Morning newspaper editions today have used the word “deification” to describe Barack Obama’s meteoric and media-driven rise to presidential prominence this political season. His supporters promote him with a fervor bordering on, if not crossing over the line of, religious faith, and never mind substance or lack of accomplishments.

This phenomenon raises a host of interesting questions, intellectual and political, and the election post postmortems will be fascinating no matter the November outcome. Two of the questions on that list worth considering even now might be:

* Does the political candidate create the moment, or does he/she merely recognize it?

* Having recognized it, does or can the political candidate control it or merely ride it?

It was Voltaire who wrote that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. To an extent, I think this is what has happened in a political sense this time around.

The moment includes a president at his lowest approval rating of 28% in his eight year presidency, an unpopular and no-end-in-sight war, an economy with little to feel optimistic about, the serious issue of our country’s immigration policy, environmental warning signs, ever-increasing health care costs, an ever-present social security ticking bomb, and the first time in many voters’ memory there is no incumbent or carry-over candidate on the ballot.

In this sense, no candidate created the moment, no candidate defined the circumstances. Obama’s rhetoric and speech making did not craft debate on the moment, no matter how flowery and talented his oratory has been. He simply reflected the moment. Give him credit for having recognized it, though, and enjoying the ride.

But, can you tell me the name of one hero, a hero in the mythical sense, a Joseph Campbell “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” hero, a John F. Kennedy “Profiles in Courage” hero, in America before this election season began?

Baseball players were getting juiced, and their performances were shown to be bogus. Football players were getting arrested and suspended, and setting poor examples for the American young. Basketball players glorified the street thug, gang-type tattoos worn with pride, and tearfully confessed to infidelity while using diamonds to buy their way back into good graces. The usual source of hero worship, then, our professional athletes, was unfertile ground.

Our political leaders were being arrested in public restrooms, or leaving their telephone numbers and names in the little black books of “professional” women. Unbridled greed in corporate America brought down major businesses and left tens of thousands of people without jobs or hard earned retirement benefits. Nothing to see here, either, so just move along.

The moment was ripe. No “hero” existed, and it became necessary to invent one. Enter the presidential campaign, and enter Barack Obama. Perhaps a little melodramatic, but nonetheless just what so many people needed. A hero is someone who inspires us to be better, to grow in any and every way possible. A hero is someone who gives us reason to believe we really can be better, that we can grow in all ways possible. It doesn’t necessarily have to happen that way; it’s enough that we believe it is possible. Everyone needs a hero, someone to look up to, someone to help us feel better about our future.  We’ll cling to that very mightily.

Others will have to decide whether that is the type of president we need at this moment, though. It’s never that easy, that simple, for the world is at best complicated. Danger does exist all around us all the time, and perhaps someone a little more tested, a little more seasoned, is a better choice.   That is what politics is about . . . voters making those kinds of decisions about their elected officials.

For the moment, and in the absence of a hero, one has been invented. Voltaire as a political pundit, and the deification of Barack Obama.

He has little in the way of substantive accomplishments to recommend him to us. Little surprise here, as he just hasn’t been around long enough yet for that. However, he does present us with form, a form that compliments the moment, form that fills a void. History will determine the extent to which we invented him, but give him credit for recognizing the moment. That’s politics, and Voltaire called it right.