Candidate behind a Curtain

CONNOISSEURS are already inscribing Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign into the annals of political theater. From the point of view of spectacle-prescinding, I mean, from any question of content-it is difficult not to admire the disciplined seamlessness Team O has constructed. From the oratory to the haberdashery and beyond, you sense the calculating hand of a seasoned political dramaturge. That dark suit. That white shirt, open at the neck or, when formal occasion demands, pinioned by the signature pale blue tie. What Obama wears are not so much suits as costumes. His message is communicated less by his speeches than by his slogans, or perhaps “mantras” would be more accurate. His overall image is not so much the projection of a personality as the coefficient of his theatrical props: the logos, the posters, and that late if unlamented pseudo presidential seal.

Given the constraints of present-day democratic society, I doubt Leni Riefenstahl could have done much better. What we’re dealing with, though, is less The Triumph of the Will than a spoiled yuppie’s version of the Children’s Crusade. “Vero possumus” reads the legend on the Big O pseudo presidential seal. It doesn’t have quite the ring of “E pluribus unum,” but it does contain a reassuring echo of Bob the Builder: “Can we build it? Yes we can!”

About the Author

Roger Kimball

Mr. Kimball is publisher of Encounter Books, and co-editor and publisher of The New Criterion.

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CONNOISSEURS are already inscribing Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign into the annals of political theater. From the point of view of spectacle-prescinding, I mean, from any question of content-it is difficult not to admire the disciplined seamlessness Team O has constructed. From the oratory to the haberdashery and beyond, you sense the calculating hand of a seasoned political dramaturge. That dark suit. That white shirt, open at the neck or, when formal occasion demands, pinioned by the signature pale blue tie. What Obama wears are not so much suits as costumes. His message is communicated less by his speeches than by his slogans, or perhaps “mantras” would be more accurate. His overall image is not so much the projection of a personality as the coefficient of his theatrical props: the logos, the posters, and that late if unlamented pseudo presidential seal.

Given the constraints of present-day democratic society, I doubt Leni Riefenstahl could have done much better. What we’re dealing with, though, is less The Triumph of the Will than a spoiled yuppie’s version of the Children’s Crusade. “Vero possumus” reads the legend on the Big O pseudo presidential seal. It doesn’t have quite the ring of “E pluribus unum,” but it does contain a reassuring echo of Bob the Builder: “Can we build it? Yes we can!”