The problem with mock-"grass roots" protests put together by highly paid political consultants is that they always lack the true common sense of the kind of theme always underlying a true grass roots protest. This is a prime example. The original "Joker Obama" poster, showing Barack Obama in Joker facepaint, was actually created by a liberal left-winger playing around with Photoshop, without intending to convey a political message. But the idea of co-opting it and captioning it "socialism" and (as this YouTube video suggests) presenting it as an anti-Obama campaign by posting it up around college campuses and young, left-wing cities like Los Angeles as a jab at Obama, is so inept that it can only have come from the narrow vision and backwards logic that seems to occupy the minds of political think-tank bureaucrats of any stripe. Here's why.

First, the Joker from The Dark Knight, the version that this image is lifted from, was no socialist; farthest thing from it -- he was an anarchist. That Joker conveys anarchism in his appearance, even. His hair is a mess, the make-up is disorderly, sloppy, has an air of griminess to it. Why? Because anarchism is the complete breakdown of order, the farthest thing from socialism. Real socialism has many drawbacks, but (as anyone who has visited the truly socialist-leaning areas of Northern Europe can attest) a tendency towards disorder isn't one of them. So the image itself totally dominates the presentation, while totally contradicting the message that the promoters are trying to push.

Batman villains tend towards one of three ideologies: anarchism, fascism, capitalism. Those within the last two types are looking to take the easiest route to obtain power or line their pockets, rather than forward a real sociopolitical agenda. But this Joker was markedly different from the money/power types, even from the occasional apolitical revenge-seekers. Even the Jack Nicholson version of the Joker from the original Batman movie (discounting the camp versions from the 60s/70s) appeared more interested in making an artistic statement, rather than a political statement. The Dark Knight Joker was all about fraying the boundaries of polity.

But the biggest problem with the whole campaign is that the Joker is cool. He was the coolest thing going in The Dark Knight, much more fun to hang out with than the brooding, conflicted Bruce Wayne/Batman. He was the kind of villain you can't help but root for a bit, like Hannibal Lecter without the cannibalism, and with a big vision and a posse to bring it to life. Cooler than any Joker to come before him, and the reason that the film was taken seriously, and Heath Ledger won the only Oscar he'll ever get. Indeed, the Joker really was the winner by the end of the film. He didn't get killed off, and although he didn't get the citizens to blow each other up, he succeeded in corrupting the incorruptible Harvey Dent, and in getting Batman first to break all bounds of privacy with that mass-cell phone infiltration, and ultimately to break his own code by killing Dent.

Now, that "criticism" of Obama, that he's too cool for school, is a message previously pushed in the pre-election Summer with a horribly misdirected ad campaign, part of the "Celebrity" and "The One" series, questioning whether Obama was too much a "celebrity" to lead. Which only made people think of him in a larger-than-life (i.e. "presidential") frame. So, painting "cool President" Obama as "cool villain" Joker doesn't really get people to think Obama is a villain. For the people it seems to be aimed at, college types who are on the fence politically and still developing their own ideology, it just sends the message that Obama is even cooler than they'd thought.

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Please note, this is not intended as a statement for or against Obama, or his political opponents; just an analysis of the ineptitude of a particular piece of political theatre.

Well, this is of course, the opinion of one man, and one who's pretty neutral about that Obama feller. I saw some chance of hope and change in him, but now I see he's just like the others. But there are some comparisons that warrant a second look-see. This is primarily for devilment and to see if comparisons can be made. Not reflective of the opinions of this old fart, nor should it be taken as such.

The Joker in that film (hey, Batman was a staple of childhood life even back in my day - yes, I saw it) moved people in a giant pack, by the use of simple and easily understood devices. Mob mentality and the appeal to fear. In fact, one of the features of the film were that people were pretty damn easy to get all worked up in a lather, and shoved onto the only way out of town, making it that much easier to blow up. Using simple, one note ideas like "hope", "change", "we must go trillions into debt RIGHT NOW and bail out all my special interest friends or the banking system will collapse", "we need to take full government control over health care or y'all will die". Time will tell where we're bein' herded.

Also, the Joker was a charismatic figure and somewhat of a show pony - always in front of a camera, always about the publicity. And just as how that Yankee carpetbagging twit Dubya spent most of his Presidency AWOL, just like during 'Nam, Obama'd attend the opening of a bag of peas if there was a bunch of cameras around. He'd run up there with a teleprompter faster than he could ban most types of tobacco except the ones he smokes.

Then there's whoever his real name is, his background - none of it's really known. He's just "The Joker". Likewise with Obama. Where was he born? Where's the birth certificate? Is he Barry or Barack? He came from some mysterious, dubious origins - out of that Muslim school, but he's not a Muslim, and possibly born in Kenya, but he's not African, but American. No straight story, and grist for the rumor mill.

And if you remember in the first part of that film he shoots his own people in the back. I like to read, I read voraciously. Get all the free papers in Atlanta and sit down and read them with my coffee. And according to the hyperlogorrhic mess of screaming from the small presses, it seems like a lot of these gay groups and liberal groups that campaigned for him ended up bein' shafted, if you ask them. Takin' money from the gays and then praising the Defense of Marriage Act, callin' em same as incest in the next breath. And anyone who expected liberal politics as a result of his election was sorely disappointed. At least Bush gave the stimulus checks to the people. Obama gave trillions to the banks, many of them foreign.

And there's this modern school of thought that says that the Joker's somehow some kind of a homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that sort of thing) and has some kind of weird unrequited man-love for the Dark Knight. Now, I understand all the modern jokes about 1950s depictions of Batman and Robin sleepin' in the same bed, and Batman spanking Robin. No sexual connotations back in those days, and the authors of them comics'd be horrified that people read em that way now. And speaking of those small papers, there's more than a few African Americans, specially the preachers of a right wing variety, wantin' to know just who Barry Sinclair was, and that Obama should come out of the closet himself. Quite a few Youtube talkin's on the subject, and a few scathing pieces in a few of the other small presses.

Don't get me wrong. Had high hopes for the man, and am sure glad that that insane old coot he ran against didn't get in the White House. We'd be knee-deep in radioactive fallout with that lunatic at the helm. In fact, if you were looking for someone to characterize as a raging psychopath, that feller the Birthers never went after rightly fits the bill. (Who was born in Panama at a time when bein' born offshore did NOT grant you citizenship at birth, THE prime requisite of bein' President. Obama might be a Kenyan Muslim, but his mama's American, so he WAS American from birth, given that the law when HE was born granted citizenship at birth.)

But then again, if you're askin' the political system or the propaganda around it to make any kind of sense, you're askin' for far too much.