Has McCain Video Stirred Fears That Obama Is Antichrist?

[davidnc76]

Last week The Eleison Group sent out an email arguing that the McCain campaign's web video "The One" is "rife with image after image equating Senator Obama to the anti-Christ, and especially to Nicolae Carpathia, the anti-Christ in the popular Left Behind series."

"... this was not some YouTube video put together in someone’s basement," the Democratic consulting group wrote. "It was a professionally and carefully produced ad that had a much more sinister subtext that millions of Americans will pick up on."

Now Beliefnet's Steven Waldman, writing in the Wall Street Journal, is examining the charge. The ad opens with religious-tinged language: An announcer says, "It should be known, in 2008, the world will be blessed. They will call him: The One." The announcer adds: "...he has anointed himself ready to carry the burden of The One."

At one point, the announcer asks, "Can you see the light?" The spot then cuts to a clip of Obama saying, "A light will shine down from somewhere. It will light upon you. You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack.'"


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/08/13/politics/horserace/entry4347565.shtml

[blogslut]

1. Actually, it makes Obama seem more like Christ

There's a few details about the anti that people either forget or don't know. The closest any US leader has come to the most important detail is Ronnie Rayguns.

[yardwork]

6. What's the most important detail?

Clue me in.

[blogslut]

7. I don't really want to say on a public message board

I don't like putting the vibe out there.

PM me.

[liberalitch]

2. How cool would that be?!?!

I want an ad suggesting that I'm the anti-christ.....
Just think how conversations at happy hour would start....

[zulchzulu]

3. I tell World-Enders that they should vote for Barack because...

...if they vote for him, the end of the World happens sooner! That's what they want, right?

:crazy:

[jobycom]

4. It was a clever commercial, no doubt about it, but its worst impact

wasn't to make people think Obama is the anti-Christ, but to make them think he's too full of himself. It goes along well with McCain's other commercials, mocking Obama as too popular, and a celebrity. This one conjures images of a celebrity thinking he's Christ-like, and that plays into all the earlier accusations that Obama's followers think he's Jesus. There's another satirical email circulating claiming that Obama is a healer, and that miracles happen when he touches people.

"The One" is an old expression, and doesn't have to be Biblical. Neo was "The One" in "The Matrix," and Jet Li was "The One" in a movie of that name. The clip of him saying "A light will shine down from somewhere" along with the light, mocking tone of the over-voice, makes Obama seem ridiculous, not sinister.

It's very effective, when all the commercials are considered together. They create one negative image of Obama as not ready, and they negate (or try to) his popularity. That's what they did to Gore, too. They portrayed all of Gore's astounding accomplishments as symptoms of delusions of grandeur, so that when Gore tried to talk about all he has accomplished, they could mock him..

Obama can't underestimate this, but he can't over-react to it. He has to come out heavy and serious on the issues to undermine the attacks, but he has to do it without abandoning his positive message of hope, and the energy and excitement he generates. If he can pull that off, the commercials might backfire on McCain, making him seem trivial.

Obama can handle it. If he can't, Axelrod can.

[Az_lefty]

5. the one's this spot appeals to aren't going to vote for Obama anyway

it's a cheap attempt to portray Obama as the anti-Christ with Left Behind series images but I doubt it's going to have the effect they want.

[fed_up_mother]

8. Being a former member of the rightwing nutnobs

I think that this kind of stuff is going to draw a lot of nutty voters to the polls.