It was a tremendous run in voyeurism while it lasted. It was big and shiny and puffed up and filled with hot air. It rose quickly and soared high and far. It was larger than life. But it couldn’t stay afloat forever. The Obama image was put together with duct tape and glue. It was a complete fabrication. It is now deflating and heading to earth. Soon it will be discovered that it was empty -- that the entire image was a fraud.

The image was that of a post-partisan, post-racial, post-divisive, really nice guy.

But it is becoming clear that those adjectives don’t really apply to the man found hiding in the attic.

In keeping with the Heene saga what remains is for a teary-eyed David Axelrod to tell reporters that they should have seen the signs all along.

If not for the Obama mania, the soaring rhetoric, the messianic frenzy, the tingling legs, the false hope, the thronging, the fainting, the gushing, the emotionalism, the fawning, the hype, the rapture, the delusion, etc., the news reporters would have noticed.

They should have noticed that the man didn’t come out of Middle America, but out of the crooked streets of Chicago-machine politics. They should have noticed his associates were not exactly normal Americans. They should have noticed it wasn’t guilt by association, but guilt by associating. They should have noticed that remaining in Jeremiah Wright’s racist, divisive, anti-American church for 20 years was simply not reasonable. They should have noticed the countless, wonderful black churches across America that have nothing to do with “black liberation theology” and vile divisiveness.

They should have found out what “community organizing” really meant. They should have connected the dots from Saul Alinsky to ACORN to Obama.

They should have noticed the scandalous amount of money Obama funneled to ACORN during the campaign. They should have noticed the unprecedented voter registration fraud during the election.

They should have noticed a whole lot of things which revealed a controlling and destructive profile; but they were blinded by their own predetermined idea that Obama was the perfect candidate.

Many downcast conservatives thought “mainstream” journalists would never notice the past and present signs. But Obama’s Hugo-Chavez-style treatment of Fox News has opened eyes in a way Sean Hannity could never have dreamed of. It was too dictatorial for even the mainstream media to ignore.

Mr. Obama’s brass knuckles attempt to ban Fox News from the White House Press Pool just might be the single factor that tips the scales toward honest journalistic investigation of the One.