Painting: Alex Grey

Poster Credit: Ray Noland ("CRO")

Obama - The Transfiguration

Obama at fund-raiser at Steven and Judy Gluckstern's home, April 9, 2007. George Soros is seated to the right of the stairs. (Published in "How Barack Obama Struck Fund-Raising Gold, New York Magazine April 16, 2007; Photo-credit: Michael Edwards (note that this is the actual photo as published by New York Magazine, and contrary to the claim of William Lowther @ Telegraph, has not been doctored by this blog; (via "Daily Speculations" | What is the "Transfiguration"?)

"I'm asking you to BELIEVE ..."

President Barack Obama addresses a town hall meeting on health insurance reform inside a hangar at Gallatin Field in Belgrade, Mont., on Aug. 14, 2009. Official White House photo by Pete Souza. Source: Official White House Photo Stream September 1, 2009

Behold! The Graven Image of our Great Leader is Finished!

The long awaited, larger than life statue of President Barack Obama has been completed. Over 20 feet high and 12 tons of concrete and steel, internationally known artist David Adickes has completed the latest of 44 presidential statues and on its way to be displayed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, home of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

President Obama's statue will tour through 10 states and 40 cities. The President Obama statue will come to rest in the Black Hills of South Dakota at the internationally known Presidents Park around July 4, 2009.

President Obama is Finished Black Hills Today

"Obama is standing above the country, above the world. He's sort of GOD."

"In a way Obama is standing above the country, above the world. He's sort of GOD. He's going to bring all different sides together."

- Newsweek editor Evan Thomas

President Barack Obama pause as he speaks at the close of the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, in the Old Executive Office. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

US President Barack Obama, seen here on February 4, 2009, speaks regarding executive compensation in Cross Hall at the White House in Washington, DC.

"Tell us what part of Obama is in you ..."

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. -- Matt. 18:20

You can help build our gallery of faces from people who see a part of President Barack Obama in themselves.

We've got a photo of Obama you can cut out for yourself -- click here to download it. Then follow the instructions, take a picture and send it to us here. Tell us what part of Obama is in you and we'll add your comments to your photo.

"See Obama in yourself" Detroit Free Press Staff. January 21, 2009.

"No one saw him coming ... like Jesus being born in a manger"

EAST POINT, Ga.—The day after Barack Obama was elected president, Larry Younginer knelt in front of the congregants at his suburban Atlanta church and offered a prayer of thanks.

"Lord, we have again come to you in prayer, and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois, a man called Barack to heal our land," said Younginer, a 62-year-old retired information systems worker at Coca Cola in Atlanta. "We pray that you will build a hedge around him that will protect him from those who would do him harm."

Younginer, like many others, is convinced that Obama was destined to be president. The mere fact that he won the presidency against the odds has caused some Christians, particularly African-Americans, to see the hand of God in his victory after so many years of struggle.

[...]
[Lawrence Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel] said many people look for a sign from God when times are turbulent. And, he said, there are many elements to Obama's win in which Christians can find spiritual significance.

"It is powerful and significant on a spiritual level that there is the emergence of Barack Obama 40 years after the passing of Dr. King," said Carter. "No one saw him coming, and Christians believe God comes at us from strange angles and places we don't expect, like Jesus being born in a manger."

Some see God's will in Obama win, by Dahleen Glanton. Chicago Tribune November 29, 2008.

"Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done..."

Prominently displayed poster at Obama's campaign headquarters in Lake City, Fla.
(Photo: Bruce Hoster; source: World Net Daily)

OBAMA BE THY NAME!

OBAMA BE THY NAME

THY CHANGE SHALL COME

THY WILL BE DONE ...

"Prepare your heart to fill with hope; Prepare your mind to embrace the change!"

"Prepare me a Sanctuary,
pure and holy,
tried and true."

This version of the worship hymn "Sanctuary" by Scruggs and Thompson is performed by Asheville, NC singer/songwriter, Billy Jonas.

Courtesy of ManifestObama.com:

Between now and November 4...
Let's spend one minute a day...
Envisioning Barack Obama...
As our President...
Prepare your heart to fill with hope...
Prepare your mind to embrace the change...
Envision Barack victorious on election night...
...Taking the oath of office...
On Inauguration Day...
Believe that this great moment in American history is already a reality...
Say the words to yourself...
To your family...
To your friends and neighbors...
Say it to the world...
Your vision is a sacred trust...
You are a sanctuary of a sacred vision for a renewed America...
Envision it...
Say it...
Feel it...
Believe it...
Make it our reality...
Manifest Obama, America!

He is the Alpha and the Omega

Urban Community Leadership Academy of Kansas City, MO

Precious Children Sing to Our Glorious Leader!

Sing for Change chronicles a recent Sunday afternoon, when 22 children, ages 5-12, gathered to sing original songs in the belief that their singing would lift up our communities for the coming election. Light, hope, courage and love shine through these nonvoting children who believe that their very best contribution to the Obama campaign is to sing.

We are offering the video to everyone, the Obama campaign and all media with high hopes that we can all join together to Sing for Change."

WE'RE GONNA CHANGE THE WORLD

We're gonna spread happiness
We're gonna spread freedom
Obama's gonna change it
Obama's gonna lead 'em

We're gonna change it
And rearrange it
We're gonna change the world.


YES WE CAN
Music and lyrics by Kathy Sawada

Yes we can
Lift each other up
In peace, in love, in hope
Change! Change!

Scene of an Obama Campaign Headquarters - posted via DrudgeReport September 15 2008

One particular work invoked the sacred, picturing Obama's great head--illuminated by sunbursts--emerging from the clouds over a bare-breasted maiden who is robed in an American flag and emerging from a volcano. Note that in the lower-right-hand corner an assemblage of people are literally kneeling before Obama.

As observed by Jonathan V. Last in a visit to the "Manifest Hope" gallery, which brings together many of the classic works of Obama along with new additions.

Barack Obama - "Our American Prayer"

Obama: "Son of Promise, Child of Hope"

Barack Obama: "Son of Promise, Child of Hope" (Simon & Schuster, 2008).

Ever since Barack Obama was young, Hope has lived inside him. From the beaches of Hawaii to the streets of Chicago, from the jungles of Indonesia to the plains of Kenya, he has held on to Hope. Even as a boy, Barack knew he wasn't quite like anybody else, but through his journeys he found the ability to listen to Hope and become what he was meant to be: a bridge to bring people together.

This is the moving story of an exceptional man, as told by Nikki Grimes and illustrated by Bryan Collier, both winners of the Coretta Scott King Award. Barack Obama has motivated Americans to believe with him, to believe that every one of us has the power to change ourselves and change our world.

OMBama Yoga - "Invoke the Spirit of Obama's Own Phrase"

Denver hasn't hosted a Democratic National Convention for 100 years, and it's a safe bet that the last time the Dems stampeded into town there were no yoga studios selling tee-shirts with the Boy Orator and presumptive presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan on them.

Did somebody say Boy Orator? The silver-tongued Barack Obama's words are on tee shirts selling at Om Time, an oasis of tranquility sandwiched between the Colorado Democratic headquarters on one corner, and the center for the Obama campaign on the other, along with a slice of tattoo shop and art gallery garnish. "The Union may never be perfect but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected," proclaims the tee-shirt in the Om Time window.

It hangs just south of the shri shrine, and the peace and love tee shirts you'd expect. Walk by quickly and you'd think the silk-screened image of Obama's close-shaved head was Ghandi's.

It was to hear more of those sentiments from the man himself--Obama, not Ghandi--that people started lining up at the Obama campaign office at least an hour before it was scheduled to open.

Source: Ohm-bama time in Denver. Quest for seats to hear Obama's acceptance speech Chicago Sun-Times August 9, 2008.

OmBama - Yes We Can!

OMbama Yoga classes! Enjoy these radically inspiring all level yoga classes of incredible, heartfelt practices for change! Join us for an eclectic and joyful practice as we celebrate the upcoming election and the opportunity of participating in the political process with one another and invoking the spirit of Obama's own phrase, YES WE CAN!

öm time yoga class, Boulder, CO.

"One Nation, Under a New Obama Salute"

George Bush had his three-fingered W salute that supporters flashed when greeting him at presidential campaign events in 2000. And now, if a Los Angeles creative agency gets its way, Sen. Barack Obama will see fans meet him with his own salute like the one above. "Our goal is to see a crowd of 75,000 people at Obama's nomination speech holding their hands above their heads, fingers laced together in support of a new direction for this country, a renewed hope, and acceptance of responsibility for our future," says Rick Husong, owner of The Loyalty Inc. ...

"We thought, 'Let's try and start a movement where even while walking down the street, people would hold up the O and you would know that they were for Obama,' " says Husong. Much thought went into the relatively simple idea. "You interlace your hands in a circle, the interlacing being a symbol of different types of people coming together and the circle a symbol of unity," he says. ...

"We want to see it everywhere, but more importantly we want this sign to take the world by storm."

One Nation, Under a New Obama Salute U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers". August 7, 2008.

Credit: Atelier Bagatelle' (Source: ObamaArtReport.com)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is silhouetted by the sun as he gets off the plane at South Bend Regional Airport in South Bend, Ind., Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

"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.

Obama = The New Mahatma

... followers willing to wait for hours on end to hear him speak have been crowding out huge concert halls and sports arenas to get a glimpse of their new progressive avatar and drive long distances to obtain the Obama darshan or to simply be in his presence. One can just imagine what the peace and flower-power concerts in the 60's might have been like. Many even see in Obama a messiah-like figure, a great soul, and some affectionately call him Mahatma Obama. Clearly, people are hungry for a change and want an inspirational leader who can serve up some hearty 'chicken soup for the soul'. ...

Like the Mahatma [Gandhi], Obama is becoming a global symbol of the 'hopes and dreams' of millions around the world. Those who look up to the American ideals, consume American media, and dream American dreams are tuned into this historic election. While Gandhi marked the end of the colonial era, Obama with his multicultural background and upbringing represents the age of globalization. Obama is in an unprecedented historical position to not only be the first African American president, but the first 'global president' of America. Obama's images on T-shirts, magazine covers, and TV screens around the world may be a harbinger of the next American century, if the American people are willing and able to lead it.

Obama's Satyagraha: Or, Did Obama Swallow the Mahatma?. June 27, 2008. (Dinesh Sharma is a marketing science consultant with a PhD in Psychology from Harvard).

Behold the Great Seal of the ObamaNation!

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks during a meeting of Democratic Governors at the Chicago History Museum in Chicago Friday, June 20, 2008. A new seal debuted on Obama's podium Friday, sporting iconography used in the U.S. presidential seal, the blue background, the eagle clutching arrows on left and olive branch on right, but with symbolic differences. Instead of the Latin "E pluribus unum" (Out of many, one), Obama's says "Vero possumus", rough Latin for "Yes, we can." Instead of "Seal of the President of the United States", Obama's Web site address is listed. And instead of a shield, Obama's eagle wears his "O" campaign logo with a rising sun representing hope ahead.

Obama: Change We Can Believe In

Credit: Crus Rincon @ Flickr

"This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased"

... And when Jesus OBAMA was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Sen. Barack Obama walks to the pulpit to speak at the Apostolic Church of God service about fatherhood in Chicago on Sunday. PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Brandon; Associated Press. June 16, 2008

Temple Priests offer prayers to Indian God for Obama's Victory

NEW YORK: It's unusual. But, it's a fact. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic party's presidential nominee, is seeking the blessings of Hanuman in his battle for the White House.

The 46-year-old senator from Illinois, who defeated his rival Hillary Clinton in an epic 17-month long electoral battle for Democratic party nomination, carries a "tiny monkey god" apparently representing "Hanuman" with him for good luck.

A recent photo posted on Time's White House Photo of the Day collection shows the first ever Black-American nominee of a major US party for the Presidential elections carries with him a bracelet belonging to an American soldier deployed in Iraq, a gambler's lucky chit, a tiny monkey god and tiny Madonna and child.

That "tiny monkey god," of course, appears to be a statue of the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman, says the posting but editors and the photographer has not identified it as such.

Obama seeks Hanuman's blessing for White House race The Economic Times June 10, 2008.

The priests of Sankat Mochan temple offered prayers to Lord Hanuman, to seek blessings for Obama for the upcoming presidential elections.

During the prayers Caroline Saurce, the Indian representative of Obama, was present at the temple.

The priests gave her a gold idol of the deity to be presented to Obama after consecrating it at the end of 11 days prayers.

“After performing prayers according to Hindu rituals the idol would be consecrated and then it would be handed over to Saurce, Obama's India representative who would carry it to America," said Brij Mohan Bhama, a Hanuman devotee.

Temple priests offer prayers for Obama's victory Sify News June 10, 2008.

"We just like to say his name. We are considering taking it as a mantra."

"While Obama's campaign operation was stagnating under a lame-duck campaign manager, Bettylu Stalzman was working hard. She was pulling together fund-raisers and lobbying [eventual campaign manager David] Axelrod hard on her belief that he indeed had a budding star on his hands in Obama. "I'm sure she used the word magical," Axelrod said with a smile. [Emphasis in original, page 183.]

In Chicago, Obama was listed among the dozen or so politicos who had "IT." Beneath a flattering photo of a smiling, confident-looking Obama, the [Chicago] Sun-Times breathed heavily: "The first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review has a movie-star smile and more than a little mystique. Also, we just like to say his name. We are considering taking it as a mantra." [page 218]

They serenaded the Hyde Park Democrat with chants of "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!" Obama drew such a passionate outpouring from the crowd that even he and his aides were overwhelmed. "At one point, I thought Barack was going to rise up over the people and start saying, 'My children, my children, I have come to free you,' joked his driver and bodyguard, Mike Signator. "It was just incredible." [p. 297]

As quoted in David Mendell's Obama: From Promise to Power (Via NRO's "Campaign Spot").

Obama is a LightWorker - an Attuned Being with Powerful Luminosity and High-Vibration Integrity who will actually help usher in a New Way of Being

Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.

This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don't understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.

To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.

Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy ...

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.

Mark Mortford ("Is Obama an enlightened being?" San Francisco Chronicle June 6, 2008).

"Another another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance"

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. ... The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.”

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. on Obama's winning the Democratic presidential nomination (Politico June 5, 2008).

"this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..."

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then 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. This was the moment - this was the time - when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Obama's Nomination Victory Speech In St. Paul June 3, 2008.

"his speeches give an aura of immortality that belies the fact that he's a living breathing human"

The crowd just erupted in expectation of Obama's appearance but aides called him off. The fact that Stacy Ritter started a chant is reflective of the confidence Obama has instilled in the populace. My voice hurts right now as I have screamed for the good majority of 10 minutes. It's the least I can do for a campaign that has battled so much.

Obama is here! The noise level is absolutely crazy. People are screaming and waving as the man makes his way to the stage with about 10 Secret Service agents behind him.

The crowd immediately ceased the roar when Obama approached the mic, eager to hear whatever the man has to say. ...

Obama's speaking:

"It's good to be in sunshine."

"I love you back"

Barack is recounting why he chose to run, invoking Dr. King's quote about "the urgency of now"
Seemingly whatever he says is being applauded; In a lighthearted way, he said he hasn't done anything yet. The people obviously don't care, drowning out the beginning of his talk.

Obama is successfully rallying people's emotions; the crowd's response is greatest when he talks of universal issues such as self-confidence or a lack thereof. Obama is driving home his messages of equality to a chorus of "yes we can"

I can't believe the man whose speeches I watch on YouTube everyday is so close to me. his speeches give an aura of immortality that belies the fact that he's a living breathing human. ...

His oratory skills are unparalleled. He has created an atmosphere in which each person feels that Obama is talking to them. This communal feel is emblematic of the campaign strategy. I can't help but feel as if I am listening to a speech that will one day be discussed in history books all over the country.

"Every child is our child."

Obama has put a modern twist on the log cabin campaign. This has been one of the defining moments of my very young life.

Obama owns the podium as he walks the walk of a champion. I trust this man. and he has influenced more than he has time to think about. ...

The Obama rally in Sunrise: Blogging live South Florida Sun Sentinel May 23, 2008.

Via the Flikr Obama Art Pool

Behold, Barack Obama's Waffle

A seller named "dixpea" placed what is purported to be Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's half-eaten breakfast from his Monday visit to the Gilder Diner in Scranton, Pennsylvania up for auction on eBay this week, with a suggested bid of over $10,000.

"This is Barak (sic) Hussein Obama's breakfast," the seller wrote, "winner gets his used diner plate with his used silverware and an uneaten portion of his waffle and sausage link."

A note from the seller on ebay explained a waitress at the diner wrapped Obama's uneaten breakfast with plastic wrap after he left the diner and gave it to "a loyal customer."

"This is 100% authentic," the seller writes. "His DNA is on the silverware."

Obama's Half-Eaten Breakfast Sold on eBay April 22, 2008.

* * *

Barack Obama's Waffle (Artist's Interpretation - $90 EBay (sold)