WWBHOD?

While Newsweek thinks Obama is god, the New York Times thinks he is Jesus. Or some kind of Messiah, anyway. At least that's what I gather from this highly religulous picture they posted on their website. The symbolism is unmistakable, and I love these comments from Cheryl Prater:

Silly, silly...that’s not a Christian cross, it’s the international sign for hospitals. And that’s not a halo, it’s the sun. And that’s not the kingdom of God in the distance, it’s the White House. And that not the Messiah, it’s the…oh wait, yeah it is.

Erick Erickerson was one of the first to ask, "Is this photoshopping the New York Times' way of endorsing the idea that Obama is now god?"

Close, but no. He's Jesus.

By reviewing the central attributes of the photograph, Doug Ross explains:

• Obama, in what has become a tradition for the media, is deified with lighting that resembles a halo (ever recall the use of similar lighting for George W. Bush?)
• Deification is further emphasized through the use of a cross watermark, courtesy of a mosaic filter.
• The focus, however, is on Obama's single upraised finger, the digit pointing towards the heavens, as if to say "I am the one that can save us, as it was foretold by the ancients." Or something.
• The White House, a tiny, nearly transparent reflection, is located below the President; it seemingly says that the man is bigger than the office. He is more real. He is more important. He is the One.

There's always a doubting Thomas:

Of course, in real life, Barack Obama appears to be little more than a cigarette-puffing Chicago pol, trained in the Alinsky school, whose doctor recently requested that he cut down on his drinking.

Key word: "appears." Appearances can be deceiving.

What was the New York Times trying to accomplish with this picture? The photoshopped image accompanies a NYT article that begs us to help the Democrats save souls lives Obama's presidency by supporting Obama's health care reform health insurance regulation bill:

The Times' concern, laughably, is for the Obama legacy, not the hundreds of millions of citizens whose very lives will be impacted by a Rube Goldberg-esque, certain-to-fail, country-bankrupting, Soviet central-planner's *** dream.

Paging all Coffee Party patriots...STAT!

Some suspect that the religious conceptualizations were unintentional, but the image was created by Nola Lopez, a high profile illustrator who specializes in conceptual illustrations. Here's a blurb from the bio on her website:

After working as a designer/illustrator, a window dresser and photographer's stylist, she decided to pursue photography as a career. She describes her work as conceptual still life and collage and works with a diverse group of clients including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, In Style, W, Fortune, Random House, A&M Records, Citibank, Merrill Lynch and Visa among others.

[emphasis added]

You don't have a list clients like that if you don't know what you're doing or if you don't understand how to carefully manipulate powerful symbolism. Unintentional? I think not.

Hat tip: iOwnTheWorld