Some Americans mythologize Obama as New Savior

Raised on the island of Oahu, HI, and the son of a Caucasian mother and Kenyan father, Barack Obama never fit the bill of America's traditional presidential nominees. Some detractor bloggers have mythologized him as the Anti Christ, King of the South predicted in the Bible.But others have referred to the Senator and now Democratic Party Presidential nominee as the Messiah, "The One," and even a modern day sun god. Filmmaker Spike Lee has weighed in on the impact Obama is making on American culture. He is quoted in obamamessiah.blogspot.com saying that after November 4, "you'll have to measure time by 'before Obama' and 'after Obama.'" He added, "Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe."

Sen. John McCain's campaign has joined in Obama's mythologizing fever. In a recent Web advertisement, the presumptive Republican nominee's camp pokes fun at Obama's "Messiah complex." Comparing Obama to both Jesus and Moses, the narrator of the commercial refers to him as "The One," and quotes him saying "a nation healed, a world repaired," among other comments.

But Bryant Stewart, assistant pastor of Mary's Missionary Bible Church in Washington, DC, does not believe Obama has mythical power. Rev. Steward, acknowledges the unprecedented political success Obama has made so far, but he would not quite put him on the level of a higher being.

"He's just a person who has come along at the right time," Pastor Stewart concedes. "Our country's been through a lot. He really appeals to a lot of people. His whole platform has been about change. He's the epitome of change."

Some have compared the Senator from Chicago to President Abraham Lincoln who has been referred to as "The American Osiris" and "Savior of the American Union." He is a beacon of hope for many, said Pastor Stewart. People want things to get better in America and he's going to be the vessel to do that, he said.

Dinesh Sharma, a marketing science consultant with a doctorate in psychology from Harvard, has made scholarly analyses of presidential candidates trying to infuse American democracy with mythology and folklore, going back to the founding of the nation. Whether it's the fable of George Washington and the cutting of the cherry tree, the stories about honest Abe Lincoln, or the making of Kennedy Camelot myth, the right mixture of mythological imagery is almost necessary for a campaign to excite the general public, writes Sherma.

Perhaps, Obama's symbols of transformation, his campaign signs, posters and Web site, suggest another mythic undercurrent, more archaic and pre-Christian in origin. His marketing materials were designed by the Chicago-based Sol Sender. "We were looking at the 'O' of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day," Mr. Sender said. Obama has sun-god qualities. "The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope," he said.

While the color scheme of the Obama logo evokes the American flag, the shape, design and imagery is not typical of other campaign signs. "It begins to break with tradition while also rooting itself in tradition," said Peter Krivkovich, CEO of Cramer-Krasselt advertising agency in Chicago. "Patriotism is the foundation, but above that is hope, opportunity, newness."

The letter 'O' symbolically represents Obama as the hot sun, rising above the blue sky with the waves of red and white stripes representing the American flag over the plains. It also symbolizes Obama as the mythological figure of Osiris, the sun god personified in the Egyptian cult of life, death and fertility. The Obamas are the Osiris-Isis pair, the power couple of Egyptian mythology, fist-bumping each other.

The underbelly of Obama's message is that he identifies with the 'victims of history' and those who have been left out of the great march of human progress. As the son of a progressive White anthropologist mother and an African goat-herder turned economist father, Obama has been schooled on 'other people's myths' and in different cultures. His campaign has been building an anti-war movement and a coalition of diverse voices, such as, African Americans, native Indians and the rest.

The deep hunger in Obama's soul related to his father's absence has been filled up by the larger than life reformers, such as, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi. Obama has incorporated and internalized the lessons offered by these men and resolved his identity crisis by hitching his wagon to a humanitarian calling larger than himself.

Comparisons to Lincoln have been aptly drawn as Obama believes he is walking in the great man's footsteps. During the civil war, Lincoln carried the burden of a whole nation upon his shoulders. Like Lincoln, whom Walt Whitman eulogized as the 'American Osiris' and Carl Sandburg later mythologized as the savior of the American union, Obama wishes to take on the challenge of Islamo-fascism abroad and politically uplift the disenfranchised groups at home. In taking on this cause, he may be destined to reclaim the mantle of the mythic figures buried in the sands of time, represented in pre-Christian folklore and myths.