Melting the Tripods: How to Build an Image Programme for Obama as President

Much has been said here, and elsewhere, of then-Senator Obama’s skillfulness in capitalizing upon the zeitgeist prevailing last fall – “Change,” indeed. We have yet to examine, however, President Obama’s skill at the same. There’s reason to be concerned. For one, as a sitting President, Obama is now “The Establishment.” “Change” is hardly a good campaign slogan for the Establishment, and Obama’s enemies know it. It’s time for the President to establish a coherent image programme, one to define and defend his administration and its values.

The transition from candidate to leader is at least as old as the Roman Empire. During the tumultuous years following the death of the first Caesar (C. Iulius), Caesar’s adopted son C. Octavius waged unceasing war against Caesar’s old friend, M. Antonius, for the right to control the remains of the Roman Republic. During it, Augustus engaged in the first (recorded) instance of the heavy-handed P.R. war, minting coins & building gold statues capitalizing on his relationship with the deceased & deified Caesar (“DIVI·FILIVS” – “Son of the God”), and his unity with the Roman past, while casting his opponent as a “foreigner” wedded to Egyptian interests. Antony didn’t help his cause by… ummm… marrying an Egyptian queen, and Octavian carried the day. Once in power, Octavian (now “Augustus”) moved quickly to melt all images of him as a God, recasting them into votive gifts to the Roman Gods. Quite literally, he reforged himself, into the pious steady-state figure history knows today (cf. Res Gestae Divi Augusti).

Obama’s reinvention will, necessarily, be several degrees of magnitude smaller, and less heavy handed (nothing need be melted or burned). But there are direct lessons to be learned. Augustus built his image as princeps (first-citizen — leader) on an abandonment of his self to the state. Just so, in this process, as Obama’s staff, I would scrupulously avoid personal images. The ubiquitous “O” worked for the campaign, and perhaps it still has its place in Democratic campaign material. But Mr. Obama is now – and has been, for some time – the sitting President. In such places of power the office merges with the man, and the change ought to be reflected in his imagery. For example, when we begin talking about re-election, the campaign is not “Obama for America.” It’s “the Committee to Re-Elect the President” (Leo McGarry approves).

Accordingly, it goes without saying that “Vero Possumus” should never be seen again, and probably shouldn’t have been, in the first place.

But what fills the gap? After all, the “O” works. Obama should turn to the classical imagery of American history, building his image on time-tested touchstones: the flag, the eagle, etc. This plan has incidental benefits: for one, it rebuts the myth of the “unpatriotic liberal,” and cuts off – or at least impedes – the right’s new, bizarre, and often campy attempt to co-opt American patriotism as an exclusively revolutionary idea (“tea parties”). Equally potent is the image of the powerful, steady-state President, humbled by his office and the weight of history. Just so, Washington the Warrior became Washington the Statesmen, and only one of them became “the first, the last, the best; the Cincinnatus of the West.” Obama already conjures this image rather forcefully on his own, but he can do more.

This advice does not reduce to “Mr. President, wear more flag pins,” nor does it build to “hire lictors.” The imagery of state is a subtler, more classical thing in America. It’s as simple as publicizing the Weekly Address more broadly:

And doing it from the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, rather than a generic backdrop. Note, for example, the message this picture sends. Pete Souza has a natural instict for these shots, and the improvement is palpable.

The American President should be an austere (august?) figure. Two Presidents in a row have failed to capitalize on that image, for admittedly different reasons. If Obama “gets it,” and takes advantage of the option, he can make a difference for his own political career, and the nation.