Get the Picture?

“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


Barack Obama is the ONLY person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.

-Michelle Obama


I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.

-Barack Obama

I have been examining the Obama phenomenon myself, and have concluded, at least for myself, a Midwestern white male, that Barack’s appeal is actually messianic, it’s something about his aura, his spirit, his soul, that exudes enlightenment in the making.

Oh, he’s not fully enlightened, being that enlightenment is a process, not an event. But for reasons I can’t fully articulate, he is one of those individuals who communicates God-like energy (metaphorically speaking), in whom you can ‘feel’ God.

Now, I’m using the term ‘God’ to mean the loving, honest, just, and inspiring part of the force behind it all. You may not believe something’s behind it all, but I do. And I look for God constantly - that which exudes love, integrity, humility, depth, kindness, generosity - and more … supposedly.

So, Geraldine, I’m taking a special look at Barack Obama because he’s a lot closer to a Jesus-type than the other candidates, by quite a bit. What if God decided to incarnate as men preaching ‘hope and change.’And what if we didn抰 recognize them, because we are so dull, and let them slip away, not availing ourselves of the opportunity to be led by God! Lord knows we’ve elected the anti-Christ often enough. Excuse me, George.

-Steve Davis

Barack Obama strides into that void. While voicing ‘other worldly’ themes he suggests ‘this world’ solutions. His soaring oratory and his ambitious promises make his appeal to hope and his drive for change seem reasonable and attainable. He appeals to all that is innate and created in us in a longing for that ‘better country, that is a heavenly one’ discussed in Hebrews 11.

And he offers fulfillment in his election to the presidency at which time he will unleash the power of government to set things right in a world currently turned upside down. Thus he offers a messianic hope with the full weight and force of the U.S. government to back him up. For many right now, with the youth leading the way, this is a compelling combination. Heaven on earth is indeed appealing rather than having to wait.

-Peter Wierenga, World

“God had a plan for his people. He told them to stand together and march together around the city - and when the horn sounded and a chorus of voices cried out together, the mighty walls of Jericho came tumbling down.”

“Walk with me, march with me - and if enough of our voices join together, we can bring those walls tumbling down.”

-Barack Obama

Many had come just to hear him speak. Some cried. Others just waved their hands.

“He’s running a theological campaign,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988. “At some point, he took off his arms and grew wings.”

-Jesse Jackson

“This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better,” he said. “This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama’s audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed.”

“A black man with a white mother became a savior to us.”

-Louis Farrakhan

"I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."

-Barack Obama

DAVID WRIGHT: We’ve been to dozens of huge rallies like this in dozens of states and with every victory, Obama’s congregation seems to be growing. If you’ve never been to an Obama rally before, a word of advice, go early.

OBAMA: If you arrive together, we will remake this country and we will remake the world.

OBAMA: Keep me in your prayers. You know, make sure that everybody is praying and give me that protective blanket over it.

WRIGHT: Obama’s true believers respond as though they’ve spent their whole lives out in the cold. At rally after rally, a few people literally faint.

WRIGHT: Politics doesn’t even begin to describe it. A visit to an Obama rally is a pilgrimage.

OBAMA: There is a moment in the life of every generation, if it is to make its mark on history, where that spirit of hope has to come through.

OPRAH WINFREY: Disappointment doesn’t have to be normal anymore. For the first time, I’m stepping out of my pew because I’ve been inspired.

OBAMA: Thank you, Oprah. And I love you.


"The atmosphere at his events is such that one wonders if Obama is about to walk out with a basket with some loaves and fishes to feed the thousands."

-Washington Correspondent Geoff Elliot

"I've never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. [Obama] comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament. This is surprising.”

- Chris Matthews

"So I am going to try to be so persuasive in the 20 minutes or so that I speak that by the time this is over, a light will shine down from somewhere.

It will light upon you. You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it."

-Barack Obama

When Morgan Freeman comes over to greet Obama, the senator begins bowing down both hands in worship. “This guy was president before I was,” says Obama, referring to Freeman’s turn in Deep Impact and, clearly, getting a little ahead of his own bio. Next, a nod to Bruce Almighty: “This guy was God before I was.” (Okay, more than a little ahead.) But Freeman is eating it up. Leaning in, he tells the senator to win it. “I will,” Obama replies. “That’s why I’m running.”

“I told everybody who knew me if he ever ran, I would put everything I had at stake to support him because there’s a wonderful Bible passage that says ‘What does it do to gain the world and lose your soul?’” she said. “And I knew that in this moment in time, in my lifetime, I would have lost a piece of my soul had I not stood up for him. So I’m happy I happen to be on the right side of history. But if this had not turned out the way we all wanted it to, it was still the right thing for me to do in the moment I did it.”

-Oprah

“The light of the New Age is here.”

-Forest Whitaker

“Not only does he hear us. He feels us…he talks to my soul.”

-Gayle King, Oprah's friend