the newest parlor game in town

With Obama’s exotic background (which, we’re often reminded, is a plus) and in the absence of a core character (or recognizable positive archetype***) that he conveys and pushes out into the world—and, even more important, with its replacement by ingenious campaign tactics and strategy that include “outreach” (via celebrity marketing techniques) to all elements of society, including consumers, instead of just the usual voters, pundits have been forced—or they’re desperate, depending on your point of view—to invest Barack Obama (and the obstacles he faces on his way to the presidency) with meaning.

Phillip Kennicott, deconstructing the prattle about the Temple of Obama, detects racism in an attempt to deny Obama entree into the Old Dead White Guys Hall of Fame.

Closer examination of Obama’s platform (the architectural, not ideological one) suggests some basic neoclassical precedents, including the Oval Office. That may account for part of the criticism he received: It is presumptuous to assume the trappings of the White House before earning the keys to it. This is hubris, the Greek term for dangerous pride.

It’s an idea that Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz emphasized by slyly comparing Obama to a deus ex machina — the divine figure at the end of a Greek play who sets the world in order.

“It’s only appropriate,” Diaz said, “that Barack Obama would descend down from the heavens and spend a little time with us mere mortals.” …

But there’s another architectural reference that may have greater resonance. While neoclassicism was the default architectural style across the United States, it became particularly associated with the aristocratic architecture of the antebellum South. Obama wasn’t just borrowing ancient precedents, he was unconsciously recalling — and appropriating — the look of Tara and dozens of other (real) plantation houses.

Is race involved in the criticism of Obama’s “temple”? Perhaps. [e.a.]

Perhaps not! Why make of this more than it was? a huge self-congratulatory party for the Democratic Party—with staging by the same dude who works with Britney Spears! with fireworks!—and, consequently with a great deal for observers of the culture to mock, or to detail with dispassion.

Left, Hillary Clinton; right, Michelle Obama. (Left, Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; right, Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

The crazy thing is that even as they’re shrewdly planning this visually pleasing extravaganza and taking all the spontaneity out of it, when it unfolds, it is still a momentous occasion—especially for African Americans—and for all Americans who care about equal rights and about creating a more perfect union.

But you run a political campaign with the social and political and media culture you’ve got, not the one you wish you had.

Very, very interesting times.

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*** It’s hard enough to run for president as a lefty law prof—just ask Bill Clinton. But a black lefty law prof? Well, no wonder Obama needed a Narrator!