Is Obama the new Bob Marley?

Last night I went onto the iTunes Store because I had heard that Obama's Weekly Radio Address is available as podcast. Being the lazy/resourceful person I am, I typed "obama" into the iTunes search window. I expected to see a lot of Daily Show clips, official footage, news shows, and political podcasts. However, what I *didn't* expect to see, was all the songs about Barack Obama!

It seems a lot of rap artists have something to say about Obama, which is not surprising. But so do artists from from almost every other genre as well- country, pop, "world music" such as Calypso, Soca, and even Congolese! And it doesn't stop there- reggaeton, mariachi... Seriously- mariachi! But the most popular genre of Obama songs appears to be Reggae, which I find quite interesting. And I'm not talking about some piddley no-name indie artists either. That is, unless you consider Cocoa Tea and Steel Pulse "little". (For those not into Reggae, these two artists are about as A-List as it gets!) I then sauntered onto YouTube and BitTorrent to find even more artists singing about the 44th President of the United States.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I am not aware of any other U.S. president that has had even *one* song written about them (not counting the ones that mock them are string along sound bytes to a techno beat), not to mention a whole boat load. Everyone seems to love Obama (well, not everyone, but you know what I mean). Given the rock star treatment Barack already received from the media and everyday people, and I now as I've discovered, the music community as well, this all leads to my conclusion/question/speculation-- Is Obama the new Bob Marley?

My co-worker mentioned that this pro-Obama scene we're experiencing is very much like when John Kennedy was elected but of course, with the 21st century twist. But I'm not old enough to remember that, so if you are old enough to share your own insights, please feel free to do so!