Picture of a campaign
The image that came almost to define Obama’s campaign has found a home. The red, white and blue portrait of US President-elect Barack Obama, created by Los Angeles-based street artist Shepard Fairey, will become part of the permanent collection at the US National Portrait Gallery.
The BBC reports that curators at the Smithsonian Institution museum plan to hang it by Inauguration Day on January 20.
“What I think is so fascinating is the ubiquitous nature,” said Carolyn Carr, deputy director of the Portrait Gallery. “When people think of a portrait of Obama, they think of this image.”
Now Mr President elect tell us what you think about Gaza.
Comments
| 8 January 2009, 4:40 pm |
A sound opinion on Obama.
| 8 January 2009, 5:04 pm |
I think Obama’s wise keeping schtum; at least for now.
I have no doubt GWB’s keeping the fellow well briefed.
| 8 January 2009, 5:10 pm |
I think Obama’s wise keeping schtum; at least for now.
Obama is mum on the subject, but that’s mostly due to the wisdom of his handlers.
| 8 January 2009, 5:23 pm |
There is a view amongst some of the European left that President Obama will single-handedly resucitate America as a beacon for liberal causes.
I am excited about his Presidency, and I very much hope he will take swift action on climate change and end America’s disgraceful dalliance with torture and the suspension of habeas corpus for terror suspects.
But I doubt that he will please some sections of the European left on such issues as Gaza and Iraq. John Pilger has already slurred Obama in racial language – he will not be the last peacenik to resort to “Uncle Tom” attacks on the new President, as elements of the left drift inexorably towards ever greater intolerance and bigotry.
| 8 January 2009, 5:26 pm |
A President Speaks:
” And this fragile truce was partially broken on Nov. 4, when Israel launched an attack in Gaza to destroy a defensive tunnel being dug by Hamas inside the wall that encloses Gaza.”
Jimmy Carter
| 8 January 2009, 5:52 pm |
Bush was a convenient target who fit many of the cherished stereotypes of the “anti-imperialist” Left– white, rich, from Texas, often swaggering, background in the oil business. Obama will be harder to pin down in that way. Expect a lot of frustration.
| 8 January 2009, 6:04 pm |
Ow! My eyes are bleeding….
And what do you have against unicorns and sparklies?
As far as I know I’m not gay, but that picture really does something for me.
| 8 January 2009, 6:09 pm |
While most prominent U.S. politicians have backed Israel, critics have noted that Obama joined Bush in condemning the killing of civilians in attacks in November in Mumbai, India. They would have liked him to say something about the fate of Palestinian civilians caught in the fighting.
That’s right! Obama joined in the criticism of terrorists slaughtering civilians and torturing some of them before killing them.
So, I expect he will support the side fighting the terrorists.
| 8 January 2009, 6:10 pm |
Are you sure thats a Unicorn, you may have the horn Mesquito but it appears not to.
It looks to me to be a regular understated white charger appearing from the water.
| 8 January 2009, 6:16 pm |
You know, tim, I had another look at it and you’re right: That is no unicorn. The funny thing is, I found it by googling for Obama unicorn pictures, or something to that effect.
| 8 January 2009, 6:21 pm |
“Obama will be harder to pin down in that way. Expect a lot of frustration.”
Gene, what is the feeling in the US now that Obamania has died down a little? Is there any concern, for instance, about the enormous level of expectation that his campaign created? I thought at the time that it would be very difficult for him to match it.
| 8 January 2009, 6:25 pm |
Obama is mum on the subject, but that’s mostly due to the wisdom of his handlers.
Actually, Obama’s got a bigger problem that is preoccupying him: how to stop the ever-greater fiasco of the Burriss/Blagojevich appointment blowing up in his face before he even gets to his inauguration.
| 8 January 2009, 6:25 pm |
Still, at least Fairey is going blind. There’s always a positive note if you look for it.
| 8 January 2009, 6:27 pm |
what is the feeling in the US now that Obamania has died down a little?
That he’s just another scummy bottom-feeder to come out of the swamp that is Democratic politics in Illinois?
You are so far behind the curve on this it’s funny. Obamania evaporated completely many weeks ago. Haven’t you noticed that even his most gooey-eyed boosters like Gene don’t want to talk about him anymore?
| 8 January 2009, 6:36 pm |
Well, apparently Obama’s approval rating is in the 80s, so perhaps Obamania is still going strong.
Bill Clinton’s approval rating is 69, which seems strangely apt.
| 8 January 2009, 6:38 pm |
“Bill Clinton’s approval rating is 69, which seems strangely apt.”
Err, Benjamin, you don’t appear to have followed the particuar detail of Bills preferences very closely.
| 8 January 2009, 6:39 pm |
McCain on a Unicorn
| 8 January 2009, 6:41 pm |
Tim
Bill Clinton is a sexual Olympian. I am sure that’s part of his morning work out.
| 8 January 2009, 7:50 pm |
I think Bill would only be the nine, there wouldn’t be a six in his equation.
| 8 January 2009, 7:57 pm |
“When people think of a portrait of Obama, they think of this image.”
The symbolism is disgusting. It’s a rip-off of Soviet poster art.
| 8 January 2009, 8:06 pm |
Benji, stop talking out of your arse, there’s a good lad.
Obama’s rating is declining, down 5 points in just a few days: http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx.
Remember: this is the very best time for him. After his inauguration, it’s all downhill.
| 8 January 2009, 9:00 pm |
Liberals and progressives will be angry when it turns out Obama is not the reincarnation of Emma Goldman, and he hasn’t bombed Israel. In fact his choices thus far have been rather centrist. ‘Bloggers’ like Glenn Greenwald have a bug up their ass that Obama didn’t singlehandedly vote against telcom immunity, hasn’t wrapped himself in a Palestinian flag, nuked the Jews and hasn’t called for the entire US government to be executed for warcrimes. And he’s ‘mainstream’ leftist. In other words he’ll be an effective pragmatist and the far left anarchist MacBook Marxist Hamas wannabes will be screaming, like they always do.
| 8 January 2009, 9:18 pm |
Obama camp ‘prepared to talk to Hamas’
“This would really be dependent on Hamas’s military wing having suffered a real, almost decisive, drubbing.”
| 8 January 2009, 10:53 pm |
The Poster? Great!…….If you like Nazi/Fascist/Stalinist 30s “Forward/Avanti”-style totalitarian, adoring, “Great Man/Maximum leader” cult-of-personality stuff.
| 9 January 2009, 2:41 am |
I very much hope he will take swift action on climate change
Yeah, that ought to be amusing in a King Canute sort of way.
‘Global Warming, uh, I mean Climate Change – I command thee to halt!’
Now all we need is some sort of device to control the activity of the sun. Sounds a bit far-fetched, but if anyone can do it, Obama can. He is The Lightworker after all.
| 9 January 2009, 6:19 am |
What I find amusing is that so many of the people who profess to loathe branting and modern capitalist commericailsism have so completely bought the into the Obama brand.
Obama is a superbly marketed product. I really admire his marketing team – they are right up there with the guys at Apple. And I mean that seriously, though I loathe Obama and his politics, there is no denying the genius behind the branding. We’ll all be paying the price for a couple of decades of course, like we were for wankers like Nixon and Carter.
Heck, you gotta admire the chutzpah of somebody who can carry off selling a Ponzi scheme like his stimulus package, right as Madoff’s was collapsing.
| 9 January 2009, 10:50 am |
I think he’ll turn out to be the Princess Diana of Presidents.
I prefer this one:
http://deliciousghost.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/10910.jpg
Oh. And one President at a time, remember?