These days, everything is about Obama. You walk into a restaurant and the next table is yakking about him. From his good looks to his promises to his speechwriter and even to how his body looks like! A friend of mine who just got back from Ethiopia reports that there are banners of support for him hanging all over the airport there! Back in the states, there are banner ads that flash his face, Google-looking sweatshirts and even chocolates with a cheap representation of him? Geez…

Well, I decided to compile a collection of random facts that have been thrown around lately, especially since Obama-mania rages on.

FACT 1. Obama’s official presidential portrait was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

And from the embedded photo metadata, here are the settings used by the Chief Official White House photographer (What a LOOONG title!) Pete Souza.

ISO: 100
F-stop: f/10
Shutter speed: Not listed
Focal length: 105mm
Adjusted on a Mac with Adobe Photoshop CS3

FACT 2. Cowell vs Obama – and Cowell wins! Based on the TV viewership comparison between the American President and American Idol at the same slot, it looks like ratings swing in favor of the IDOL instead. There were apparently 22.4 million viewers for American Idol over 12.6 million who followed the Inaugural Night concert special.

However, in terms of presidential popularity, Obama was second to only Reagen for the actual inaugural ceremony. Obama had 8.1 million more viewers than Bill Clinton’s inaugural and a whopping 14.5 million more than that of George Bush’s.

FACT 3. Barack Obama’s CHIEF speechwriter, Jon Favreau is extremely young, but capable. He is a 27 year old chap who looks like he is still in college. Favreau spends much of his time brainstorming in Starbucks outlets and works the late hours. More on him here.

FACT 4. Obama is FIT. Check out his body as was captured on camera recently. Pretty hot, huh? (Photo: Huffington Post)

FACT 5. Technology-wise, Obama uses an Apple Mac and one of his bad habits is constantly checking his Blackberry (Source: Telegraph)