Imagine Obama claiming to be the second coming of MLK and holding a rally at the Lincoln Memorial

[BurtWorm]

on Saturday. What would Glenn Beck make of that?

This is from Steve Benen of Political Animal (complete with embedded video of Beck's self-parodical ad comparing himself to Jesus, practically):


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_08/025394.php

...

Atrios <says>, "The slightly interesting thing Beck is that he appears to be an insane megalomanic who is self-aware enough to be aware of that fact. It's what allows him to be a huckster clown on top of it."

I'd just add one related thought. I'm trying to imagine what the response would be among conservatives if, say, Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 had tried to do something similar. Imagine if the campaign had organized an event at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of the "I Have A Dream" speech, and then released a video comparing the Obama-led effort to the Founding Fathers, the Moon landing, the civil rights movement, and the invention of airplanes.

Imagine if that same Obama campaign video told viewers, "It's time to restore America. Restore the world. It's time to believe again."

The right would consider this egomania on an unhealthy level, and they'd be right.

And yet, here we are, with Beck, Palin, and 300,000 zealots showing up in D.C. on Saturday.