As Obama prepares for his State of the Union address next week, he is surely pondering his overseas influence. And he should be heartened: while he may be less popular at home than he would like, he's still hot stuff in Africa.
Here in Ghana, there's Obama shops, Obama posters for sale on the streets, kids in country villages wearing Obama clothing, even an Obama Hotel.
And now, Obama cookies!
Tired from running errands in Accra's mid-day heat, I stopped recently at a typical street-side shack for a cold drink. Seeing Obama's face, with the red-white-and-blue, on a package of biscuits (that's "cookies" in Ghana-English), I couldn't resist seeing how he would taste.
The verdict? Obama's cookies went down with me about as well as his health care reform did with America's Republican Party: dry and salty instead of moist and sweet, with a lingering acrid aftertaste.
Thankfully, I had a nice cold soymilk drink to wash my Obama-chow down. Much better than those American elephants now spluttering on lukewarm tea.
So, my advice to Obama: while I know your foreign policy is mostly taken up with Iraq and Afghanistan, can you please give just a tiny corner of thought to your overseas baking stance? A little push for sweeter cookies would go a long way in Ghana.
