"I have thrown myself into a new world—one in which fluffy chatter and frivolous praise are replaced by disciple-like devotion ..."

Barack Obama must be elected President of the United States. It’s his worldview, his clarity of judgment, and his just plain right-mindedness that resonate with me. Figuring that my efforts were best spent raising money for the campaign, I have thrown myself into a new world—one in which fluffy chatter and frivolous praise are replaced by a get-to-the-point directness and disciple-like devotion. It’s intense and intoxicating. ...

... I have to confess I felt a certain shame that the dress I wore—a bright-red Prada number from next season that my former boss, Carol, insisted I buy the day before—cost more than the $1,000 ticket to the event itself. ... How this paid off I’ll share in a moment. ...

I was on my feet as Senator Obama entered the room. Fate had blessed me in this moment, as I realized that the aisle that was keeping me from my seat was created for him and his secret service escort to make their way to the stage. Within seconds, he was a few feet from me. Cameras were flashing, everyone was cheering, and I knew this was my moment. I pushed my way up to the barricade as he shook hands with as many people as time would allow. I squeezed up front, but Obama was moving quickly and just passed me by. Then, in a moment of divine intervention, he saw me, clad in my red stop-sign of a dress, back-tracked ever so slightly in his procession, grabbed my hand, and gave that brilliant smile of his. I literally said out loud to the woman next to me who witnessed my good fate, "I’ll never wash this hand again."

Elle associate publisher Samantha Fennell. July 2008. Samantha recently announced that she was leaving her position to follow Obama and raise funds for his campaign.

"You'll have to measure time by `Before Obama' and `After Obama'"

[Film director Spike] Lee predicted Obama would be elected in November.

"When that happens, it will change everything. ... You'll have to measure time
by `Before Obama' and `After Obama,'" Lee said during the panel. "It's an
exciting time to be alive now." ...

"Everything's going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe," he
said.

-- Spike Lee, American Film Director. July 10, 2008.

"Barack Obama is the Platonic philosopher king we’ve been looking for for the past 2,400 years"

Barack Obama is the Platonic philosopher king we’ve been looking for for the past 2,400 years.

Plato argued that without a philosopher king there could be neither happiness (V, 473e, VI, 500d-3) nor personal perfection (VI, 499a-b). Therefore, none of us will attain the four excellences required for true unity — each of our souls will remain internally divided, broken (IV, 441c-d, 443c-e) — until the philosopher king arrives.

Thus, Plato wrote:

[W]e have to fix our souls – our souls are broken in this [city-state]. . . .

. . . [The philosopher king is] the only person in this race who has a chance at healing this [city-state].

Or was that Michelle Obama?

Oh. It was Mrs. Obama. Either way, it works. Mr. Obama will fulfill the Platonic prophecies.

But he’ll do even more. He won’t just heal our city-states and souls. He won’t just bring the Heavenly Kingdom — dreamt of in both Platonism and Christianity — to earth. He will heal the earth itself.

And that, my friends, is taking the philosopher king to the next level. Only a Christian Platonism could predict what Obama will do.

We might say, then, that Obama is not only post-partisan and post-racial, but post-Platonist. The context in which he lives, moves, and has his being may have been first designed in the 300’s B.C.; but it was radically re-designed in the First Century, A.D.

Micah Tillman, July 10, 2008. Tillman is a lecturer in philosophy at The Catholic University of America.

DISCLAIMER: further investigation leads us to suspect that Tillman may not necessarily believe what he claims. Despite his lack of faith, we think his argument sound.