Paul Simon on DiMaggio: A metaphor for our times?

What is the larger significance of DiMaggio's death? Is he a real hero? Let me quote the complete verse from ''Mrs. Robinson'':

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates' debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it you lose.

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
What's that you say Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away.

In these days of Presidential transgressions and apologies and prime-time interviews about private sexual matters, we grieve for Joe DiMaggio and mourn the loss of his grace and dignity, his fierce sense of privacy, his fidelity to the memory of his wife and the power of his silence.

'The Silent Superstar' By Paul Simon
New York Times, March 9, 1999