Barack Obama has attained a historic achievement in election to the Presidency. No, I am not talking about being the first African-American or Hawaiian-born President. He is the first nerd President.

He collects Spiderman and Conan the Barbarian comics. He has read every Harry Potter book. He is also a Star Trek fan. Leonard Nimoy recounts that when he met Obama, Obama gave him a Vulcan salute.

His favorite drink is black forest cherry iced tea. His favorite snack is chocolate-peanut protein bars. At a stag party for his half-sister’s fiance, he left before the stripper came. He plays Scrabble and rarely drinks alcohol. He once dreamed of being an architect.

Perhaps the nerdness is the most amazing part of Obama’s election to the Presidency. American voters have traditionally voted for the common man over the intellectual. Adlai Stevenson, a proclaimed intellectual, was blasted by Dwight Eisenhower in two elections. Michael Dukakis’ campaign failed because he told farmers to diversify and plant crops like Belgian endive. Then he drove around in a tank with helmet on looking like a funny intellectual trying to be a G.I grunt. His opponent? None other than pork-rind eating George H.W. Bush.

Clinton won because he appeared as an average guy. George W. Bush acted more like an average American than Al Gore.

So what happened this election? John McCain was clearly the non-nerd candidate of the election.

Instead, we got a Harvard-educated, book-toting, multisyllable-speaking nerd. Amazingly, Americans picked the political equivalent of Urkel.

Obama is supposedly agonizing that he must give up his Blackberry because of security concerns and record-keeping laws. Can there be any doubt that he is a nerd?

For the first time since the likes of intellectuals like Jefferson, Madison and Adams, it looks like the American people actually want someone who understands what is going on in the Oval Office. Are times so bad that we knee-jerked to the opposite of a Texas cowboy? Or maybe the Internet has changed America. Hunched over a computer, staring at endless screens of internet blather, is about as nerdy as one can get. That is the new America.

Excuse me, I have to log off and eat some pork rinds.