Mr. November

The National, my current favorite rock band along with The Hold Steady, is selling Mr. November tees on its website, emblazoned with Sen. Obama's image. Mr. November is one of the highlights of the band's penultimate album, Alligator. All proceeds from tee sales go to the Obama campaign.

A couple of notes -- Mr. N in the song rhapsodizes "I used to be/carried in the arms of cheerleaders." Not a bad metaphor for the drooling treatment the Senator continues to receive from all but the rightest regions of the media. (The New Yorker cover, thank you, satirized the ridiculous exaggerations and lies to which the Obamas have been subjected. It was not to be taken seriously.) The Onion's print version this week has a take on the media slavering, anointing Time magazine for producing the ultimate puff piece on Obama.

I just wish The National had taken the Mr. November theme one step further by printing the song's repeated refrain on the tee. It's a way better slogan than Change You Can Believe In or whatever it's morphed into for the general election. And certainly describes what a lot of people feel the Bush Administraton has done to the country.