The 44th president of the USA has been elected, and it turns out that his name is Barack Obama. On this historic occasion, decorum demands that we take a moment to reflect on what this election means in terms of economics, foreign policy, and race relations in the country at large.

Bah, what fun would that be?

Sam Kennedy has written a solid article about Obama’s spoken position and decisions regarding video games. Despite not touching a gaming console for 30 years or so, the President-elect has shown surprising cognizance of the medium. From television ads targeting potential voting gamers to in-game ads pushing his website, Obama’s presidential campaign showed special attention to our demographic that you don’t normally find outside Jack Thompson.

Unlike the disgraced Florida lawyer, however, Obama’s position on games has proven moderate and reasonably fair. He advocates the self-regulated ESA while emphasizing that more needs to be done to help parents understand what their kids consume. Furthermore, although he points to games as a distraction from school and other responsibilities, he places responsibility on parents to teach their kids to make good time management decisions.

So what does this all mean for the next four years in gaming? The industry isn’t likely to suddenly get any artistic funding, but it’s unlikely to suffer censure without just cause. Go read Kennedy’s detailed article and see if you agree.

Although the DSi may not be the revolutionary leap that investors or gamers could hope, 1up has posted a hands-on evaluation of the Japan release of the new handheld. It’s pretty long as a 30-minute video, but we’ve detailed the novel highlights below (check here for the old stuff).

Smoothing out the experience: Owners of the original DS and the DS Lite make constant use of the power switch. Any time you change settings, swap game cartridges, or use the download play function, you have to power the system down to return to the main menu. The DSi will function more like the Xbox 360 dashboard, and rarely requires a restart. Functions are hot-swappable, and the power button now functions as a reset button as well. It’s not a huge change, but it makes the device more useable overall.

Real-time Camera Work: The DSi’s camera might not be particularly impressive as an image capture tool, but it’s a surprisingly smart image distortion tool. The DSi’s image manipulation software operates on the digital information stream before you capture any images. Unlike, say, Photoshop, where you edit static information to correct artifacts, the DSi’s image manipulation software lets you do your tweaking so that you start with the best image possible. Of course, the tools aren’t terribly powerful, but it’s a spiffy inversion of the way things are normally done.

Face Facts: The camera is also good at picking out faces and facial features. Even in poor light and unfavorable angles, the camera can accurately tack a pair of cartoon sunglasses over your eyes or a pair of wax lips over your mouth. Although that’ll be interesting for about seven seconds, it does mean the the DSi stands a good chance of being a successful EyeToy clone. Better still, its portability may make it the life of the public-embarrassment party!

The Incredible Shrinking DS: Losing the GBA slot seems to have made a difference, because the DSi appears to be even lighter than the Lite. This is good news for your carpal tunnel, but bad news in case of a strong breeze.

It’s still not looking like it’ll be worth swapping your existing lite for a new DSi (unless you’re made of disposable income), but the improved usability and possible new gameplay may well justify it as the preferred alternative for fresh purchases.

Edit: Oof, it looks like the battery life has taken a hit that’s measured in hours, though. There’s a portable caveat for you.