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Oops. Forget all the signs she ignored. Lots of popular art books compile histories of

dog imagery in art, from the cult-mysticism of ancient Egypt to the contemporary

Conceptual comedy of William Wegman. Dogs, perhaps the first domesticated animals in

human history, are most often an artistic symbol for fidelity within families. (Fido,

anyone?) The classic is Jan van Eyck\’s so-called \”Arnolfini Wedding Portrait\” (1434), in

which the bourgeois couple, solemn representatives of Renaissance Flanders\’ prosperous

one-percent, is accompanied by a loyal dog.

Of course, depending on the context, dogs also sometimes artfully symbolize lust. Jean-

Honore Fragonard\’s infamous bedroom romp, in which a luscious young woman plays with her

fluffy white pet amid rumpled white sheets, functioned as an 18th century equivalent to

Playboy\’s racy pictorial spreads. But there\’s nothing like that going on in the Obamas\’

benign holiday greeting card. Like virtually every White House Christmas card since

Franklin D. Roosevelt began the tradition in the depths of the last Great Depression,

this one shows the White House decorated for the season. It\’s straight out of the

Hallmark playbook.

Palin, not content to leave well-enough alone, went on to say, nanikaka54\”Even stranger

than that was his first year in office when the Christmas ornaments included Chairman

Mao. People had to ask that it be removed because it was offensive.\”

Actually, the ornament in question, sent in by an unidentified American citizen for a

White House community tree, included a decoupage reproduction of an Andy Warhol painting

that lampoons Mao as a vapid celebrity; <a

href=\”Moncler\” _mce_href=\”http://www.monclercoatsales.org/\”><strong>Moncler\”>http://www.monclercoatsales.org/\”><strong>Moncler Coat</strong></a> it shows him in

rouged-and-lipsticked drag, vamping like a Communist Marilyn Monroe in a Three Gorges

remake of \”Niagara.\” But bigotry always emphasizes the \”otherness\” of the hated subject,

and what is more \”other\” than white Republicans implying that the Democratic, African

American president of the United States is a Communist?

That, speaking of dogs,  also is called a dog whistle — coded language that appears to

mean one thing to the general population but has a different, more specific meaning for a

target audience. The so-called \”War on Christmas,\”<a

ludicrous but perennial fabrication of Palin\’s employer, Fox News, is a dog-whistle for

right-wing fundamentalists who want the United States to officially become a Christian

nation. On Thursday Palin followed up her greeting card dog whistle with a Facebook

Christmas message that\’s all about her fantasy of \”a ramped up \’war on Christmas.\’ ”

(The only thing missing is the dog in the manger.) Communists being godless, of course

Obama would put a dog at the center of the holiday greeting card!

Obama was in fact doing Hallmark, but Palin is doing John Birch Society. Whether that

will boost her likability numbers above 29% remains to be seen.