The Power of Spectacle, Part 2 .....

Once again, the power and potency of spectacle, especially when employed in politics, was demonstrated. Just as it was more than two months ago, at a plateau of the 2008 presidential campaign, so it was again this week, at the summit of that campaign.
In late August, I offered this post, in which I tipped my hat to everyone involved in the conception and design, the prep-work and the production of finale to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, held in Denver's Mile High Stadium. "For all the chuckles from the punditz (in-print, on-air and especially online) regarding their choice of venue for the final evening," I noted, "it produced a stunning and spectacular evening that created positive and indelible images of the candidacy that, I'm sure, the Obama camp hopes will carry over to November."

Images and spectacle, bread and circuses ... it's a recipe for success in the arena of statecraft and politics that is as old as society itself. Sure, there are those whose words transcend the event, and become a part of us ... Martin Luther King could do that ... so could John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Lou Gehrig. It's said that Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Elizabeth I and Julius Caesar could, as well.

But there are also those occasions, where the setting, the context places an added emphasis upon the event, long after the words are mostly forgotten. Tuesday night may have been one of those occasions ... and I think the producers and directors at msnbc realized that when - just moments after the polls on the west coast had closed, and another block of states were projected to go to Barrack Obama, and he was declared the winner - their anchor team fell silent. For the next several minutes, we were treated to sights and sounds around the country, of people celebrating the announcement ... in Harlem and Times Square, in New York City ... in Spellman College and Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta ... and, most of all, in Grant Park in Chicago, where the crowd was estimated in the hundreds-of-thousands.

No commentary from Matthews, Olbermann, et. al. Instead, just moving back-and-forth from one location to another, relying solely on video and nat sound as people cheered and waved flags, laughed and cried, danced and prayed. Sometimes, all the words you need are found in scenes such as these that offer no scripted words ... but speak eloquently nonetheless.

And now begins the hard part ... whether the Obama administration will deliver on the promises of the Obama campaign. Time will tell. It's good to have image and spectacle ... but a little historical perspective on your side won't hurt, either.