... the man for the job ...

... we won't fully understand the impact of the life of the forty-fourth President of the United States until there is some context and hindsight around his time ... but for certain it will all have been observed comprehensively and ... chronicled ...












... the emergence of Barack Obama on the big stage continues to generate big ink ... this is a reflection of how universally significant are American fairytales, the twists-in-the-tale enshrined in its constitutional contradictions and its historical realities ... the circumstances of the United States of America's birth and growth are established and well studied around the world ... even more far-reaching is the glossy appeal of American marketing and culture ... it's true, Americanism is an amalgam of cultural influences and can claim to be a prototype and leader ...

... speaking of leaders ... since the earliest days of the nation until now, the head hombre (yes, it's always been a hombre but that's another discourse) has been an older (than me anyway) white bredda .... today as we all know by now, there's a younger (ditto) black bredda ... a first among firsts ....

... the popular new guy is going through his baptism rites/hazing rituals during these initial months of tenure, some of which can be said to come with the territory ... the biggest politico-post in the world ... still, one of the many noticeable consequences has been the racialized spike in polarity of the political polemic and its subtler cousin, the trading of tonal tenor-isms ...

... nazi-fied, Hitlerian and witch-doctored images ... even if extreme ... find exposure in places where enlightenment hasn't penetrated and arenas purporting to be eruptions of a "grass-roots movement" (an easily mis-appropriated descriptor) ... fueling opposition passions ... but far more frequently I've seen thoughtful iconographical representations of Barack Obama ... including several which are positive in connotation or cast our main man in the role of hero ...















... now, before you start buggin' out don't think for a second Barack and his team are claiming to be faster than a speeding bullet ... though I'm praying he is ... like the old American hero Superman (birthers where are you? ... he was born on another planet) ... but it doesn't hurt to align with a spit-curly, square-jawed, supernatural figure with a big reputation and a large constituency ... the guy would clean up in the UFC or a national party convention, 'cos kryptonite doesn't actually exist ... even though we're led to believe Saddam had a vial under his pillow and Ahmadinejad is in advanced stages of development ...

... the outlook of this U.S. administration appears to go beyond the left and right coasts ... Obama himself is a bit of a pan-cultural polymorph, so it's unsurprising to me that comparisons have extended to the closest thing we have to Superman on earth at the moment ... one lanky Lightning Bolt phenom ... regardless of the fact that he isn't American ...





















... this POTUS will know, instinctively, there's a wider world within which American magnificence must exist ... and dare to lead ... the world recognizes him in return and the opportunity is there for further iconic integration with the pantheon of global giants ... humans who have been right for their times, become emblematic of a purpose and have left legacies that outlive them ...

... there ought not to be any "grass-roots" movements to deify Barack because such regard is bestowed not engineered ... nor is there any payoff in politicising the figureheads who've achieved immortality via their own personal connection to God ... I've seen juxtapositions of Obama with Bob Marley, MLK, Marcus Garvey, Mandela ... even H.I.M. Haile Selassie ... counteracting those images previously referred to but deliberately omitted from this space ...

... in Bob's case there is scholarship on the comparisons between the Marley story and the unfolding Obama trajectory ... I recommend trying to track down UWI lecturer Dr. Matthew Smith's cover-story reasonings in The Beat magazine Vol 28 #1(2009) for cogency ... though a quick internet search will tell you this is not an isolated notion ...

... there will be those who see this as a trivialisation of the presidency and others who will seek to keep politricks away from the sanctity of the latter day prophet but there's a compelling synchronicity in the details despite the obvious differences ... the satirists, photographers and photoshoppers don't have to stretch to fit these two leaders-of-men into one sentence or a single frame.