New McCain Ad Portrays Obama as the Anti-Christ

You knew this was coming. For most Americans, this latest advertisement from McCain attacking Obama will be seen as deep irony, morphing Obama's political celebrity into a matter of audacious vanity and narcissism. But for many Evangelicals, there is probably a second meaning to this ad. Indeed, the signal is not just one of vanity, but one playing on the theme of Obama as anti-Christ. Not only is he not one of us, but his coming should invoke Biblical fear. See for yourself above.

More like this

Straight talk express? McCain with Jerry Falwell. Last week, I noted McCain's not-so-subtle attempt in a new Web advertisement to draw comparisons between Obama and the anti-Christ with the ad using imagery taken directly from the immensely popular Left Behind series of books. Now Time magazine…
The irony of the 2008 presidential race is that this time around, the Democratic nominee is by far the more religiously devout candidate, promoting a born again language and professed faith. In a match up with John McCain, it's Barack Obama who can genuinely speak the language of evangelicals,…
Senator McCain is attacking Barack Obama with an ad claiming Obama is the world's biggest political celebrity, on a par with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Others have noted that McCain is a bit of a celebrity himself, and, more importantly, the two blond starlets are not exactly at the top of…
Richard Dawkins really should know better. That's why it's frustrating to see him put his foot in his mouth in a big way in a recent interview. Indeed, he did it in a way that leaves himself wide open to charges of anti-Semitism: In an interview with the Guardian, he said: "When you think about how…

The Mayan Calender ends on or around December 21, 2012.

The US elections of course that year for President will be in November 2012. But if Obama is defeated in 2012 he is still US President until the 20th of January 2013.

So, if Obama did lose that year by Mid December it would be really sinking in that his world is caving in upon him.

And we all know what Jim Jones did when his world started caving in upon him. And he didn't have control of America's nuclear weapons.

It does seem like a lot of the puzzle pieces from all over are just falling into place.

Cheese's crust got all muddy!

The last we heard, Obama was a drunken blonde girl with a Brazilian wax. And now he's Jebus Crisp, or else the Andy Crisp?

Flip-flop, flip-flop, they can't even hold onto a theme for one week.

Obama must really be getting their goat. In the next for months, I hope they get bleeding ulcers, coronaries, and strokes. And boils.

By Malocchio (not verified) on 01 Aug 2008 #permalink

Okay, if you say so.

What McCain's team seems to be counting on is that journalists will feature in their news stories whatever they are saying in their ads. McCain's people are finding they can control the media agenda this way -- one provocative ad after another.

I doubt McCain's Paris Hilton ad and this one are even getting much paid airtime anywhere -- my guess is that they are produced and then shown a few times in a few places to get the attention of journalists. They are designed to get a lot more viewership embedded in the news, cable news and talk shows, and others who do political commentary.

Why do media allow themselves to be used in this way? They may feel a certain rough justice since Obama's overseas trip dominated much of the news last week.

By Jerry Kosicki (not verified) on 01 Aug 2008 #permalink

I would have seen that as mocking Obama's supposed presumption...taking quotes out of context of course. But you're right, for evangelicals that probably would make them think of Revelation.

By andythebrit (not verified) on 01 Aug 2008 #permalink

Yup. The righties will see it as a warning, or at least as having strong undertones of prophecy. What's bizarre about that is it should actually convince them to vote Obama, since they (the righties) in general want to hasten Armageddon so their sky papa will come for them.

Obama worship should really worry you. It worries me.

... but it doesn't have the, "My name is John McCain and I approve this message" bit at the end. (Plus at a running time of 1:13 seconds, it will likely cost him a lot of money to run... Yay?)

*sigh* Election commercials are always so dirty.

Reason why this country is screwed? Obama +antichrist in google: 630,000 hits from crazy, no-nothing religious wackos!

My partner had a good point. This post needs a bit more explanation in light of the title, because a lot of people (your average christian, for example) are not going to understand why you think it means what you say it means. If a visitor reading this post is not aware of the "Left Behind" series and fundie nuttiness, it may well look simply like a sarcastic attack on Obama's supposed arrogance. The typical reader of this blog probably will get it straightaway, but your audience is not limited to them and this post would benefit everyone if it was more informative.

I particularly like the world horizon in the first scene, right out of the covers of the "Left Behind" series.

For those who don't know, "Left Behind" was/is an incredibly popular series of fiction books about the rapture; a mythological disappearance of all good christians into heaven.

In the series the antichrist, Nicolae Carpathia seizes control of the UN cures the world of famine, brings a promise of peace, and then becomes the iron fist of Satan.

The image in the first scene of this commercial was literally used as the cover to one of these books.