President Barack Obama often looks to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln for inspiration; Texas Gov. Rick Perry, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, once named Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as one of the historical personages he'd like to include at a fantasy dinner party. At Perry's 2007 gubernatorial inauguration celebration, rocker Ted Nugent performed wearing a shirt emblazoned with the Confederate flag emblem.

Should Perry win the GOP presidential nomination, an obvious subtext of the presidential contest will be "Confederacy v. Union -- The Rematch." And, at the visual level, the theme will be conveniently reinforced by each man's respective race.