POLJUNK

To these clowns, Obama has committed a great offense by adopting a likeness of an image associated with the Presidency of the United States – you know, as if he had the audacity to run for President or something. These are probably the same people who took Obama to task for not wearing an American flag lapel pin. These are probably the same people who called John Kerry a traitor for, "trying to bring down George Bush," which in representative democracies is also known as running for public office in an election. It is also worth noting that a handful of Obama supporters expressed negative views of the new logo in their comments. Perhaps they were influenced by the manufactured outrage of the right-wing comments, but in any case, I can't begin to see what the problem is.

I'll openly admit to doing a double-take the first time I saw the new logo. At first glance I thought it odd that Obama would be speaking from a podium with the Seal on it until I looked a little closer and saw that the inscription read, "Obama for America - www.barackobama.com" and included his campaign's trademark "O" in the middle. Then I got a bit of a chuckle out of it. It seemed to me to have a bit of a tongue-in-cheek quality to it, almost as if it was a creation of the Daily Show or the Onion. I mean, the man clearly knows he isn't the President yet. I also thought it was brilliant and clever from a marketing standpoint. How better to advertise a candidate as presidential than to put him behind a podium with a very presidential-looking seal on it? For worse or for worse, appearances count for way too much in presidential contests and I would count on a full slate of mainstream media pundits to glowingly remark that John McCain just "looks presidential" as we march toward November. There was no shortage of talking heads who told us, with straight faces, that George W. Bush "looked presidential" and look where that got us.

So, which is it? Should presidential candidates adopt images of the American flag or the Presidency into their campaigns or not? I mean, who the hell does John McCain think he is wearing an American flag lapel pin? Is he so arrogant that he already assumes that he has won and that he represents all Americans? This is exactly the same kind of logic presented by Obama's critics on this matter. This is so loony that we might as well call into question the patriotism of every single candidate for public office in America who has ever used any likeness of the American flag in their campaign. There's not nearly enough room at Gitmo for that many traitors...