by some other form of life and are preparing for a battle with old fashioned weaponry. They will lose (b/c we have newer and more-effective weapons). And if you are an Amish person and are reading this - tsk tsk. You are not allowed to use the computer, unless the rules have changed since I last visited your Amish country 15 years ago.

Anyway, we recall that the build-up and subsequent celebration surronding Obama's victory was huge. It was not uncommon to see many people on the New York City Subway system wearing Obama gear to pysche themselves up for the upcoming election and show support for their candidate. One would expect such gear to stop appearing after his victory, but today I still saw one lady wearing his pin on the subway. It had (brace yourselves) a picture of Obama and the words hope and change. I don't know why I felt the need to describe the actual pin.

My question is as follows: What is the time or event cut-off for wearing Obama-supportive gear? I will make a comparison to sports because it is all I know, and then give some alternatives based on that comparison:

When the NY Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, this was a huge deal for New Yorkers. I was in 6th grade and didn't care about hockey. Since that time I have not cared about hockey. But during that playoff run and stanley cup victory, I cared about hockey. Everyone cared. I didn't have cable, but I sat next to my radio and listened to the games and watched the parade. I went to Modells b/c you gotta go to Mo's and I bought my obligatory NY Rangers Champions t-shirt. When I got to Camp Hillel that summer, I saw everyone else wearing that same t-shirt and it didn't surprise me at all. But when was the appropriate time to stop wearing that t-shirt? When I saw the Camp baker wearing it (3 sizes too small) in 2001, it felt like the celebration was long over. I was embarrased for the baker and I was embarrased for the NY Rangers. The last part isn't true, b/c I didn't care about hockey.

I think there are three alternatives for when to stop wearing the Obama pin:

1) Objective time-based cut-off. Not sure when this should be (1 year? 1 month?) so I guess it isn't objective. Obama himself should announce this time-frame in a press conference so that it becomes objective. He should say, "no wearing pins with my face on it starting April 1, 2009".

2) Until he starts sucking. You wouldn't want to wear the Rangers championship t-shirt if they started sucking (too lazy to research when they started sucking after 1994 and also realizing that "sucking" is somewhat of a vague term). Similarly, it would be awkward to wear the Obama pin if he started performing poorly as our president. Like if he made a rule on how many children we can have and threw extra babies down the river, you wouldn't want to be the guy wearing his pin, unless you live on said river and profit from baby-trading.

3) Until presidency ends. In the sports comparison, the NY Rangers were the Stanley Cup Champions until the next team became champions a year later. Obama is president until someone else is, so you can wear his pin every day lady.