Obama was "hope," now TIME makes McConnell "change"

WASHINGTON - First CQ Weekly, now TIME magazine.

Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the Nov. 17 cover of TIME in a familiar motif.

The news magazine is doing a takeoff of a famous Obama "hope" poster to depict McConnell, whose Republicans took over the Senate on Nov. 4, as "change."

Gotta be one McConnell will have on his office wall - maybe it's already there.

After three decades in the Senate, this is McConnell's first time on TIME's cover.

The original Obama poster, by Shepard Fairey, was popular during the 2008 presidential campaign and has had many imitators.

You will recall that Obama often was referred to as the "hope and change" candidate.

So now TIME sees change coming from a different direction. The accompanying article is titled "How Mitch McConnell Won the Day." There is also an interview, conducted with the Kentuckian the day before he won re-election, in which the senator is described as "giddy."

McConnell reiterates in the interview what he told reporters in a post-election press conference in Louisville last week, that he wants to find areas where he can work with President Barack Obama if possible.

As for the future, TIME asked McConnell what his top priority was for 2016.

"Well, it'll be to keep the majority, of course," he answers.

And winning the White House?

"Well, that's not unimportant," McConnell said. "Obviously, winning the White House is the most important thing and I think we're going to have a good shot at it."

By the way, Fairey did not care for the imitation cover.

"I don't agree with the politics of the Republican party, or Mitch McConnell's voting record," he wrote on Facebook. "It's always flattering to be referenced, even in a sarcastic way, but I take the future of our democracy, our country, and the well being of its citizens very seriously. CHANGE is right, but it is in the wrong direction."