I’m not sure how much more I can stand.  A bunch of celebrities make a video where they gush over Barack Obama, and oh my gosh, this is a cult.  Oh boy.  It’s the same thing over and over again.

Let me be as brief as possible on this: If you think anything about this is new or unprecedented, you don’t know a thing about American political history.  You have homework to do.  Celebrities came out in full force for some of America’s best known executives.  Most notably was Franklin Roosevelt.  Hollywood threw its weight behind FDR, essentially becoming a propaganda wing for his presidency.  The 1933 film Footlight Parade was a masturbatory salute to the 32nd president.  Stars like Humphrey Bogart and Will Rogers campaigned vigorously for Roosevelt.  Celebrities getting carried away with a candidate is far from new.  Roosevelt, by the way, didn’t wow them with policy proposals.  I doubt Will Rogers was a devoted Keynesian.  No, FDR instead persuaded people with Christian rhetoric–comparing America’s monied classes to the infamous money changers of old.  Well who, precisely, disrupted those money changers?  Whom exactly was Roosevelt comparing himself to in that instance? 

And the use of song has already been done before.  Take, for instance, the campaign of 1840.  William Henry Harrison was “sung into the presidency,” as one Whig supporter put it at the time.   “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” praised the Whig war hero, and even took a little jab at President Van Buren.  Even Calvin Coolidge–arguably one of the most boring presidents ever–had songs composed in his praise.  And so on. 

As for this video–I think it’s worth noting that inbetween the quasi-creepy “Obama” chanting, these celebrities also specify the policy changes they hope to see implemented.  Protect the environment, end the war, etc.  While I frankly don’t care what a bunch of rich people do with their time, I also don’t begrudge them the right to do it.  The only people who seem to harp on this stuff are insufferable Clinton staffers and Republicans.

Oh, and Michael van der Galien.               

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