Barack Obama and Jeff Nelson

Who is Jeff Nelson?!?!???

won an election with his name alone...on a campaign for "change"...

watching it now for the first time ever, never heard of it...but it is eerily familiar...

Except Pres Obama doesn't have a flat top and Johnson doesn't have an elitist wife.

Yeah I don't know what the "Nelson" is all about...

That is a LOW BLOW. You MUST be a Republican. Actually, the Charles S. Dutton character reminds me of Obama. A moral man who stands his ground. The Lane Smith character, however, reminds me of Cheney. Low down, crooked, immoral, sneaky and full of profanity!

There are some striking similarities:
- Both Barack and Thomas had a less-than-normal family life. Barack's father abandoned his family, while Thomas' demoralized his son and treated him like he was nothing.
- Barack had a bit of a rebellious youth. We can assume Thomas did as well, and in his case, it extended far into adulthood when he became a professional con artist. They escaped these less-than-stellar lifestyles by (eventually in one case) entering politics and (eventually in the other case) working hard to help his fellow man.
- Yes, they both campaigned on "Change." There's no escaping that Thomas' campaign on Change was used as a punchline in the film. Obviously, he never really articulated it on the trail, mainly because he didn't make any speeches on the trail and ran as an unseen figure. Barack made constant speeches explaining what "Change" he was campaigning on. Whether he has fulfilled any of that Change or not is a topic for another discussion.

Those similarities (not to mention, I guess, skin color) are few and far between. There are much more differences:
- Thomas was elected into the House on a third-party ticket. Barack never served in Congress, just the Illinois Senate and US Senate, always as a Democrat.
- Barack went to Harvard University. Thomas, presumably, did not.
- Thomas was a Floridian, whereas Barack was a Hawaiian-turned-Illinoisan.
- Barack is a family man with a wife and kids. Thomas entered Congress without a girlfriend.

The fact this comparison is even being made says so much about this country.

The fact this comparison is even being made says so much about this country.