The Other Obama Effect

The New York Times posted this story, detailing study findings which suggest that the mere presence of Obama in the White House has raised test-taking confidence in African-American schoolkids. An interesting premise.

I've been experiencing my own Obama Effect. It works thusly:

1. Head to the gym, see that elliptical machine is out of order.
2. Use treadmill.
3. Post-workout, take another look at the elliptical machine and before I can stop myself, think, Why is that still broken? There's a new guy in charge, isn't there? We need to get with the program and start fixing things around here!

I mean, really.