FOUR years ago, on the historic occasion of Barack Obama’s first inauguration, we took a look at the good, bad and outrageous movie characters who helped make his election possible. The road to the White House, we wrote, hadn’t just been paved by Mr. Obama’s speeches, innovative campaign strategies and the hopefulness of a majority of voters, but also by decades of African-American men in movies. From the class striving of Sidney Poitier’s everyman in the classic film “A Raisin in the Sun” to Will Smith’s messianic loners in recent titles like “I Am Legend,” the movies have ennobled, consecrated, glorified, immortalized and, most important, normalized the figure of the black man. [More—actually, a lot more. Links in original.]

Brookhiser's "why he is fading" proved to be non-prescient. He was elected President again, and is now giving his Second Inaugural address.