Is Barack Obama "A Face in the Crowd"?

On Saturday, June 14, I watched the 1957 Elia Kazan film "A Face in the Crowd" on Turner Classic Movies. I had seen most of it before but was strangely drawn to it again. Instinct told me that the movie had special relevance to the 2008 presidential election, although I didn't know exactly how. After a second viewing, I understood. "A Face in the Crowd" is eerily similar to Barack Obama's candidacy.

Although I came to this conclusion on my own, I am not the first person to voice this opinion. A video clip listed under "Barack Obama--A Face in the Crowd?" was posted on YouTube on May 3, 2008.

In "A Face in the Crowd," a young Andy Griffith gives a tour de force performance as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a coarse but charming drifter with a gift for song and gab. Local radio reporter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) discovers Rhodes while broadcasting from an Arkansas jail. Sensing his talent, Marcia gets Rhodes released early and convinces him to be a regular on her show. She unknowingly creates a monster.

With his folksy, populist charm, Rhodes meteorically rises in the media, eventually starring in a wildly successful television show in New York City. He also becomes a key adviser to a presidential candidate. A shameless womanizer drunk on his own power, Rhodes has utter contempt for his adoring audience.

At first glance, Rhodes seems more like Bill Clinton in 1992 than Barack Obama today. All three men are superb orators. But like Clinton, and unlike Obama, Rhodes has an outsized appetite for women. Rhodes plays the guitar on his programs; Clinton played the saxophone on "Saturday Night Live." Mr. Obama does not play an instrument. Rhodes and Clinton are from Arkansas; Mr. Obama grew up in Hawaii and lives in Chicago. Rhodes and Clinton are coarse; Obama is well-mannered.