Gauging the popularity of President Barack Obama, who won 75 percent of the Island vote on November 4, cannot be left entirely to the pollsters. One cold Saturday in April on Martha’s Vineyard, witness:
• 8 cars with Obama bumper stickers on a single pass through downtown Oak Bluffs
• 1 dinner party guest wearing an Obama campaign button
• 1 (2 earlier in the month) Facebook user in my Island network with a profile picture featuring Obama
• And in the window of Louisa Gould Gallery in Vineyard Haven: a portrait of Barack Obama that Louisa digitally painted (from a public photo released last fall) and entitled Hope.
So the Vineyard Obameter indicates the aura about the new president is still aglow. If the first family does vacation on the Vineyard this summer, as has been reported, the heat will only increase.