For reasons that defy imagination, Politico has inflicted this column by Keith Koffler upon its readers. Under the headline “Don't celebrate Obama's birthday,” Koffler writes:

Today is President Barack Obama's 49th birthday … unfortunately for the rest of us, his supporters are busy making Aug. 4 a sad day for the country by trying to turn the occasion into a kind of national celebration.

In an effort to drum up enthusiasm — and increase membership — the political operatives who run Organizing for America, an activist group devoted to the president, are set to stage hundreds of birthday parties around the country, giving Obama's day of birth the feel of a holiday.

Nonsense. It's probably safe to say that roughly zero percent of the population thinks that today has the “feel of a holiday.” Presumably Koffler understands that the post office and banks and the like are still open; all that's happening is that a political organization is using Obama's birthday to raise money. Ah … yes, he does:

OFA members are being urged to bake birthday cakes, photograph them and send the image to OFA's website for its blog. A letter from first lady Michelle Obama, posted on the Democratic National Committee website, directs people to the OFA site, where they can sign a “birthday card” for the president.

We don't, as a country, generally celebrate our politicians' birthdays. Except for those chosen few — like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

Yeah, a political organization urging supporters to send birthday cards to the president as a way to raise money and list-build is virtually unprecedented! Why, before Obama, such a thing hadn't happened since … Obama's immediate predecessor!

Koffler ignores that recent precedent, pretending instead that the utterly unremarkable birthday fundraising efforts are cultish actions unique to Obama:

The birthday parties are just the latest manifestation of a kind of worshipfulness that surrounds this president. His image and slogans are everywhere, emblazoned on shirts, hats, posters, walls, bumper stickers and even — uniquely for a sitting present — a few street signs.

…

The president and his operatives have every right to try to boost him to enhance his ability to govern and help secure his reelection. But Obama should direct his aides to dial the glorification campaign way back.

Not only is it contrary to American principles of government, it adds to the polarization of an already divided country.

Obama's tactics are fodder for extremists who charge that he wants to establish some kind of dictatorship. By idolatrizing their leader and igniting the emotional attachment his followers feel for him, Obama's advisers ratchet up the hatred of his enemies and polarize a nation he claims he wants to unite.

Get that? OFA is raising a few bucks by reminding supporters that today is Barack Obama's birthday -- which is just like establishing a dictatorship!

Insane.