OK, this is making a whole lot more sense now. Possibly solving the mystery that has perplexed the technology world, Microsoft blogger Steve Clayton points out that the company made special-edition Zunes for the Democratic National Convention.

Of course! That explains it. Now we know how Barack Obama ended up with a Microsoft music player as his digital companion on that treadmill next to Philadelphia City Paper writer Neal Santos this week. I mean, what else could it possibly be? Surely Obama didn't buy the thing!

In all seriousness, it seems plausible, in a variety of ways.

According to this auction blurb, the Zunes came "loaded with exclusive DNC media content." Presumably Microsoft stuck some songs on there, too. That would explain how Obama would be working the Zune. It wouldn't matter that he has an incompatible computer -- a Mac rather than a Windows PC -- because he wouldn't ever need to connect the device to it. He'd just listen to the preloaded content.

Reader "Alanyvr" pointed out on our earlier post that Obama could be dual-booting his Mac into Windows to sync. But I seriously doubt the soon-to-be Leader of the Free World (or his people) would waste time loading Parallels or Boot Camp in OS X just to use a Zune.

In case you're not familiar with the background here, Microsoft launched "the Zune experience" -- including PC software, music service and portable music device -- with much fanfare two years ago. In the process, the company threw a wrench into the tiny non-iPod segment of the industry, by shifting away from its previous model of providing software and services for music devices from many manufacturers.

Two years later, the Zune is still to the iPod what Microsoft's Live Search is to Google. In political terms, it's what Dennis Kucinich is to Obama.

At any rate, I'm going to be clinging to this new theory on the Obama-Zune thing until we learn otherwise. Anything else would feel just too much like an alternative universe.

Update, Thursday Dec. 11: A reader points out something I inadvertently overlooked. The Wall Street Journal last week quoted an Obama spokesman saying that the president-elect uses an iPod. So either the City Paper's Santos was mistaken, or Obama uses both.