By Rick Marschall

            The dust barely has settled from Campaign 2008, a dust-up of news cycles and national attention – and distractions – of two solid years’ intensity. A politics-weary country was visited with forecasts of another dust-storm of presidential politics, not one or two years over the horizon but imminently.

            The President-Elect himself, in what surely have been unprecedented acts, several times has told his supporters that his agenda “would not take one year, or even one term” to fulfill. It was the first time a winning candidate’s victory speech in effect announced his candidacy for a second term.

            So the dust hardly settles. But through the dust, and in a spirit of reflection, certain historical images assert themselves. Let us stop for a moment and consider the following:

            Here was a candidate whose role, and perhaps destiny, is Transformational.

          Unknown outside an urban neighborhood, in a few short years he sprang to national prominence… and international renown.

            Contrary to most national and personal success stories, his immediate ancestry was from outside the borders of the country that elevated him to its highest position.

            Rumors of dark associations in his past, and secret backers of his current ambitions, were rife, yet proved insignificant to his rise.

            “Self-made man” had a different meaning in his case: not just material success, but the vital details of activities and beliefs, he kept rather obscure. His supporters cared not at all.

            He wrote an autobiography while yet an obscure figure – perhaps an act of hubris – yet full of roadmaps and plans, also scarcely referenced even at the height of the campaign.

            Clearly it was not so much those associates and backers, beliefs or plans, that fueled his sudden rise. The force of his personality explained much. A nation battered by the effects of a war, hurting from a reeling economy, troubled by political disarray and corruption, was at first in inchoate in its appetite for Change. Once he identified with Change – and manifested those yearnings in an astonishing and impressive manner – a nation seemed willing to trust its future to him almost blindly.

            Detractors and admirers alike acknowledge a speaking style that captivates listeners. Measured words, an emotional cadence, old clichés were somehow transformed into seeming revolutionary volleys. The Speech typically ranged from grievances to hope, beginning quietly, obliging the audience to be deathly silent and hang on every word, and recounted past injustice and recent ills, then offered a list of battles to fight, then closed with inspirational words about a glowing future… both in the country and around the world.

            A pliant and adoring media (often enough a manipulated media) would not just portray a savior-like aura around the man or the Speech: how often did we see camera shots of worshipful listeners, their robot-like responses to applause-lines, their frozen smiles, and their tear-filled eyes?

            A kiddie korps was a feature of the campaign. Too young to vote, and obviously too young to understand the issues, many children nevertheless were dressed up with logos, symbols, and legends on their clothes, on their signs, and in their mouths. They sang special songs and chanted methodically, in nationwide commercials and in neighborhood rallies.

            Speaking of symbols, we remember that the candidate’s distinctive logo was seen everywhere, not just on placards but in faux-presidential seals on lecterns and eventually replacing the nation’s flag on the exterior of the campaign plane!

            His rallies were something to behold… and were impossible not to behold. Their sheer size commanded attention – size of venues, size of audiences, the very size of the Audacity. A convention hall was rejected for a sports stadium. Other politicians had been content with meeting-rooms or hotel ballrooms for victory celebrations, but an urban park, overflowing for hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters, was substituted.

            The rallies we remember as oftentimes at night, where the focus is perforce on the stage, the microphone, the man. Celebrities warmed up, but also attracted, the crowds. Music played a large role, lights were arranged meticulously, everything was arranged like a theatrical production; and we even remember the trappings of an ancient imperial forum.

            Thousands and hundreds of thousands of people were necessary at all times to imply a nation-wide groundswell, but also to validate the Speech and the speechmaker. Safety in numbers? He was choreographing Inevitability in Numbers. Yet as necessary as the multitude was, every speech was given in an eerie spotlight of solitude. Even on the night of victory, he stood alone, not just in that spotlight, but on a stage with no visible partners, friends, or family. The aura of Savior -- about much was, in fact, whispered, joked, and confessed during the campaign – could not be staged otherwise.

            All in all, these factors were impressive, for a hungry public as well as a Leader evidently in constant need of validation. Change becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy…

            But enough of squinting through the dust of history. That was all 75 years ago, another man, in another nation.

            We must see clearly today, and into the future.

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