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We are just 5 days away from the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America and things continue to progress as our nation prepares to make the transition from one leader to the next. Earlier this morning a Senate panel voted to approve Hillary Rodham Clinton as our nation’s new Secretary of State (a full vote on her confirmation by the Senate should come next Tuesday) and late yesterday the official presidential portrait of Barack Obama was released to the media. Obama‘s portrait is the first ever to be photographed digitally:

The Office of the President-Elect today released the new official portrait for Barack Obama, who will take the oath of office on Tuesday. New White House photographer Pete Souza captured the image on a digital camera, a first for an official presidential portrait. Last week, The Smithsonian Institution museum announced it acquired the iconic red, white and blue collage of Obama with the word “Hope” appearing at the bottom. It became one of the most memorable images of the presidential race. The art will be hung at the U.S. National Portrait Gallery before the Inauguration, the museum said. Curators at the museum also announced that the caption for the official portrait of President George W. Bush would be tweaked today. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, had objected to wording in the caption that said Bush’s time in office was “marked by a series of catastrophic events” including “the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” In a Jan. 7 letter to the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sanders said the notion the terrorist attacks were linked to or led to the Iraq war has been widely debunked. Gallery Director Martin Sullivan wrote back Monday to say the label will be revised and will delete the words “led to.”

And so … as one leader is slowing being pushed out one door, the next is being welcomed thru another. I believe that all of the previous presidential portraits were oil paintings (or some other fancy sort of portraits) which will hang in stark contrast to the crisp new digital photo of Obama. While I am all for new technology use and fully support Obama‘s presidency as a medium for presidential firsts, I think I’d still prefer if his presidential portrait was done in the traditional oil painting format. Something about the traditional nature appeals to me. Still, Obama‘s election as president heralded many firsts and will, I’m sure, bring more firsts to come. I am VERY excited for next week’s inauguration. Just 5 more days …

UPDATE: Pink reader Tim informs me that this official portrait is the one that will hang in government offices and a traditionally painted portrait (that will hang in the White House) has been commissioned. Love it!!

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