McCain's New Attack Ad

By: Jacques Berlinerblau

August 20, 2008

On the eve of Barack Obama's announcement of his vice-presidential running mate the following bears repeating: the McCain team takes Obama's ability to play the religious card very seriously. And it would like to do everything within its power to pulverize that appeal to hanging-chad sized smithereens.

To this end, the campaign has released a variant of the infamous "The One" spot that it unleashed three weeks back. This contribution is entitled "The One II-Road to Denver." It has an afterthoughtish, let's-empty-out-the-cupboards quality about it, recycles old footage, and will probably, and rightly, be ignored.

Yet as an indice of some of the lines of attack that the McCain camp is employing it is of great interest. It also raises some urgent tactical questions for the Obama people (who had better stop "high-roading" it on F and V issues):

McCain wants Obama-curious Independents and Undecideds to feel like they are joining a cult: The campy/creepy quality of both ads tends to mimic low-budget propaganda produced by fringe political parties or campus-combing "new religious movements." There is a sort of sickly malaise that characterizes these commercials. They induce nausea . A tribute, I guess, to their director's powers of cinematic composition.

In the previous ad I was struck by an image of a staircase ringed by throngs of cheering Obamaniacs. The ascending steps led to nowhere and the implication was that these people and their false prophet were about to take the plunge.

In this new contribution three Obama supporters speak in new-age-y tones about the "synergy" they feel for the man. I also notice that two of the speakers rarely blink--the surest sign of chemical dependency, membership in a cult, or extended viewing of baseball. These commercials are asking fence-sitting voters: do you really want to be a part of this?

The oscillating narratives: These spots cleverly switch between two distinct narrative messages. The first, and most obvious, is that Obama takes himself for a prophet, god, etc. Hence the reference to Moses, or the caption "A Worldwide Sensation."

The second is that the True God disapproves of these shenanigans. In one sequence we see footage of a surfer--is that the Senator from Illinois?--being swallowed by a wave. This comes on the heels of a scene from The Ten Commandments where the sea parts and the heathen multitudes are obliterated. God himself, the suggestion seems to be, has set Obama's divine wipe-out in motion.

Visual, scriptural, and subliminal hi-jinxs: That there is more than meets the eye going on in these ads is something that has been noted by the pro-Obama Matthew 25 Network. The new piece features more of the same and again raises the possibility that certain types of Evangelicals are being targeted. The final image of the Sun lying adjacent to the Washington Monument--those two enduring icons of paganism in the minds of certain Christians--does not strike me as a coincidence.

On two occasions, we hear the line "it is written." Are gospel-savvy Christians being prompted to equate Obama with some sort of liberal pharisianism?

Obama must respond: Senator Obama has the real bad habit, but perhaps sterling personal virtue, of being high-minded in Faith and Values politicking (see for example his classy break-up speech with Trinity United Church of Christ , or his puzzling refusal to mug for the masses at the Saddleback event this past Saturday).

Yet it seems to me--this has been the point of my column for the past year--that religious politicking is among the nastiest, most brutish forms of politicking out there. The Obama team never countered the first "The One" ad. Insofar as McCain has not only impugned the Obama brand name, but its customers as well, the time has come for an effective response.

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