Now that the Clinton-Obama divisiveness line has been definitively laid to rest, the MSM's story du jour -- flogged incessantly, of course, by Republicans -- has shifted to Obama's presumptuousness in staging his acceptance speech tonight at, horrors, a football stadium.
Why, oh why, our oh-so-concerned journalists want to know, would he even risk turning off voters by appearing as a
vanity candidate with charisma and a heavy dose of arrogance, but little substance and not enough seasoning for the White House?
And, to top it all off, Obama has gone and outfitted a stage set on the football field that have become
the fodder for much merriment yesterday, as aerial photos of the stage set made them look like a papier-mache Acropolis.
Republicans, who have taken to ridiculing Obama as "The One," mocked the "Temple of Obama," and advised reporters on what styles of togas they might wear to the event.
More on the flip...
Democrats respond to the "Temple of Obama" charge by reminding journalists that Bush accepted his 2004 nomination on a stage dominated by "faux neoclassical columns." They also point out that John Kennedy accepted the 1960 nomination at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Still, it's the columns thing that people really seem to be worrying about. A very concerned political scientist in New Hampshire worries to the Boston Globe:
This does put [Obama] in an awkward setting where it's this, 'I'm coming from Mount Olympus to save you' sort of thing - you have to be very careful with that imagery.
and a Republican strategist helpfully points out that columns seem out of place:
I just don't understand how it mixes with the theme of change... I would have expected something more high-tech.
Hmmm, a "papier-mache Acropolis"... I wonder. This is what the Acropolis looks like:
(public domain image taken from wikimedia)
Now, let's see, what day is today? Oh, yeah, it's August 28, 2008. Something important happened on August 28 once, didn't it? I'm working those neurons as hard as I can, but sure enough I do seem to remember something important happened, I guess it was forty-five years ago. Hey, here's a picture of it!
(uploaded from the Library of Congress's America's Library website, sourced to "March on Washington, August 28, 1963." 1963. U.S. News and World Report Photograph Collection. The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, Library of Congress.)
Is Dr. King standing in front of a colonnade as he gives his historic "I Have a Dream" speech (video here), forty-five years ago today?
We all remember Dr. King's speech that day. It's the one that confirmed his status as a national hero, the one that led directly to the Civil Rights Act, the one that eventually led to the establishment of a national holiday in his honor. It's the speech where he said:
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
Here's a broad angle of the Lincoln Memorial:
Notice the resemblance to the Acropolis?
You think Obama might be quoting that speech this evening, or referencing it in some way, as the first black man ever nominated by a major party to be its candidate for president, as the concrete embodiment of Dr. King's Dream made into reality? You think those columns behind him might evoke for us the columns of the Lincoln Memorial, a building that itself was built explicitly to evoke the columns of the Athenian Acropolis as a monument to the world's first democracy?
Do you think there might possibly be any historical significance to the place and the stage?
Nah, the GOP tells the MSM that it's all about Obama's arrogance and elitism. And like the good stenographers they are, America's best journalists dutifully report to the American people that Obama "risks" alienating the public by creating a "temple" to his own ego.
And if the stenographers tell me that, then it must be so...
Update: Here are a couple of different perspectives of the actual set, which make it clear it doesn't actually resemble the Acropolis at all. That does affect the thesis of the diary, but not the ultimate idiocy of the media in blindly repeating GOP talking points.