Michael Arrington doesn’t think this is something the Obama campaign will want to tout; I’m not so sure.

Chinese search engine Baidu worked an image of presidential candidate Barack Obama into their home page logo today, as well as a tribute page about the candidate.

From what we can tell it’s very rare for Baidu to dedicate its home page to an individual, and no other U.S. presidential candidate has been so honored. In short, this is an endorsement of the candidate.

Given the tepid relations between the two countries and general U.S. mistrust of China in general, I suspect that the Obama campaign won’t be reaching out to press to let everyone know about the endorsement.

Sure search engines are censored in China, American jobs are outsourced there, human rights are atrocious there, etc., but won’t the Obama at least mention it as some sort-of sign he can “restore America’s image”?

On the other hand: A TechCrunch commentator writes:

Obama’s campaign team might want to hold off ordering Chinese takeout tonight to celebrate this event.

I clicked on the Baidu graphics of Obama and it took me to a dedicated page for Obama. But I was stunned by the Chinese headline, which reads (translated): “‘Black Kid’ Obama: Everything is possible!”

Heh.