Politically WILD Barack Obama
Politically WILD Barack Obama playing cards, USA, 2008.

Produced at the time of the 2008 US Presidential election by Newt’s Playing Cards, Ohio, this humorous pack of cards features Barack Obama and many other politicians and political celebrities drawn as WILD! Animals. The 2-10 pip cards contain hilarious animal comics portraying the head of each politician attached to the animal he/she represents, with comments from the (now defunct) Politically WILD blog – positive about the Obama supporters, and negative about the Republican opposition. The aces feature a different “VOTE OBAMA” miniature poster for the 2008 election, while the court cards cover various “hot issues” such as health care, abortion, gay marriage, the War in Iraq, Iran and gun control. There are 2 jokers (wild cards) and 2 cards advertising the publisher. See the box►



Above: Politically WILD Barack Obama playing cards published by Newt’s Playing Cards, Ohio, 2008.

By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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