Friday, August 1, 2008
A new ad from John McCain's campaign poses Barack Obama with Charlton Heston's Moses, asking, "Is he ready to lead?"
After taking some flak for an ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, John McCain’s campaign has released a new Web ad seeking to portray what it says is Obama’s smugness and false regal perception with a new comparison: to Moses.
Or at least Charlton Heston’s famous Hollywood version of the biblical character.
With austere language by both the narrator and Obama, the ad begins with a high-minded narrator’s voice referring to Obama as “The One,” the nickname McCain aides are using for their opponent and the aura around him. The ad intersperses equally high-minded sound bites from Obama.
The ad drew a pointed response from the Obama campaign, which accused McCain of “juvenile antics.”
McCain insisted he was running a “respectful” campaign and brushed off complaints from critics and even some supporters that his tone had taken a sharply negative turn in recent days. (Good! Get “sharply negative”. There’s a lot to get negative about Odumba!)
The new ad was not set to air on any television stations, so the campaign was counting on it to attract viewers by circulating broadly on the Web. (This we’ve got to see!)
It includes an exchange between Obama and a CBS reporter in which he says he doesn’t have any doubts.
The narrator then asks, “Can you see the light?” (snicker, snicker)
OBAMA: A light will shine down from somewhere. It will alight upon you. You experience an epiphany and you will say to yourself, “I have to vote for Barack.”
NARRATOR: And the world will receive his blessings.
OBAMA: This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. (Oh good Grief! He's a Joke!)
CHARLTON HESTON AS MOSES: Behold His mighty hand!
NARRATOR: Barack obama may be the one. But is he ready to lead? (He's a joke and a Muslim, too!)
As the Red Sea parts under Heston’s outstretched hand, emerging from the deep is the Obama campaign’s version of the presidential seal, which it abandoned after a brief appearance on the campaign trail.
McCain defended the ads.
“I don’t think our campaign is negative in the slightest,” he said. “We think it’s got a lot of humor in it, we’re having fun and enjoying it. … We’ll continue to fight and scrap all the way to November 4.” (You’ve got that right, Sen. McCain.)