The papier m�ch� sculpture of Obama is by 24-year-old art student David Cordero, whose point is awfully close to Flynn's contention that the statue offends because he's never met a politician who could do what Jesus Christ could do. Cordero to the AP:
"All of this is a response to what I've been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins," Cordero said. "In a lot of ways it's about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped."Note to Cordero: punditry becomes you, young man.
Codero's critique is on target; we all want a shot of redemption, and the nomination of Obama would seem to offer that. For liberals who feel icky that so many Democrats made the choice to support the Iraq war resolution in 2003 out of political expedience, Obama carries no such baggage. For those who know there's something wrong with the fact that a black person has yet to grace a Democratic presidential ticket, an Obama candidacy relieves us of that guilt. On the religion front, Obama has so far been able to evince a sense of his personal faith without displaying it too obviously as a political accessory. And he's so brilliant and adaptable and, so far, unflappable that it's hard to make a case against him. The prospect for superhuman expectations of such a leader do run exceedingly high. Flynn's capacity for metaphor and simile is apparently rather low.
For its part, the Obama camp's response to the statue controversy seems to strike just the right ethereally rich chord:
"While we respect First Amendment rights and don't think the artist was trying to be offensive, Senator Obama, as a rule, isn't a fan of art that offends religious sensibilities," said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
--Adele M. Stan
