Senator John McCain has gone too far in his attempt to win the Presidency. First of all, I am sick of seeing all of his negative ads, but not he has come out with a new one entitled “The One” and as a Christ-follower I am appalled and offended. His attempts to win the White House this way, I believe, are going to back fire on him. I hadn’t planned on voting for him before I saw this ad and it has all the more sealed it in my mind that there is no way I would ever vote for him now.
Watch the video below yourself and see what I mean. It is bad enough that people are calling Senator Barack Obama the messiah (note the lower case “m”), but now Senator John McCain is painting him as the Messiah or possible even the anti-Christ. I don’t know his intentions but he is painting himself even more clearly as the person I do not want running our country.
I have been leaning towards Senator Barack Obama, but for the most part I would still classify myself fairly undecided. I would like to see who he chooses for his running mate and I would also like to research out some of the third party candidates and explore their views as well, such as Bob Barr.
HT to Matthew 25 Network. You can sign a petition here asking Senator John McCain to take down this disgusting ad.
Todd,
I have to agree with you on this one. The add is absolutely offensive to me. I also have been turned off by McCain’s ads. I previously had some respect for him. I liked the fact that in the past he didn’t just follow the party line when it came to voting on bills (how refreshing in today’s politics when it seems every issue is split completely along party lines). But since the negative ads have started I have been quickly losing that respect and this one finished it off. I have been totally undecided also. I too am going to check out some of the third party candidates and may for the first time in my life “waste” my vote on one.
Joe, your vote won’t be wasted, because you will be voting for the person that you want to be President.
I did like the fact that McCain was a maverick with the party, but he has been toeing that party line so much that I started to turn from him right away. It became very apparent that all he wanted to do was become President and not to serve the people, which is one of the things that I do like about Barack. He seems to really want to serve the people more than get the glory of being called President of the United States.
I find it interesting that there is not a John McCain endorsement at the end. Aren’t they suppose to follow the ad with, “I’m John McCain and I approve this message”?
BTW, your dad said they talked about it on Fox news and they said that it was created by a website that makes a lot of this stuff up. As far as I now, its never been on TV.
They haven’t put it out on TV yet, but it is posted on John McCain’s YouTube page for his political ads. So it comes from his campaign.
Here is the information on his YouTube page, “Receive the latest official YouTube videos from the McCain campaign!” And here is the link to his YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnMcCaindotcom so you can see that it does come from him. They may never even air it on TV, but it is out there anyway.
Yeah, I though it was a little odd also that the typical “I approve this message” wasn’t at the end of the ad. So before I made any conclusions, I did some checking to make sure that the ad wasn’t created by one of those nutty groups that isn’t connected to the campaign. I found the ad on the official John McCain campaign website along with all the other ads I’m familiar with. Maybe the tag line at the end only gets added if the ad makes it to TV.
And Todd, I know my vote won’t be wasted. It’s just that in the past some people have asked me why I would waste my vote on a candidate who had no chance of winning. I just ask them if they thought their vote was wasted when they voted for a candidate who eventually lost.
It’s only August and I’m already tired of this campaign.
Joe you are just now getting tired of the campaing I was tired of it 6 months ago they should make a law on when it can start not sure what that would be but it has aready been a year ( too long)
The messianic portrayal of Senator Obama is not exactly a new thing. For example, take a look at some of the magazine covers that have shown the Senator recently. His biggest fan certainly seems to agree. Anyway, the reaction has been swift and critical, and perhaps what’s been overlooked are a number of things: (1) the McCain campaign poking a bit of fun at the media obsession with and how much Senator Obama has been essentially hailed as this great American hope; (2) the questions raised by this commercial and the one using Paris and Britney: is he ready? What about his flip-flopping (isn’t Senator Obama selling himself as a change from politics as usual)?
I didn’t personally care for the imagery (esp. the Moses bit), and yes, Senator McCain (and just as importantly, his staff, seeing as how it’s not as if the Senator himself made the ad) can and should be above this, but as this has shown, along with other attempts by politicians at humor, things get misinterpreted.
By the way, Senator Obama’s website had some anti-Semitic material published on it. It’s since gone, but what does that tell us about how much say candidates really have in the control of their official websites?
The country’s about to elect a new President and candidates are making policy statements and have shown glaring inconsistency. We need a debate, so all this quibbling over what the political establishment pretty much sees as an inside joke can focus on issues that matter.
Derek, I know that the messianic portrayal of Senator Obama is not a new thing, but I think that Senator McCain’s ad took it to a whole new sickening level. (Not that it wasn’t sickening before.) I do know that he didn’t have complete control over this, but he has to know by now and he has chosen to do nothing about it, so obviously he approves of this type of thing and as a Christian I believe that kind of mockery is wrong.
And I am with you that we need to get past all of this ad crap and move onto some debates. I just wish they allowed some of the third-party candidates into the debates, because I believe they will be a major player in this year’s election. Much more so than Ross Perot was.
Barb, I am with you. I was sick of this 6 months (or more) ago.
hmmm… funny how a political blog entry always gets so much attention. I could care less if this type of portrayal is a new thing or not, especially as it relates to the media. Coming from the campaign of the person running for president makes it worse in my mind than from the media who sensationalize and use images to sell their product. So those who work for the campaign decided to do the same thing to sell their product. And I certainly won’t let McCain off the hook because he didn’t personally make the ad himself. These people work for him. Yes sometimes employees can get carried away and do something stupid, but like Todd said the boss has done nothing about it. I also don’t think I misinterpreted the ad. I knew it was supposed to be a humorous poke at the media and others who have fallen in love with Obama’s style and “newness”. That didn’t make it any less offensive to me. So from the two major parties, I’m left with a candidate who I am quickly losing respect for and another candidate with whom I have serious reservations with his stance on many issues that are important to me.
Barb, you are right. This was old a long time ago. Saying that, I’m done. No more political commentary from Joe Pop. You’ll all have to go elsewhere for sharp and witty political analysis. Say hi to Marty for me.
Don’t go, Joe. We like your witty commentary. Well, at least I do.
I can only hope that we all treat things that appear to mock Scripture with the same passionate outrage.
/me brings to mind bobblehead Jesus toys, action figures, Christian merchandising aping popular culture that has nothing at all to do with Christianity and frequently takes Scripture out of context.
By all means, don’t let Senator McCain off the hook. It’s right. I’m certainly not letting Senator Obama off the hook for supporting the murder of babies, refusing to support porn filters at public computers, playing the race card when it’s suited him and refusing to act when race has become a factor elsewhere (look up Steve Cohen and Nikki Tinker), and playing the very same political games that he’s declared he’s a change from.
Viable third-party Presidential candidates? That’s a new one. I mean, heck, the Libertarians’ poster child even had to run as a Republican and couldn’t muster up much of a challenge beyond a cause du jour for idealistic college students.
Sorry, but I don’t see silly little Christian cheesy toys and trinkets in the same light as essentially calling a person the Messiah. That is quite a bit different, in my opinion. But to each his own I guess.
I think the third-party candidates will get a significant boost especially if the tap into the disenfranchised Christian Coalition that has been courted by the Republican party. So many of them are not impressed with McCain that I know many Christians that are saying they won’t vote this year or are exploring third-party candidates. The Libertarians could really gain a serious foothold this election cycle.
Nope. Not gonna do it.
Oh, by the way, I didn’t mention this yesterday by way of an experiment of sorts:
I assume you have realized that you’re doing exactly what this ad was designed to do. Going too far in the eyes of some it may be, but mission accomplished.
What are you talking about?
As far as the toys and such go…it’s always “different” when you (a group of people in general) think it’s ok…but the second someone does something that YOU think is not ok there is outrage? Does this make sense?
I don’t find bobblehead Jesus funny. I think it’s tacky. You on the other hand seem to find humor in it.
I think the video proves what the media has painted Obama as….the chosen one. So of course all his supporters are outraged. Because they are so caught up in Obama-fest they can’t see straight.
This is not to say Mc Cain is perfect by any means…but then again when have I ever been the type of person who doesn’t counter my praise on anyone without also pointing to their weaknesses as well.
What am I talking about? What do you think this video was meant to do? You knew that Senator McCain did nothing about this ad, so from the same report where he said that, you should also have known that this ad was never intended for distribution on traditional (read: offline) mass media. It was a viral video.
Thus, what are you doing by posting about it and having online discussion about it?
Exactly what it was intended to do. Generate discussion. Doesn’t matter if it’s discussion in a negative light or not, it’s discussion, and there’s always going to be people on one side of the fence or the other.
I would even go so far as to say that for making this post, Senator McCain’s staff would thank you.
Derek, thanks for clarifying that. I really wasn’t sure what you meant, so thanks.