Branding Obamessiah: The Rise of an American Idol

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b"Mark Edward Taylor gets to the heart of Obama's appeal." -- Cal Thomas/b p pIn 2004 a cadre of Democratic advisers and communications experts hatched a plan to elect a largely unknown, biracial American to the highest office in the land in only four years. Knowing that its chosen one would have to rise above Hillary Clinton and then the Republican candidate, "Team Obama" created a new style of American political leader defined by "Sacred Six" characteristics: a creation story, sacred words, sacred images, sacred rituals, true believers, and a messianic leader. The Sacred Six became Barack Obama's "Devotional Code, " eliciting enthused voter chants of Hope, Change, and Belief ("Yes we can!") and consummating a special relationship between faithful voters and the saintly candidate whom Oprah Winfrey baptized as "The One." p piBranding Obamessiah/i tells this amazing story by looking at everything from Team Obama's evangelistic rallies and iconic images to its sacred words and supra-racial rhetoric. Author Mark Edward Taylor examines Obama-themed comic books, magazines, logos, music, "holy" relics, social-media epistles, and children's books. He reveals the messianic rhetoric in Obama's carefully crafted autobiographical writings and public speeches. Taylor shows how such messianic imagery reinforced true believers' own hope-filled websites, blogs, publications, and videos. p piBranding Obamessiah/i includes nearly 1, 000 endnotes with links to online audio, video, and text sources so readers can follow the fascinating tale of a multimedia campaign that generated more online news coverage and inspired more pro and con bloggers and YouTube videos than all previous presidential campaigns combined. Hardly anything Obama said or did escaped cameras, microphones, and online scrutiny. p piBranding Obamessiah/i is an engaging and illuminating trip through the most quasi-religious campaign of any modern US presidential candidate. The book also serves as a warning about the increasingly potent combination of entertainment, celebrity, social media, and religion in American politics. p pbTABLE OF CONTENTS/b p pForeword by Cal Thomas pIntroduction pPrologue p p1 Getting in the Game p pPART ONE: Changing the Political Game p p2 Selling an American Product p3 Marketing Subconscious Spirituality p4 Branding Obamessiah p5 Revealing the Sacred Six p pPART TWO: Composing a Creation Story p p6 Filling In Obama's Missing Years p7 Targeting His Anger p8 Remembering Fiction p pPART THREE: Chanting Sacred Words p p9 Keeping It Simple p10 Feeling In the Blanks p11 Seizing American Exceptionalism p12 Changing the Truth p pPART FOUR: Venerating Sacred Images p p13 Seeing as Believing p14 Photographing Deity p15 Flipping through Obamagazines p16 Sheparding the Sheeple p17 Landing Logobama p18 Viewing Negatives p pPART FIVE: Observing Sacred Rituals p p19 Traveling with Brother Love's Salvation Show p20 Multitasking for the Messiah p21 Collecting Campaign Relics p22 Pilgrimaging to Holy Places p pPART SIX: Bringing in Believers p p23 Crowding around the One p24 Programming Intimacy p25 Tuning In to Barockstar p pPART SEVEN: Coloring the Messiah p p26 Absolving the National Guilt p27 Changing the Election's Complexion p28 Building a Millenarian Movement p pEpilogue pNotes