Is Obama The 'Most Famous Living Person Ever'?

An article at Vanity Fair by former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers posits that President Barack Obama may well be the most famous living person in the history of our planet:

I'm not trying to induce an acid flashback to John Lennon's infamous 1966 comment, "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus." But whether you measure fame in terms of saturation or sheer numbers, it seems indisputable to me that more people know at least something about the new American president than anyone alive, at this point-or any-in the planet's existence.

Myers rightly points out that computers have helped catapult Obama past previous most-famous candidates such as Princess Diana, her old boss, Bill Clinton, Adolf Hitler, and The Beatles. Simply put, it's hard to be a true ostrich in this day and age. But another reason for Obama-mania is the man's diverse background, by which three nations (and the regions where they reside) can legitimately claim a piece of him as their own--Kenya, Indonesia, and the United States. Add to this Obama's mixed race as well as his deceased father's Muslim faith, and you've got something of a perfect storm in terms of inclusive curiosity.

I always thought the way McCain tried to hit Obama for being famous was a losing strategy. True, though being famous is not always the same as deserving to be so, the fact is that Obama's rise in popular consciousness would not have happened if people hadn't liked what the man was all about. Though Beatlemania (like all manifestations of meteoric celebrity) unleashed irrational, sometimes mindless devotion to the band, if those first recordings hadn't been damn good, nobody would have turned up at JFK back in '64.

Well, here's the obligatory cocktail party poll. Despite whether you think the attention is right or wrong: