Barack Obama's 2006 Tax Return

Commentaries on his returns from the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune.

Although his income decreased significantly, the amount of monies earned is still impressive for the Junior Senator of Illinois.

Barack's Blues: Will "Blessing" Boomerang into a Smear?

Seems every week in Obama's presidential campaign there's something new and potentially damaging and distracting: From "magical Negro" to Saviour.

David Cordero, an artist and student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (and apparent Obama supporter) unveiled his life-sized exhibit called "Blessing" depicting Barack Obama cloaked in white and red robes with a blue neon halo--Jesus Christ as black. Interestingly, Cordero's 'Barack-as-Christ' exhibit seems inspired by filmmaker, Kevin Smith's, "Buddy Christ" from his 1999 controversial movie, Dogma.


About Obama, Cordero said in an interview,

"He's sort of emerged as this really sort of charismatic and really popular person. I think that people really like him and I think it's because of his message of unity and sort of his political platform."

All well and good, but will another well-meaning effort of an Obama supporter boomerang into an unintended smear or become another means of keeping him on the defensive? The melding of politics and religion and the color of Christ is taking center stage right before Resurrection Sunday. People are asking: Is it art? Or is it blasphemy?

Bruce Jenkins, the dean of the Art Institute's undergraduate program, said the school has been flooded with calls regarding Cordero's sculpture, "some of them from angry people."

However, he said the sculpture has gotten mostly positive feedback.

AP quotes him as saying, "When you see it, when you spend time with it, you understand it's not a provocative work at all. It opens a set of questions."

The Obama camp has made it clear that the Illinois senator has nothing to do with the piece.

"While we respect First Amendment rights and don't think the artist was trying to be offensive, Senator Obama, as a rule, isn't a fan of art that offends religious sensibilities," Obama spokesman Jen Psaki said.

Will there be an outcry for the disexhibition of Cordero's "Blessing?" It happened before. Controversial art has a tradition at the School of the Art Institute.

About twenty years ago a graduating senior, David Nelson's painting, "Mirth & Girth" of the late African American Mayor of Chicago was so offensive that several alderman removed the painting exhibition and attempted to take it out of the building, but security stopped them. Amazingly, they then convinced police to "arrest" the painting and removed it from the building. A Judge ruled four years after the incident that three aldermen had violated Nelson's First Amendment rights, and as a result was entitled to receive damages.

While it is highly unlikely that anything that drastic will occurr to the "Blessing" exhibit, the religious right and neo-cons are singing praises. Why?

One blogger believes,

To a sophisticated viewer, it should be evident that the artist, David Cordero, was making a sarcastic comment about media attention and pseudo-religiosity in politics. The sculpture is clearly an indirect criticism of those journalists who assign, in Cordero's words, “all these inflated expectations.”