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Reuters Claps Horns on HillaryThe Obama Messiah Watch, Part 10

By Timothy Noah
Posted Sunday, March 2, 2008, at 5:19 PM ET

Is Barack Obama the rod out of the stem of Jesse? To answer this question, Slate has periodically gathered gratuitously adoring material from newspaper, television, and magazine profiles of the U.S. senator from Illinois, best-selling author, Harvard Law Review president, Men's Vogue cover model, two-time Grammy winner, efficient note-taker, physics wunderkind, descendent of George Washington's great-great-great-great-great grandfather, teenage jazz enthusiast, possible telepathic communicator with space aliens from distant galaxies, improvement on all civil rights gains since 1957, calmer of turbulent Iownas, and front-running candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Last month, Reuters clapped a halo on Michelle Obama. The March 10 Time, in its cover photograph, bathes the head of the candidate himself in otherworldly white light. But the good book says that before Christ, there was the Antichrist. We know him as the devil, the beast, the foul fiend, the cloven hoof, the prince of darkness, the angel of the bottomless pit, Old Scratch, Satan, Beelzebub, Belial, Lucifer, and Mephistopheles. The iconographers in Reuters' photo department propose a new name. Care to guess? Hint: It's someone with at least 35 years of experience and a fondness for red phones. Yes, Reuters wants you to know that these days the Antichrist travels under the nom de guerre "Hillary." I don't know how else to read this photograph. Me, I have my doubts. Wouldn't the devil do better advance work?

Obama Messiah Watch archive:
Jan. 29, 2007: Took very few notes in class!
Feb. 5, 2007: Mastered laws governing universe!
Feb. 7, 2007: Shares ancestor with George Washington!
Feb. 9, 2007: Dug jazz when he was still a middle-schooler!
Feb. 13, 2007: Communicates (possibly) with space aliens!
Feb. 14, 2007: Better than civil rights!
April 4, 2007: Accept no substitutes.
Sept. 12, 2007: Calms turbulent Iowans!
Feb. 13, 2008: Michelle Obama's halo!

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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