Matt Wright
@mattwright.bsky.social
1K followers 751 following 1.7K posts
Restaurant owner in Austin, dad, hoops fan. Main interests: #rstats, data viz, Power BI, cheaper housing, Wem-V-P. (Not a frequent poster.)
Restaurant owner in Austin, dad, hoops fan. Main interests: #rstats, data viz, Power BI, cheaper housing, Wem-V-P. (Not a frequent poster.)
![In February 2007, Barack Obama left the stage at Austin's Auditorium Shores and waded into the crowd of 20,000.
Someone in the giddy throng pressed a black cowboy hat into his hands.
As luck, and a quick shutter finger, would have it. Matt Wright, a 26-year freelance photographer who was the Observer's blogger at the time, was looking at Obama through a telephoto lens about 30 yards away as the scene unfolded. "He had this grin on his face, plunked it on his head, and tipped it once," Wright said. "It was kind of mock serious."
A few hours later, Wright posted the photo to the Observer's blog, writing, "As (Obama] exited the podium, people were practically running. trying to find a way backstage to have their picture taken with him. Crazy stuff."
The indelible Image-simultaneously capturing
Obama's poise and playfulness-quickly became an Internet phenomenon. Wright said he realized the photo had gone viral when the next day someone showed him a mass e-mail headlined "There's a New Sheriff in Town." Over the past year, the cowboy Obama photo has cropped up on Atlantic Monthly's Web site, as well as in the Austin American-Statesman, an ad for a cowboy hat company in Denver, a museum exhibit called "Cowboys and Presidents," and on YouTube, in a video featuring mariachis singing an Obama themed corrido.
Since his brief Austin giddy-up, Obama seems to have steered clear of cowboy accoutrements.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters in August, "Barack Obama doesn't wear cowboy boots, doesn't wear a cowboy hat-because it wouldn't look right." We know better. -Forrest Wilder](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mcirit3dx4qo3xhjli3wsy6n/bafkreiciwitvlo4mv2xmdw24i4kdntjlvu4xex7n6ad7i7oxtal4g36gcu)
![“It's time to defund AISD and criminally investigate Superintendent Matias Segura,"
Hall said in a social media post.
During an interview with the conservative nonprofit Texas Values, Hall said taxpayers in his district were concerned about state funding going into a district where "instead of focusing on education they are focusing on gender identity and celebrating pride and things like that."
"[lf] we don't stop it in Austin ISD, we are going to see more of this across the state," Hall said. "We need to make a statement and set an example. We will not put up with you breaking the law."
Hall stated that AISD was not complying with Senate Bill 12. The law passed in 2025 and prohibits "diversity, equity and inclusion duties," including activities that reference gender or sexual orientation, at K-12 public](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mcirit3dx4qo3xhjli3wsy6n/bafkreiabay5shu3lzn4glon46mdcwrt67264iqqu37cdw5psnu4bmyersq)
![1. Mets Trade
[picture of -mix]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mcirit3dx4qo3xhjli3wsy6n/bafkreic3iuzihe36d7eafammwi2s7pjzpstyfaw3fcfkon427yp3upleau)
