Memo To Barry: Ditch The Greek Columns

Memo to Shaun:
All of the significant buildings in Washington D.C. (the White House, the Supreme Court building and the Capitol Building) have Greco-Roman columns as major visible parts of their architecture.

It looks like he's just going for imagery from Washington's Capitol or the White House (TMV's masthead features similar Greek columns). I don't understand how Koppelman associates it with Ancient Greece and even Trinity Broadcasting, but misses that more obvious connection.

(Sound of throat clearing)

The props are ready made for Republican ridicule. The whole god, messiah thingie, no?

The props are ready made for Republican ridicule. The whole god, messiah thingie, no?

I understood your point. I just think that Democrats can't lead their entire political lives in quaking fear of the Big Bad Republicans.

1. Minor point: Elitism! That's the ivory tower image -- do they walk around wearing togas? (And Chris -- do the Dems want any assocation with Washington, really? Few will obediently look at Obama and the columns and say, "Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King, Obama.")

2. Major point: Nuremberg Rally revisited. At least Obama didn't also include Albert Speer's "Cathedral of Light" technique using columns of light, which also come to mind.

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/images/p...

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/zepplichtdom36.jpg

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/zepplichtdom36dr...

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/zepplichtdom1937...

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/zepplichtdom38.jpg


Shaun is right.

Spend the money on fireworks after the speech instead (if Obama is confident).

(Not on a special visit by Madonna and her "Get Stupid" song and video.)

O/T but interesting-Hillary is releasing her delegates.

And Chris -- do the Dems want any assocation with Washington, really?

Aren't the presidential candidates suppose to look, well... ummm... presidential?

And according to this dude the column controversy may be all smoke and no fire anyways... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/27/15948/9...

What wouldn't have been? Late last week, a photo of the convention center showing an silhouette of Colorado's mountains had the Right making manger/Bethlehem jokes (http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2008/08/24/ca...) The only difference here is that some, forgetting what D.C. looks like, have decided to swallow the Right's meme wholesale. Lame.

Presidential, no. Pretentious is more like it. Obama may be getting cocky. Oops.

Shaun -- it's likely aimed at more than one theme at once of his campaign, but is almost certainly "anniversary-related."

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilright...

Presidential, no. Pretentious is more like it. Obama may be getting cocky. Oops.

If columns and charges of being pretentious is the best you've got, you and the Republicans must be in worse shape than I thought.

There you ago again, Chris, tossing logic away. [sigh]

The most positive interpretation ahead of his speech is that he wants to exploit the anniversary of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial by advocating "change" that is an invitation to rekindle or revive or "complete" the "dream."

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilright...

Get a grip you guys. This architecture is evocative of our nation, our government and of the roots of democracy. It's appropriate symbolism.

This is our city/county building
That building at night during the holiday season
Civic center park
Another view of that
Colorado State capitol

These are all within a few blocks of the convention. Oh, and BTW, here's more:

The US capitol
The Supreme Court Building
The White House

And yes, he's accepting our nomination to lead these very columned institutions of our nation.

DLS,
There you go again, focusing on the positively inane instead of anything remotely related to substance.

If Obama is elected president should he remove the columns from the White House so that way the big bad Republicans won't make fun of him?

You just outdid yourself, Chris. [rolling eyes]

As I wrote, in all fairness it is related to King's speech (note the date) at the Lincoln (another theme of Obama's campaign) Memorial. Green Dreams, note. The Lincoln Memorial, where King gave his speech. No Manhattanite-cocktail-party-elitist-Nutroot combination there. Just a theme or themes, is likely what this is.

Chris said: "... should he remove the columns from the White House so that way the big bad Republicans won't make fun of him?"

... Or will you buy some drapes to match and use it on your floor.
Magic Carpet by Shel Silverstein Light in the Attic

Maybe he should just buy some drapes and cover them up like John Ashcroft did with the "Spirit of Justice" statue in the Justice Departments Great Hall. [rolling eyes] ;-)

SteveK,
I can't believe it cost them $8,000 to cover a single sculpture breast.

Chris,

Nor can I, especially when the story goes on to say that the statues were regularly covered for special events in the Great Hall. Maybe the old drapes didn't meet John Ashcroft's standards.

Yet another example of Republican Financial Conservatism in action. (Let's see what kind of 'tat for tit' this comment gets)

"The props are ready made for Republican ridicule. The whole god, messiah thingie, no?"

In all fairness to Shaun, the Messiah phenomenon may have overdriven egos again, and Obama really _is_ cocky and pretentious, constructing imagery of his (already won?) White House to go with his earlier fake presidential seal, expecting people to respond positively to this as they were expected to respond positively to that fake seal (which Shaun didn't neglect, incidentally, and did a better job of).

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/0...

It was probably a no-bid sweetheart contract with Kellogg, Brown, and Root, Chris.

What's needed is Mt. Rushmore with five heads on it on the other side of the stadium.

I'm amazed this gets traction in our dumb media. Though I suppose this is exactly what I ought to expect.

After lapel-pin-gate, middle-name-gate, tire-pressure-gauge-gate, celebrity-gate--oh my goodness, it's too depressing to go on.

We have been ruled by Republicans for eight years. You'd think that hadn't been a problem, considering the trivia we're treated to by out dumb media.

I think the last eight years of Republican rule have been a disaster.

And I don't plan to be distracted on election day.

"I'm amazed this gets traction in our dumb media."

What's amazing is that it would be trivialized or defended by anybody.

After all, it may well be another example of arrogance and teevee celeb imagery like this:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/0...

It would be funny now to have one of the speakers at the GOP convention take the stage in a toga while assistants put up togas behind him or her and someone else attached a fake presidential seal onto the lectern. It's also good delegate stunt material (along with arugula lapel pins and tire pressure gauges).

Heh. Change meaning More in Washington, DC. How about making room for a more numerous "contemporary" Congress and for more bureaucrats...
Time to remodel the Ellipse, where there is room for Change, right? [grin]

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-2...

Stage props are clearly one of the most important means Americans have to assess the characters of our President candidates. Therefore, to avoid all appearances of pretentiousness, I hereby recommend that Obama appear in front of refuse and garbage, maybe we could have some local Denver youths trash the whole stage with grafitti? That can't be pretentious.

Wait, no, it could be seen as Obama making a promise that he can't keep of ridding America of poverty. That's not a good idea. Forget that. I hereby recommend a large podium. Wait, no, that podium could be a little... White Hous-esque. What? Obama already thinks he's giving Press Briefings at the White House? Jerk. How about a simple circular stage, maybe a nice oval with flags. Wait, no, no. That's worse.

Ok, a curtain. Just a bare curtain. As long as it's not purple, because that was the Roman imperial color. And Americans are very tuned into Roman iconography. Good lord, it's Tiberius this and Marcus Aurelius that every where I go nowadays. So no purple. Or red, because, you know Chinese imperial color. Unless, it's red, white, and blue! That'll show flag lapel pin gaters a thing or two! A freaking 300 foot flag covering Invesco field-

Oh, no, wait, clearly the new curtain would touch the ground and that would be an obvious symbol to all that Obama treats the flag and our nation like dirt. Traitor.

Ok, I got it. Maybe he could stand, but not too upright, kind of slouch, and then people could throw tomatoes at him. And then he could hold up an "I surrender" sign (because we all know he would surrender to Al Qaeda eventually anyway (unless he's already in league with them)) and just admit that he didn't really want to be President anyway.

Now, that's! what I want from my future President!

(Note, snark is not directed at Shaun particularly, but at the whole issue. Also, I do realize that image is indeed very important in politics. All evidence is in fact that it's far more important than substance. A candidate could find a way to run our cars on green house gases with the only waste products being rose petals and a delicate pinot grigiot, but if he or she looked funny at the wrong time, he'd lose the election.)

Just for the record, I was moderating the discussion during Ed Morrissey's show today,and they spent the first full twenty minutes on nothing but the columns. Shaun's prediction came true in moments. The GOP is having a field day with it already. But I will also give credit to the previous commenter who said that the Dems really can't spend their entire lives and make all their plans in fear of what the GOP will do with their imagry. It's not like there is an alternate design that would suddenly make the Republicans stop and say, "Hey, that's really impressive! Maybe we had this guy all wrong and we should vote for HIM!"

*snicker*

"snark is not directed at Shaun particularly, but at the whole issue"

Begin with that fake Presidential seal and the people "misoverestimating" him.

"I will also give credit to the previous commenter who said that the Dems really can't spend their entire lives and make all their plans in fear of what the GOP will do with their imagry"

Exactly Jazz, it's probably safe to assume the R's will attempt to make anything negative they possibly can, since that's what they seem to do best anymore. That doesn't mean the D's have to lower their standards accordingly by taking them seriously at every turn. Maybe we're approaching a new cycle in which the R's become the self-destructive party for a change. Just so long as the rest of the country doesn't self destruct along with them.

Did I say "pinot grigio" in my last comment? Sorry about that. I meant beer. American beer. But not a froo-froo microbrew. I guess, we're stuck with Miller.

"The GOP is having a field day with it already." [Temple of Obama; Zeus]

Democratic officials had been burying their heads in their faces from the outset.

Not Miller, Coors (meet Obama, extreme right-winger)

Hillary Clinton, so White Zin -- Obama fans

"I guess, we're stuck with Miller"

That is truly sad. You have my utmost sympathy.

Obama really _is_ cocky and pretentious

"I know how to win wars" - McCain

"We are all Georgians now.” - McCain

“I wanted to be President because it had become my ambition to be President." - McCain

Hrmmm...

This is pretty far down in the thread, so I hope no one will complain if I use capital letters:

BUSH HAD GREEK COLUMNS FOR HIS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH IN 2004!!!

Photographs at the link.

IOKIYAR!

George:
Oh the irony.

These Republican jokers are so deeply insipid. If they put half the energy into governing that they put into these vapid and hypocritical attacks, our country would be so much better off.

Here's my new headline for articles about this issue:

REPUBLICAN BOGUS TALKING POINT MAY OR MAY NOT BE REINFORCED BY POOR SET DESIGN

I'm expecting papers to fly off the shelves. Meanwhile, could another hurricane be headed towards New Orleans? I'm sure there are no preparation stories worth really telling down there.