Pride Goeth Before the Fall

When Obama steps out from his temple tonight – or, perhaps, simply materializes in front of it, like an anthropomorphic blob of ectoplasm – I suspect that the only physical risk to him is that a sudden gust of wind may disintegrate his ethereal manifestation. The risk to his presidential bid, however, is considerably greater.

As Currency Lad points out, B.O. will be accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s epochal “I Have a Dream” speech. The contrast couldn’t be greater. On the one hand, the martyr to civil rights and a passionate advocate of the color-blind society, a man who braved the threats of white-robed terrorists in order to appeal for simple fair play; on the other, the virtual apotheosis of a racial huckster, who built his early career, not in opposition to, but with the help of, unrepentant terrorists of a different stripe, and who would have us believe that he slept through every sermon preached by his racist pastor for twenty years. The contrast will, of course, be even more pronounced as Obama surrounds himself with the trappings of a stage-Olympus.

I hope they have Michelle pop out of a giant clam shell; then the mythological construct will be complete.