A survey of ten professors at George Washington University conducted by The College Fix found that three favor adding a likeness of Barack Obama to Mount Rushmore, alongside those of four great presidents. All of the academicians surveyed teach history or political science.
Particularly notable among the three supporters was Paul Wahlbeck, Chairman of the Political Science Department, who said Obama should be added based on his race:
History undoubtedly will accord President Obama a special place by virtue of being the first African-American President.
History may have already caught up with Wahlbeck’s prediction. Although support for adding Obama to Mt. Rushmore has not exactly reached a fever pitch, there is a Facebook page titled “Campaign to Put President Obama on Mt. Rushmore!” The brainchild of Greg Jones, the site boasts of 757 “likes” so far.
Albeit not on a par with erecting a carving of Obama (sized to match his ego) alongside portrait sculptures of Washington and Lincoln, lesser gestures honoring the 44th president have been realized across the country:
- An international magnet school in Pennsylvania has already been named “The Barack Obama Academy for International Studies.” This honor was bestowed two years after Obama ascended to the presidency. (The Duquesne Duke, March 2011)
- A street was re-named Barack Obama Avenue in Opa-locka, Fla., in February 2009 after the city commission “voted unanimously” to rechristen part of Perviz Avenue. (USA Today, January 2009)
- A street in Orlando, Fla., named Barack Obama Parkway was dedicated by Orlando’s mayor in October 2011. Perhaps emblematic of a president who has been short on ideas and slower still in acting to repair a broken economy, the street is about one and a half miles in length that (The Blaze, October 2011)
- “A Plainfield, N.J., public high school for at-risk students has been renamed for Barack Obama, becoming the first school in the state to adopt the change.” (The Star Ledger, February 2009)
- The Hempstead Union Free School District board voted unanimously to rename “Ludlum Elementary School” to “Barack Obama Elementary School” just three weeks after he was elected. Fox News, November 2009.
- The Milwaukee Public School Board voted in April 2011 in a “5-4 vote to approve naming a school after the current president.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 2011)
- “The former Qued Charter Elementary School in Los Angeles changed its name to the Barack Obama Charter School” in January 2009 just days before the inauguration. (Los Angeles Times.com, January 2009)
- In August of 2012, a plaque was unveiled in the Hyde Park section of Chicago to mark the spot where in 1989 a young Barack Obama planted his first smooch on the lips of his eventual bride-to-be, Michelle Robinson. (Examiner, August 2012)
