In what certainly qualifies as one of the most bubbleheaded and inept smear attempts, Hillary Clinton's warm-up speaker Machinists Union President R. Thomas Buffenbarger last night in Ohio perhaps landed one of Sen. Barack Obama's most stunningly perceptive endorsements. After calling Obama a "thespian," then sarcastically referring to the junior senator from Illinois as a "wunderkind," he compared Obama to "Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times," according to a report filed today by NBC's Abby Livingston.
Some might not recognize the remarkable compliment hidden here, but it's there. It's buried inside the comparison of Barack Obama to the mythological Janus, after whom the month January is named.
According to Wikipedia:
Janus was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions.Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He was also known as the figure representing time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other ... He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.
I was overcome with laughter upon hearing this hearty endorsement and realizing its idiotic irony. It is quite telling that even Clinton's most ardent supporters can't help themselves in identifying the true agent of change as opposed to their establishment elite.
It is also interesting to note that the month January stands at the portal of our calendar year to oversee the departure of the old year and usher in the new. I am seeing a trend that tells me Janus might just get the chance to provide us this same service in this political year.