So You Think McCain Isn't Going to Pander to the Religious Right??

Hambydammit
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So You Think McCain Isn't Going to Pander to the Religious Right??

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It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it.

That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain's campaign did in an ad called "The One" that was recently released online. The Republican nominee's advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a "creative" and "humorous" way of poking fun at Obama's popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio and political blogs and in widely circulated e-mail messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

The ad was the creation of Fred Davis, one of McCain's top media gurus as well as a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and the nephew of conservative Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. It first caught the attention of Democrats familiar with the Left Behind series, a fictionalized account of the end-time that debuted in the 1990s and has sold nearly 70 million books worldwide. "The language in there is so similar to the language in the Left Behind books," says Tony Campolo, a leading progressive Evangelical speaker and author.

As the ad begins, the words "It should be known that in 2008 the world shall be blessed. They will call him The One" flash across the screen. The Antichrist of the Left Behind books is a charismatic young political leader named Nicolae Carpathia who founds the One World religion (slogan: "We Are God&quotEye-wink and promises to heal the world after a time of deep division. One of several Obama clips in the ad features the Senator saying, "A nation healed, a world repaired. We are the ones that we've been waiting for."

The visual images in the ad, which Davis says has been viewed even more than McCain's "Celeb" ad linking Obama to the likes of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, also seem to evoke the cover art of several Left Behind books. But they're not the cartoonish images of clouds parting and shining light upon Obama that might be expected in an ad spoofing him as a messiah. Instead, the screen displays a sinister orange light surrounded by darkness and later the faint image of a staircase leading up to heaven.

Perhaps the most puzzling scene in the ad is an altered segment from The 10 Commandments that appears near the end. A Moses-playing Charlton Heston parts the animated waters of the Red Sea, out of which rises the quasi-presidential seal the Obama campaign used for a brief time earlier this summer before being mocked into retiring it. The seal, which features an eagle with wings spread, is not recognizable like the campaign's red-white-and-blue "O" logo. That confused Democratic consultant Eric Sapp until he went to his Bible and remembered that in the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, the Antichrist is described as rising from the sea as a creature with wings like an eagle.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

This isn't funny.  It's really scary.  The fact that McCain thinks it's a good idea to spend a LOT of money promoting this ad is scary, but there's another side to this.  McCain is worried that Obama is going to steal some of the Christian vote.  Let's face it.  Pretty much every atheist in the country is going to vote for Obama, and from the look of early polls, McCain's going to need a solid party line vote from Christians for this thing to work.  Any coincidence that he's trying to scare gullible theist voters with associations with the end times?

Exploiting already brainwashed constituents, anyone?

 

Anyone?

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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Kevin R Brown
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...And still ask us why we

...And still ask us why we think that they are just as dangerous as any fundamentalist in the long run. Sticking out tongue

'It's a personal issue' my ass

 

I'm curious: how much control does your president have, anyway? Could McCain legally overturn elements of your constitution via executive power or use the same influence to for ID into schools? The way his campaign has engaged in this kind of slander and quote-mining, it would hardly shock me at all if he decided it was high time a cross was hung on the front of the White House.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Kevin R Brown wrote:I'm

Kevin R Brown wrote:
I'm curious: how much control does your president have, anyway? Could McCain legally overturn elements of your constitution via executive power or use the same influence to for ID into schools? The way his campaign has engaged in this kind of slander and quote-mining, it would hardly shock me at all if he decided it was high time a cross was hung on the front of the White House.

 

The people he chooses to be judges will be making the decisions about what does and does not conform to the constitution.  And if there were a truly dire situation the pres can suspend the other two branches of government.

If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear. - JP Sartre


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This thread gets a bump from

This thread gets a bump from me. McSame's pick of VP proves that he panders to the religous extreme. He's already said he'd pick Supreme Court judges in the mold of Scalia, Alito, and Roberts. He's also old and not in the best of health, if you get my drift. Sarah Palin could be the one picking these judges.

If this ticket is elected, we are so screwed!

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AmericanIdle
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Quote: taps into a

Quote:
taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio and political blogs and in widely circulated e-mail messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

But that's impossible.  Obama can't possibly be the the Antichrist.

I know this for a fact because...

Everybody hold on.  I got proof !

Where is that big-assed dork's quote... I know it's around here somewhere.

Ahhh yes, here it is, in the wonderful sermon entitled, "The Final Dictator" (I get all tingly) by John Mccain's spiritual advisor, the great Pastor John Hagee, (Pause for dramatic effect), it is made perfectly clear  that the antichrist is definitely a..............."homosexual jew".   God told him so. 

 

That totally lets Obama off the hook !  Call the papers..

 

 

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell


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The bible-thumping gets

The bible-thumping gets increasingly zealous with each consecutive election. Atheists should challenge every theist in spite of the potential problems it might cause in their relationships.

People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.


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 Although Palin scares me

 Although Palin scares me too, Obama is a religious as well. I wonder if we will see an athiest president in our lifetime...


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