Thursday, July 05, 2012

The presidential campaign in story and song

Of a certain worthy KNYGHT, the first of Chaucer's pilgrims to get a bio in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, we are told
At mortal batailles hadde he been fiftene,
And foughten for oure feith at Traniyssene
In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foe. 

In 2007-08, Barack Obama did the knyght a few better, debating Hillary Clinton et al twenty six times, and most definitely slaying McCain thrice in their general election contests.  No wonder he's nostalgic today, with the armies of the unemployed looming on the election horizon, for those mortal batailles of old.

There was something epic about 2008, and  I won't pass judgment about the literary genre that best characterizes this year's reprise.  Let's just say that many moments so far have had their echoes in story and song, if xpostfactoid is a guide to anything but itself.  The evidence (with one not-strictly-political interpolation) is below.

John Roberts spares the country's pound of flesh (7/3/12)
Portrait of the candidate as a cruel child (5/10/12) 
A sonnet to Mitt (2/23/12)
Romney's lullaby can't soothe Detroit (2/19/12)
Falstaff for president (2/2/12)
Allow me to sell you a couple (12/9/11)
Romney's lullaby (12/8/11)
The spotted or herbacious backson? (11/14/11)

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