08:45 am
If the Shoe Fits: Adlai Stevenson Metaphor Watch
As Mars Blackmon, Spike Lee’s alter-ego once said about Michael Jordan, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”
Nate Silver noted a while back that pundits looooove to compare Obama to post-WWII Presidents and Presidential candidates (and I’ve noted elsewhere, to almost everyone else, real or imaginary, except for Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce).
One favorite is Adlai Stevenson, who served as Governor of Illinois from to 1948 to 1952 and was the Democratic nominee for President in 1952 and 1956 (and in all likelihood, the last two-time loser in Presidential politics that we’ll ever see). What’s interesting about the Stevenson-Obama comparisons is that they’ve come from all over the political spectrum:
George Will: Stevenson, like Obama, energized young, educated professionals for whom, Barone wrote, “what was attractive was not his platform but his attitude.” They sought from Stevenson “not so much changes in public policy as validation of their own cultural stance.”
Steve Clemons: As things look now, Barack Obama is running an Adlai Stevenson campaign. He’s smart. He’s fresh. He’s inspiring to many, including me. But he’s also a bit of a triangulator. And he has not yet developed the cold, unsentimental confidence that a leader needs in reserve — at least I haven’t seen that in him yet.
E.J. Dionne: The result of the 2008 election may come down to how voters decide to define Barack Obama. Is he Adlai Stevenson or John F. Kennedy? Is he a detached former law review editor or a passionate agent of change? Is he an upscale reformer focused on process or a populist who will turn Washington and the country around?
So why do I bring this up again now? Because the metaphor spinners just got some new ammunition.
Perhaps the most famous photo of Stevenson is one that happens to have been taken just down the road from where I am now, in Flint, Michigan:
This won photographer Bill Gallagher a Pulitzer Prize and, in the words of The Flint Journal (its original publisher), has become “one of the great political photographs of all time.” The Stevenson campaign capitalized on the photo, distributing hole-in-the-shoe pins and t-shirts that read, “better a hole in the shoe than a hole in the head.”
And now, we have this photo from Obama P0rn, a new site devoted to all things Obamaniacal:
Here’s hoping Charles Krauthammer doesn’t get a hold of this. Then we’ll have to read 43 columns about how the holes in Obama’s shoes correspond to the gaps in his atheist Israel-hating Muslim soul or something.
Meanwhile, here’s the John McCain shoe watch, via HuffPo:
This summer John McCain is traveling in style. He has worn a pair of $520 black leather Ferragamo shoes on every recent campaign stop — from a news conference with the Dalai Lama to a supermarket visit in Bethlehem, PA. The Calfskin loafers, with silver-tone “Gancini” buckles, are imported from Italy.
Thank Buddha that this campaign is going to be a debate on the issues.
Photos: Stevenson, via The Flint Journal; Obama, via Obamap0rn.