Today Geoff Fox tipped me off to something ironic: the website for Republican congressional candidate Daria Novak is using a WordPress theme I designed back in 2008 for Obama supporters.
What’s interesting is that soon after Geoff made the observation, Novak’s web team removed all references to Obama from the CSS and templates, even changing the name of the /theme/ directory.
Keep in mind, Novak is a candidate who previously said:
Obama is the most dangerous official in our history, in my opinion. He is a globalist, an elitist and appears to be trying to drag this great nation down until it resembles a third world country.
But to look at the bigger picture, should the theme out of context really matter? Geoff wrote:
I knew Ms Novak (or any Republican candidate) wouldn’t want to be associated with anything having anything to do with Barack Obama no matter how tenuous the connection…What she was using was well designed and suited her (and I assume approved by her)–it just made a positive reference to Obama.
Why does that mere fact make it bad?
Fair enough. No reason design elements from a Pro-Obama theme can’t reasonably be remixed for an anti-Obama candidate’s purposes. The result is invisible to most visitors, save for those like Geoff who peek at the source code.
But if the point is to remove yourself from any Obama associations, why not choose a different WordPress theme altogether? Why knowingly choose a widely-distributed theme that plenty of bloggers already associate with Obama?
As Geoff mentions, it shouldn’t matter necessarily—but evidently it did to Novak’s web team, who made extra efforts to cover it up.
9:18 pm
That’s very odd. A theme out of context shouldn’t matter, but of course it does. We humans are creatures of emotion. It’s strange that they chose that theme, though, when there are so many out there that could suit the purpose without backend ties to Obama. They would have had to customize it, too, so they KNEW it was pro-obama. Somebody making a sassy joke behind the scenes would be my bet.
11:13 pm
“They would have had to customize it, too, so they KNEW it was pro-obama”
That’s what’s puzzling. The theme is GPL and I have zero problem with it being used out of context. Is this particular context ironic? Sure. But hell, a red white and blue theme is potentially suitable for any political candidate.
Just one example of something that was removed:
If they felt their site was sullied by mentions of Obama that are only visible to web geeks – why use an Obama theme at all?
9:29 pm
Wow, talk about much ado about nothing. It’s a GPL theme, and well-designed. The candidate’s use of the theme should be taken as a compliment, rather than some manufactured “gotcha” attempt.
But then, Obama supporters don’t really have much else to grasp at the moment, I suppose.
11:00 pm
“the theme should be taken as a compliment”
It certainly is. In fact the theme has been used in lots of interesting ways. I don’t think the context should matter.
Which is why I said,
The point is not that they used it – that’s not worth a post. It’s that they changed it after Obama references were pointed out by Geoff.
11:09 pm
But, it was worth a post for Geoff, no? And if not for his post, none of us would be discussing it.
As for the changes: why not? Might as well re-name the CSS declarations, so as not to give ammo to those with nothing better to argue about the campaign.
11:19 pm
“As for the changes: why not?”
See my response to Matt. As for “why not”, I think a better question is, why use the theme at all if Obama-by-association even at the most granular level is so objectionable?
This is still odd – we’re saying the same thing. The theme out of context is perfectly fine. It’s the extra lengths to change stuff like CSS names that is noteworthy.
Whereas this just sounds ad-hominem and unnecessary.
8:08 am
Nice theme.It doesn’t matter who use it after all.
3:12 am
@Chip: You’re right. This is a dismal time for the United States. Can’t you tell how ashamed every one is of the presidency and the administration?
But then, fast forward to reality……Actually, @Chip, you’re a bore and you have a terrible, permanently scarring name. You also have no hair (except for your back and buttocks) and you constantly reintroduce arguments used in other political discussions that are inappropriate for modern adult conversations (gotcha!).
News flash: there is no such thing as an “Obama supporter”. Supporters are only needed when criminals attempt to pass as executives and vice versa. The majority of the United States recognizes that our current president is not likely a psychopath and is thankful for that. The saddest part is that it took the largest voter mobilization movement in history to elect him.
@Chip, I hate you and all that you stand for. The fact that you stand for nothing is what I hate the most. Go away. Forever.
8:18 am
Well, this comment certainly speaks for itself. Well done, raising the level of discourse.
Typical.
11:10 pm
P.S. I love your styling of threaded comments and blockquotes. Very nice!
1:12 pm
First, the theme in no way represents “Obama-by-association”, since Obama himself is in no way associated with the theme. The theme is associated with the promotion of Obama, but not with Obama himself. Thus, the premise of “ironic” use of the theme is rather unfounded.
Second, Novak’s website administrators did not “unknowingly” use the theme, as they would have had to replace the obvious Obama imagery, RSS links, etc. Thus, the premise of “unknowing” use is also rather unfounded.
Third, Novak’s website administrators obviously weren’t bothered by the name of the theme, or its original purpose, as they initially made no attempt to hide the theme name. It was only after someone decided to channel his inner Charles Johnson and play “throbbing memo” with Novak’s theme, thereby attempting to cast the use of the Probama theme as a potential “problem” for Novak (“My problem… and now possibly her problem…“), boldly predicting that the campaign would replace the site’s theme, and writing a follow-up titled “The Probama Saga“.
Fourth, Novak’s website administrators clearly only changed the theme name in response to such a specious attempt to gin up her use of the Probama theme into some sort of controversy. While Novak herself commented that she appreciated the publicity the matter brought to her campaign, at some point such nonsense becomes a distraction. Thus, the only reason that changing the theme name and CSS declarations is noteworthy is because someone who apparently had nothing better to do tried to create a controversy where none existed.
So, yes: I stand by my assertion that Obama supporters apparently have nothing better at which to grasp – or else we would be discussing something more substantive, and wouldn’t be subjected to discussing this non-story.
By the way, why is a declaration such as h3#obamablog used to begin with? That’s a rather non-semantic declaration.
7:26 pm
Maybe I’m missing the point, but is seems the reuse of your theme without attribution violates the spirit of the GNU GPL License.
I have zero knowledge of the law, but if you read item one under Terms and Conditions in GPL 2.0, (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php), it’s seems clear you can’t just strip the copyright notice from a work and re brand it as your private work.
It seems a tad bit unethical, to say the least.
4:27 pm
Currently using the theme on a scouting site. I’m not a CSS maven and am trying to figure out how to reduce the spacing between menu elements so that they all fit on a single row.
6:42 am
looks very good -