Will Obama end up on Mount Rushmore? — RT America
Tags Politics , History , USA
Immortalized as a giant granite carving towering over South   Dakota, Obama would always be remembered as the first   African-American president. Nothing he does in the White House   will take away from that fact, which has led thirty percent of   George Washington University professors to believe he will end up   on Mount Rushmore, according to a new survey conducted by The   College Fix.
 “History undoubtedly will accord President Obama a   special place by virtue of being the first African-American   president,” said Prof. Paul Wahlbeck, chair of the political   science department at GW. But although Wahlbeck confidently   acknowledged his belief that Obama will soon join the faces of   George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore   Roosevelt, he said he is also “reluctant to venerate political   leaders while or shortly after they served.”
Two other professors mirrored Wahlbeck’s thoughts, all stating   that it is too early to make plans regarding the addition of   Obama’s face, but that it could happen in the distant future.
“Historical judgments take time to form and Obama is still in   office,” history and public policy professor Edward Berkowitz   told The College Fix. “It could be that he will be one of the   great presidents, worthy of having his likeness carved on a   mountain, but certainly not yet.”
The GW survey size was small, consisting of only 10 respondents,   but the news has nevertheless sparked a debate on whether or not   the current president belongs among the ranks of America’s most   celebrated leaders. Six of the respondents said Obama does not   deserve a place on Mount Rushmore, which has not added a   president since the memorial was completed in 1941. But   while the professors warned that it is too early to worship a president who is still in office, some Americans have already   begun to advocate for Mount Rushmore’s addition of Obama.
A Facebook page titled the “Campaign to Put President Obama on   Mt. Rushmore” already has more than 800 “likes”. The page depicts   an image of Mount Rushmore, with Obama’s face added via   Photoshop. The idea has also been brought up numerous times   throughout Obama’s terms in office.
In November, Huffington Post blogger Bill Lucey examined the   feasibility of adding another head to Mount Rushmore. The U.S.   National Park Service claims that there is no additional room to   add a granite carving to the site, but some organizations   continue to advocate it.
“Mount Rushmore and Mr. Obama are invoked so frequently in the   same sentence that I began to wonder if in fact there is a   movement in place to chisel the 44th president on the South   Dakota mountainside,” Lucey writes.
But even if a 60-foot version of Obama’s head doesn’t end up in   South Dakota, he has already been memorialized on parts of the   American landscape. In Pennsylvania, an international magnet   school was named “The Barack Obama Academy for International   Studies” just two years after he took office. A Florida   street was named “Barack Obama Avenue” in Feb. 2009 and an   Orlando parkway was named “Barack Obama Parkway”.  Across   the US, several other schools have been named after the   president, including elementary and high schools in New Jersey,   New York, Wisconsin, and California. Even though Obama is   unlikely to find himself on Mount Rushmore anytime soon, his name   has already arisen on street signs, parkways and schools, despite   the fact that his presidential legacy may have not yet been   formed.