Last week, we were wondering how seriously to take a magazine cover depicting Obama dressed as a Muslim, idolizing Osama bin Laden, standing with his militant wife and watching the American flag burn in the Oval Office fireplace.
This week, we are being asked by John McCain’s campaign to consider the depth of the media’s “love affair” with Obama.
This is, for better or for worse, the Harvey Dent effect. “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” the character says in “The Dark Knight.”
Without resurrecting Hillary Clinton’s unfortunate misstatement, Obama has lived long enough to see himself become the villain – an unfortunately frequent and easily earned title in the Democratic Party, which finds itself more open to self loathing than the Republicans, who tend to accept their fate with the patience of Job (“The ways of George Bush cannot be known to men,” we imagine them telling themselves).
Or, as a reporter for The New Yorker found, Obama’s problems – notwithstanding the magazine’s cover – “stem from a realization among his supporters that superheroes don’t become President; politicians do.”
This doesn’t mean he is any less of a man, but it certainly ruins the image many had of him – which apparently involved a lot of washing of feet, casting out of money changers and bringing hope to the generations.
“Is there really room for a white knight in out society or is Barak doomed to become a villain or a monster because the world corrupts all it’s heroes?” DC Comics message board user cookylamoo asked.
It’s not that Obama has fallen or anything, it’s just that he was never on a higher plane.
