Hope, yes. Idolatry, no. He’s a gifted politician, not a heavenly body. There’s an interesting discussion of this syndrome here and here.
I actually think the phenomenon says more about our relief to be getting rid of the current demolition crew than it does about imbuing Obama with a Lincolnian civic-godliness, though there’s more than a whiff of that in the air. I think it’s being ironically played upon here...
...though I often see irony in earnestness (how world-weary and sophisticated of me). (And, though it’s not germane to this topic, Barack seems to me to be the first president since Kennedy to appreciate and occasionally use irony—pretty dangerous stuff in the “gotcha” age.)
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