In my lifetime, there has been an effort to delegitimate every Democratic President. Kennedy was called a traitor and undermined by his own military. Clinton was called a communist, and was said to be murdering people right and left while importing drugs from South America--a real Arkansas Scarface.
Kennedy had to face down the Soviets, with nuclear war on the line, in order to be legitimated as president in the eyes of a certain portion of the public. His opponents finally recognized Clinton as president in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing.
In President Obama's case, it's been the "birthers," the agenda of which is to assert that Barack Obama is not really an American, not really one of us. This would now seem to be out-dated. He just took out our number one national villain. You don't get more "one of us" than that.
Psychologically, this gets into mythological territory. It's not surprising that the President is enjoying a notable boost in his popularity, which, the pundits hasten to assure us, will be short-lived. That may indeed be so. After St. George slew the dragon, he urged the townspeople to honor the clergy and help the poor--then he rode on. One thing for sure though: He damn sure slew the dragon.
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