Obama's ColumnsWhat they really symbolized.
Posted Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at 10:15 AM ET
The backdrop to Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field last night was widely described as a Greek temple. Some have compared it to the Lincoln Memorial, a secular temple, before which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, whose 45th anniversary coincided with the convention. Others saw architectural allusions to the White House.
PRINT
DISCUSS
E-MAIL
RSS
RECOMMEND...
Facebook
MySpace
Mixx
Digg
Reddit
del.icio.us
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Sphere
StumbleUponActually, the Denver setting was a loose (and much smaller) version of the neoclassical colonnade in Chicago's Soldier Field. That structure, part of an athletic stadium designed in 1919 by Holabird & Roche, commemorated World War I soldiers, hence the name. So the symbolic messages of the much-maligned Temple of Obama are not only "Lincoln," "Martin Luther King," and "White House," but also "Chicago," "war memorial" and "ancient Greece: birthplace of democracy."
The real surprise is that a campaign based on change eschewed Gehry-esque billowing-cloud shapes, Libeskindian jagged shards, and even stainless-and-maple Starbucks moderne. Is Obama a closet Classicist, or is this merely another measure of this contradictory politician?
When Congress Sends a Bill to the President, Do They Use E-Mail?
Gov. Haley Barbour's Strange Habit of Pardoning Murderers Who Work on His House
Slowpoke Directors Explained: Why It Took 12 Years to Make Avatar
The Surprising Reason Banks Are Suddenly Repaying Their TARP Funds
How Come You Don't Hear About the "War on Christmas" Anymore?
Jeff Bridges Gives the Performance of the Year in Crazy Heart
