apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i have a jack bauer for president 2008 tshirt. i'll keep it until i wear it out.

i really want to go back to the phone banking HQ and grab one of those awesome red and blue tinted Obama posters that say Hope or Change or something. they're huge and would look great as decor, i think.

Please, please tell me that the woman featured a couple of months ago who had the framed Obama poster looking over her bed has taken it down. It was the creepiest thing I'd ever seen.

Elsewhere in the house, right now an Obama poster will seem iconic and edgy, but give it a few months and you'll be looking at your walls and you'll suddenly think, "Wait, why do I have a picture of the President up there? Do I live in a goverment office?"

If you have any large Obama posters, carefully roll them up, seal them in a cardboard tube and store them in your parents' attic - in 20 years they'll be delightfully kitschy and probably worth a fortune.

Blandwagon, I totally agree. Think of all the Hitler publications and their worth today. Obama is on the same track.

plain jane, putting obama and hitler in the same category (memorabilia-wise or other) is the stupidest thing i've read in a long time. way to hate!

LEAVE THE POLITICS TO THE POLITICAL WEBSITES!!

I thought this blog was about "therapy", not divisiveness. Fore heaven's sake, this is an INTERIOR DESIGN site.

LEAVE IT!

Any ideas on how to display badges and pins? I have a ton of vintage Australian ones from the sixties, seventies and eighties, and no idea what to do with them!

I think hanging a photo of the president kind of a nostalgic idea I've kinda toyed with myself.

From time to time, i'll look at old photos and see a picture of the president in the background. It seemed like that's when people were really proud to be american, and had faith in their leadership. In a world where we've bathed in negativity and lost faith in our country, I think it's a neat trend to bring back.

So, I'm thinking I'll get a small copy of one of the shepard fairey prints, hang it up, and see how i feel. Plus they're just really damn cool looking.

What an ornery little mess you are, plain jane. Your guy lost and you're feeling bitter, 'eh?

Last night at the rally's Obama store, they had the coolest 60's looking poster that said "Obama 08". Granted, it was $30. It was very trippy.

We have an Obama logo magnet on our fridge, that's it.

I guess AT took down that completely un-AT-related post about the Obama party?

Anyway, I do have a RP poster (no photo and not specific to this election) in my apartment which I plan to leave up indefinitely.

Yeah, i want to display my Obama pins and my T-Shirt.

jamiealyse, I'm sure glad they took that post down. It was completely un-AT-related and SarahC or whoever posted it should just post it on a personal blog of hers. Which I hope she'll do. Because it sounded like she had a great time.

As for this post, I don't keep political ephemera. The only political campaign items that come into my home are the flyers in the mail, which are quickly recycled. I've never bought any. I did have a NY Times paper which was printed a few days after 9/11 and was chock full of stories about it. I held on to it for a few years but then during a purge I found it again and it just made me sad (I live in NYC) so I just kindly recycled it.

I am a little disappointed in the blatant avoidance by AT to discuss the election results, despite it being 'an interior design site'. Regardless of political persuasion, no one in America can deny what a historic night Tuesday was. Like lots of regular AT readers, I consider this a community and as such we should be able to share our thoughts. After all, we let complete strangers into our homes and in our bedrooms all the time. It seemed fine in September to share our feelings 7 years after a national tragedy. Why not the day after a historic national triumph?

OK, then, so let's teach the controversy. AT readers may find this shocking, but all manner of 'lowbrow' homes here in Texas display a lot of Americana. It probably wouldn't be very controversial to add campaign material to the decor, although the party of choice might be. (Or at least would have been eight years ago; in many urban counties here, Obama won or lost by a narrow margin, which is a huge change.) So, is the objection to this post classist?

Since this is also entertaining month, is it polite to display political material in the home where you will bring guests? Does it matter whose it is, or if there's no party in particular, or if there's a mix?

Anyway, I really doubt a lot of this material is going to stay up for very long (or for that matter, that the 'For, like, ever' posters will either.)

I don't have any campaign material in my house but I so want that 'Dissent is Patriotic' button. And one day if I inherit my dad's 'Bill and Al's Excellent Adventure' tee, I might display it for kicks.

My great uncle and aunt have three pictures above their fireplace- Jesus, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama.
Go to any African- American Household in the South with old folks, and there is a good chance you will find the same decor ;-)

I will probably frame my Obama signs and keep them in my office... just as a reminder of how far we have come.

My grandma had a picture of the Pope John Paul/Jesus/Mary and Kennedy or Clinton propaganda on almost every wall. Even in the bathroom. Seriously.

While I wouldn't take things in that direction, I think some campaign posters look great on the wall.

:) Not sure I would want Jesus looking at me while I'm in the bathroom. Reminds me of a passage in Steven King's Wolves of the Calla, in which the gunslinger uses an outhouse with the Virgin Mary on the wall behind the toilet. He realizes the painter was female, and didn't have to face the virgin standing up.

Julia at Living Luxely, "how far we have come"???? We who? That's a slap in your face raciest statement if I ever heard one. We have not come far at all, being duped by a dishonest Arab posing as one of us, playing a race card at every turn. BTW, I truthfully have more Black African heritage than Obama ever will.

Goodness, what a vile and disgusting post.

Changing the subject, I have an Obama poster that I rather like, that I will frame and put up in my home office (I have other interesting posters there) - I think the graphic look of the poster suits the space wonderfully.

I'm really looking forward to receiving this print that I ordered yesterday. I think it's a silkscreen (as opposed to a glossy offset poster) which usually offers a more handmade feel.
http://thematchfactory.bigcartel.com/product/yes-we-can-obama

Plain Jane-
I have a degree in both Poli Sci and History, so yes, I would say we have come far. You sentiments & comments are just a reminder of ignorant some people still are. And as a German-African American (I was born in Germany to a German mother), I take offense to you comparing our President Elect to one of the most horrific, destructive leaders this world has ever seen.
We have come far, not that we would elect a president who is black, but that as American's we elected someone ignoring color.
While I think your racism and bigotry have no place on a design blog, I do appreciate your comments, because they are a reminder of how far we still need go to leave people like you in the past.

In my childhood home we had a crucifix in every bedroom. If people want to display political or religious memorabilia in their homes that's their personal choice.

My husband and I have an Obama campaign pin and sign which we will put in our memories box along with yesterday's newspaper.

I think it's sad that within the last few years people who do not necessarily share the same political or religious views instead of trying to understand or have a debate (agree to disagree) can not even talk to each other without resorting to personal insults and attacks.

sorry my grammar, commas, etc are off... I was a little "miffed". :-)

What I will take from this election is how much less safe we are and how much more in taxes I will have to pay for the privilege.

I agree that it is not fair to compare Obama to Hitler. Marx, Lenin or Castro is much more appropriate.

WOW, Obama's an "Arab"? How could this be, Jane? You mean, like, born in Saudi Arabia or something? That would change everything!! Please alert the authorities! I trust you've alerted the Secret Service or Department of Homeland Security or Federal Election Commission or whoever else needs to know, yes? Amazing that you know something the electorate and the authorities who checked out his background overlooked! Oh my gosh, or is it that those government agencies are aware of these assertions and are just "covering up" those "facts" for some nefarious reason? Please, please, share who your sources are! I must know! I await your response. Thank you.

(I know, I know, "Don't feed the trolls"... but come on, this was too good to resist)

So... you said,

"We have not come far at all, being duped by a dishonest Arab posing as one of us, playing a race card at every turn."

Oh I get it now! You're an imbecile.

"I agree that it is not fair to compare Obama to Hitler. Marx, Lenin or Castro is much more appropriate."

That's really funny when your guy also backed the "socialist" Wall Street bailout package. Just cuz ya say it, don't make it true!

Ah, I love basking in the bitterness of the myopic hate-mongers!

AT - seriously?! why do you do this? There are a million political blogs out there for people to spew their views - positive or negative. I'm beginning to think you guys actually like to see these type of posts flame up. I really love this website, but this is not the place for politics - period.

For Plain Jane:

I am engaged to an Arab and find it totally heinous that you are using that word as a negative. Clearly you've not met many Arabs. I have. All of them lovely, peaceful, family people. Unlike yourself, obviously.

Actually I find everything you say heinous.

Thank Allah your side lost, you loser! Eat it!

HA HA HA!

I remember that my grandparents used to have a poster of John F. Kennedy in their home. My grandfather also had a styrofoam campaign hat that me and my brother and sister destroyed as children. Too bad, it would probably be worth a bit today.

Hate is a parasite, Plain Jane. And you have been devoured to the bone.

I am with you ldevere.

It's Nov 6th people. Get on with your lives.

I do understand people who say they want political talk omitted from posts and comments on the site. But, like it or not, the US election is a topic that has consumed the rapt attention of an entire country (if not the world) for the past couple days, and it would be almost surreal to pretend that something monumental in terms of this country and its history just didn't occur.

Personally I have been overwhelmed by the renewed pride I have felt from everyone across the country and world due to the results of Tuesday. This makes these hate-filled and ill-informed comments seem even more idiotic, offensive, and petty in comparison.

i love how people used to have JFK/Pope John Paul pics on their walls - and we learned some families have MLK pics too. it's awesome! it was in this spirit that AT posted this post. not to start a political discussion, although that was pretty entertaining. talking about decorating with your fave posters isn't political!

Way to drink the kool-aid, plane jane.

When I lived in Japan my roommates and I had a giant poster of then-Prime Minster Koizumi in our kitchen. There was no political or aesthetic motivation behind it, though; we just thought it was funny.

It's amazing. All you have to do is give plain jane, et al. a little rope* and look what they do with it.

Anyway, I've tried to keep campaign memorabilia in the past, but always ultimately threw it out. It's really just clutter. But I do like the idea of the retro aspects of hanging a framed picture of our new president-elect. I think there is or was an AT Chicago contributor who had a small graphic of Obama hanging above her(?) bed. Maybe I'll try something like that.


*In this case, a blog post about what to do with campaign memorabilia.

Hey it's your home go for it, just please keep it out of the guest bedroom.