About

Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle was a single serving site featuring a series of randomly genereated non-sequiturs that portrayed the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a generally positive light. Launched by San Francisco-based journalist Mathew Honan in February 2008, the website instantly went viral and spawned numerous spin-off sites throughout the months leading up to the 2008 United States presidential election.

Origin

On February 13th, 2008, San Francisco-based writer Mathew Honan created a single serving site under the domain BarackObamaIsYourNewBicycle.com, which randomly generated a series of hypothetical statements illustrating the Democratic presidential candidate as a digital-savvy and personable do-gooder.

Spread

A day after the site launched, BarackObamaIsYourNewBicycle.com was picked up by a number of tech-focused blogs and news sites, including Technorati, The Economist and TIME Magazine, bringing in thousands of visitors within the first 48 hours. In the following days, several spin-off sites centered around other presidential candidates began to surface online, such as
MichelleObamaIsYourNewBicycle.com, JohnMcCainIsYourNewBicycle.com, JohnMcCainIsYourJalopy.com, HillaryClintonIsYourNewBicycle.com, RonPaulIsYourNewBicycle.com and SarahPalinIsYourNewBicyclesFlatTire.com, as well as the meta-humor site IsYourNewBicycle.com.

Book Adaptation

In August 2008, the book Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle: 366 Ways He Really Cares was published, which included 366 Obama non sequiturs.

Examples

• Barack Obama danced with your mom at your sister's wedding
• When one of your vocalists came down with a nasty bronchitis bug, Barack Obama sang backup in your band
• Barack Obama left a comment on your blog
• Barack Obama warmed up your car for you

Search Interest

External References