President-elect Barack Obama apparently tucked into some Spam sushi at lunch yesterday, so naturally, everyone spent a little time talking about it. I had to endure an uber-snooty David Shuster rant on the topic yesterday that threatened to induce the sort of reverse-peristalsis that many would associate with the mystery meat, widely eaten throughout the Hawaiian islands. But is there anything important to be said of Obama's embrace of Spam? Lisa Derrick, proprietress of the newly-opened blog La Figa, may have hit on something: the official quashing of one of the more persistent campaign smears.
Those rumors of President-Obama being a Muslim have been laid to rest by his very visible consumption of a porky pan-Asian fusion delicacy--well that's what fancy food folks will be calling Spam musubi now that Obama noshed on one while playing golf yesterday, making the Hawaiian snack chic. Expect them at Inauguration parties.
I'm especially hopeful that Spam delicacies will be widely available during the Inaugural weekend. It's probably no coincidence that the announcement of Rick Warren's participation in the festivities can be connected to the revised calculations of the anticipated crowds, down from four million to two million. It will be hilarious when Spam fails to inspire similar distaste.