McCain Ad: Obama as the Antichrist?

By Steven Waldman - Wall Street Journal, Opinion
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - Web Link
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August 12, 2008

Much attention has been given to John McCain’s “celebrity” ad showing Barack Obama alongside paragons of ditziness Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. But some are arguing that it’s a second ad that will go down in the record books as an all time low – in part because it stokes fears that Sen. Obama is, literally, the antichrist.

Called “The One,” the Web ad implies that Sen. Obama has a Messiah complex. It begins with an announcer intoning, “And: It should be known that in 2008 the world will be blessed. They will call him: The One.”

The ad shifts to snippets from Obama speeches – “A nation healed! A world repaired! We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” And the announcer declares: “And he has anointed himself ready to carry the burden of The One. To quote Barack, ‘I have become a symbol of America returning to our best traditions.’” It shows a movie clip of Moses (Charleton Heston) parting the Red Sea, with an Obama presidential seal rising from the waves. The announcer intones: “and the world shall receive his blessings.”

McCain supporters argue that it’s a playful ad that pokes fun at Sen. Obama’s sense of grandiosity. But liberal religious leaders see something ominous. The ads “seem to target Evangelical Christians in profoundly disturbing ways, using language and imagery that would have a special effect on Evangelicals… inspiring anxiety of the most primal spiritual form: fear of the Anti-christ,” wrote Brian McLaren, a leading progressive evangelical.

That’s a strong charge. After all, the antichrist is a profoundly evil character of the New Testament: generally thought to be a human, possessed by the devil or demonic spirit, he would be hailed as a savior by the masses and then rule the earth in ignominy, just prior to Jesus’ return.