Barack Obama's conversion of the United States presidential seal into a personalized campaign emblem (as shown here in a speech made to Democrat governors a couple of weeks ago) was a bonehead move, one that Obama sure hopes will go away soon. And, as he has all year long, he will depend on the media to grin and gloss over his gaffes...that is, when they're not ignoring them altogether.However, the "seal deal" may not be fading away as quickly or as noiselessly as he wishes. And that's because it represents an ongoing trend.
For instance, a CBS News story today picks up on the "style over substance" argument usually only made by conservatives:
"All politicians, especially presidential candidates, traffic in symbols all the time," said Rutgers historian David Greenberg. "But Obama has given special care to his symbolic statements."...
Image-making can be a delicate business: The Obama campaign's misguided attempt to roll out its too-presidential-looking campaign seal fed into the notion that the presumptive nominee arrogantly already believed the presidency to be his. Republicans quickly turned the now-retired seal into a joke, with the McCain campaign rolling out a video suggesting that Obama might next put his face on the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore.
Greenberg argues that Obama "tends to emphasize the symbolic over policy detail" in his campaign - a tendency reflected by his reliance (especially early on) on vague notions of "hope" and "change."
"Bill Clinton used a lot of symbolism too, but he also ran with policy as his centerpiece," said Greenberg. "[Former Clinton advisor] George Stephanopoulos argued that 'specificity was the character issue,' and they made that a focus. That's not really what Obama is doing. It doesn't mean he hasn't thought about policy, but he isn't making it the central focus of his campaign."
(H/T: Our Side of the Mountain)
