Obama's Army Of Celebs: Are The Stars Really Aligned?

CINCINNATI (TDD) -- The draft Obama movement has a cute gimmick up on its Web site -- a list of stars and tycoons and celebrities who are "honorary members" of the drive to get the Illinois Democrat into the '08 presidential race. The kind words by folks like George Clooney and billionaire Warren Buffet aren't official endorsements, but they read like high praise.

Here's Buffet, the sage of Omaha, who is America's second richest man and is giving his wealth away: "I've got a conviction about him that I don't get very often. He has as much potential as anyone I've seen to have an important impact over his lifetime on the course America takes. If he can do an ounce better with me, fine."

And Clooney, whose dad, Nick, is a columnist at the Cincinnati Post: "He possesses the one quality that you cannot teach and you can't learn . . .He is a leader, He walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere."

And the Biggest O of All, Oprah: "I think his sense of hope and optimism for this country and what is possible for the United States is the kind of think I would like to get behind."

Read all the "endorsements" that DraftObama.org has found. On Feb. 10, when the senator speaks in Springfield, we'll find out if he's running.

Ohio U & Oprah Too: The Racial Makeover Machine

ATHENS, Ohio (TDB) -- Ohio University students got a chance last week to slip into somebody else's skin. A computerized booth was set up in the campus student center that overlayed faces with the characteristics of other races, and there were large crowds at the exhibit. The races students morphed into were Hispanic, Asian, Indian, black, midde-eastern, and white.

Not too long ago, Oprah tried out The Human Race Machine, switching skin tones and racial features. The results are worth seeing and offer a glimpse of what the Ohio University campus experienced. You can watch Oprah changing HERE.

Instead of marches -- which are the traditional ways to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday -- maybe these booths should be set up on city squares and in auditoriums. They would powerfully demonstrate King's point: Human racial differences are skin deep; the content of one's character is what truly counts.

In Athens, the machine was sponsored by the Black Student Cultural Programming Board, which wanted to raise awareness about racial issues and make people think about skin color in different ways. A story by David DeWitt, campus reporter for the weekly Athens News, said the exhibition (which has since moved on) was a major hit. "The machine has been drawing large crowds since its arrival last Friday and has been opening each day three hours earlier than originally scheduled,'' DeWitt reported. He added the machine came with a sign that reads: "There is no gene for race."

Nancy Burson is an artist who created the device, and she has been a visiting professor at Harvard University. She has called mankind the ''hue-man" race. There is some information about Burson at THIS WEB SITE and a longer article about her in the Village Voice from a few years ago.

The machine does more than alter racial characteristics. It offers a program that ages a face, another that can create bizarre distortions and a ''couples machine" that melds two faces to give a glimpse of what the prospective parents baby might look like.

DeWitt, the reporter who covered reaction to the machine at OU, said not everybody was awed by the technology and quoted a student who thought the exhibit promoted stereotypes. Still, he said some campus instructors made their students experience The Human Race Machine, which took 10 minutes to sit through.