Newsweek has a lengthy (7 chapter) piece on the recent presidential election called Secrets of the 2008 Campaign. The article includes the following paragraph that totally sums up the phenomenon of Obamamania:

Obama understood that he had become a giant screen upon which Americans projected their hopes and fears, dreams and frustrations. Maybe such a person never really existed, couldn't exist, but people wanted a savior nonetheless. As a bestselling memoirist he had created a mythic figure [emphasis mine], a man named Barack Obama who had searched and quested and overcome travails, who had found an identity and a calling in public service. Obama recalled that he often joked with his team, "This Barack Obama sounds like a great guy. Now I'm not sure that I am Barack Obama, right?" He added, pointedly, "It wasn't entirely a joke."

If this information had been released prior to the election, do you think the headlines would have read "OBAMA ADMITS TO BEING A FRAUD"? Nah, I don't think so, either.



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