Joseph Campbell once said that if you want to change the world you must change the metaphor. Campbell spoke of religion but that wisdom seems to transfer to politics as well.

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is above all a metaphor. He is a metaphor for everything and anything you or I want him to be. He is a metaphor for, among other things, hope, dreams no longer deferred, a melting pot, America, the unknown, and the anti-christ. As a metaphor, like Santa Claus, he has huge expectations placed on him, a nation who believes in him, and the world watching. Regardless of who Obama really is, through the power of metaphor we have projected upon him what we want and need him to be.

Good luck Mr. Obama. We have changed the metaphor; here’s to changing the world for the better as the result.