Redstate

Posted at 8:01am on Jun. 24, 2008 Man and Superman ... and Man

The Incredible Reversible Man

By absentee

Senator Obama is Superman. He is the hero of the age. A post-modern poster boy, Obama is post-everything: post-racial, post-partisan, post-pastors, and post-primaries. He is black and white, and he is Muslim and Christian. He is Liberal and Conservative, American and African. He is man and he is woman.

Senator Obama is not merely Superman, though. He is supernormal, as well as paranormal and even extra normal. The halo and chest-"S" imagery embraced by the campaign and their familiars in the media illustrate this in post-religious pop splendor. He is the evolved man. Also Sprach Obama. So say we all.

Such is the myth of the man as it stands today. The primary trials have ended, the ascension has begun.

The veneer of post-perfection is, however, imperfect, and beneath the cape and halo the other Senator Obama is glimpsed. Of late the glimpses have been more frequent and apparent, as the surety of destined enthronement has reduced the trepidation of his inner Hulk. His sainthood is not yet complete, and when still this side of paradise, the enraptured can yet return to rationality through rage.

Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles | The Cult Of Barack Obama — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:46pm on Jun. 21, 2008 "Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

In one of the more shockingly presumptuous acts I have ever witnessed in Presidential politics, a non-incumbent candidate for the Presidency of the United States has actually taken the time to design a seal for himself that resembles the Great Seal of the United States and the Seal of the President of the United States.

Consider me officially gobsmacked. Bear in mind that all of this means (a) someone proposed this idea to the top levels of the Obama campaign, (b) the top levels of the Obama campaign agreed that it was a good idea, (c) the candidate himself may have had a hand in designing and tweaking the logo, (d) someone with a knowledge of Latin was sought out in order to translate "Yes, We Can" into the language of the Caesars (repeat that last bit to yourself a time or two to grasp the full significance of how important this matter apparently was to the Obama campaign) and (e) there was no one in the campaign who perhaps nervously cleared his or her throat and piped up with the words "um . . . folks, given all of our concerns about the Imperial Presidency, as articulated during the Bush-Cheney Administration, doesn't anyone else think that it might be . . . er . . . well . . . a little hypocritical for us to be doing this kind of thing?"

What Barack Obama could learn from King Canute has already been noted, but not only has the Obama campaign refused to take note of Canute's modesty, they have transcended their earlier acts of grandiosity (the waters are really going to stop rising because Barack Obama won the Democratic Presidential nomination?) with an act that reveals just how much the Obama campaign resembles a cult of personality. What are we going to have next? A revival of Richard Nixon's idea to make White House guards look like Beefeaters and 19th Century Prussians?

Via e-mail, RedState colleague Dan McLaughlin suggests that perhaps Obama will now move to commission a campaign version of "Hail to the Chief" that can be used at events until the election, after which, Barack Obama can presumably prepare himself to hear the real thing. Of course, I'm not sure that a new interim tune needs to be written--at least not while this song exists:

Or is this little ditty not exultant and obsequious enough?

Relatedly, John McCormack notes that technically, the Davids Axelrod and Plouffe may be risking a stiff fine or a prison sentence. Of course, this will never happen but I can easily find that the Obama campaign has "reproduce[d]" a "likeness of the seals of the President or Vice President, or any substantial part thereof" for a purpose not pertaining to "the official use of the Government of the United States."

Maybe Axelrod and Plouffe want to approach their candidate and ask him--ever so offhandedly, of course--whether his legal skills are rusty. Just in case.

Posted in 2008 | The Cult Of Barack Obama — Comments (44)/ Email this page » / Read More »