The auteur

Imagine you are a filmmaker, an auteur who has just released a short film to the waiting public. Every image, every word was painstakingly chosen to convey a single message. This single-mindedness of theme is reflected in the tiniest details -- down to the style and coloring of every letter that appears onscreen. You edit and re-edit until every second, every frame reinforces this single theme. Your finished product is seamless, relentless, forceful and uncompromising.

Now imagine that after all that work, all that laborious craftsmanship, you find yourself forced to go before the public in order to deny that this single, unmistakable theme was the intent of your film. In interview after interview you are forced to lie again and again. "No," you say, "that's not what the film intended to convey, not at all."

Those interviews would be painful, humiliating work. Some part of you -- the craftsman, the artist -- might be secretly proud that your intended message had gotten through as clearly as you had hoped. That small part of you might feel rewarded and gratified to see your skills recognized. Yes! you'd be thinking, they got it. But at the same time, you'd be forced to deny that this was really the message of your film. You'd be forced to try to convince these astute viewers that you were, in fact, an ineffective and talentless filmmaker who had failed, miserably, to convey the "true message" of your film. It doesn't mean what it seems to mean, you would have to say. It means something else.

The scenario above is not hypothetical. It's happening now, in the real world, to real filmmakers. And it's not happening overseas in some foreign, authoritarian land -- it's happening right here, in America.

The unfortunate filmmaker in question is a man named Fred Davis. His short film, entitled "The One," was shot as an ad for John McCain's presidential campaign. Watch the film for yourself and savor the care and artistry Davis put into it:

There's not a second wasted here -- every image, gesture, note, word and allusion points in a single direction, everything in the film says a single thing: Barack Obama is the Antichrist. Yes, it's propaganda, but like the films of Eisenstein or Riefenstahl, it's also art -- unsubtly didactic, yet beautiful in its unity of purpose.

Tragically for Davis, however, it turns out that accusing your political rival of being the Antichrist is considered a bit over the line. Apparently according to conventional American political mores, the claim that your opponent is the ultimate personification of evil, the 10-horned beast of the Apocalypse, is regarded as sleazy gutter politics of the worst sort.

This created an uncomfortable situation for Davis and for the entire McCain campaign. They obviously couldn't release the ad with the candidate's endorsement -- that would only make it seem that John McCain was an egregiously offensive, dishonest and unprincipled bottom feeder, willing to stoop to any low to try to score political points. Yet it would seem like a shame to waste all the time and money the campaign had already spent producing Davis' brilliantly insane masterpiece.

So the solution McCain's campaign decided on was to release the ad, but then to send poor Fred Davis out to make the disingenuous claim that it's evident message was not intentional. Thus for the last week, the poor artist, betrayed by his patrons, has been forced to make the rounds, abasing himself, denying his own skills and discrediting his own handiwork.

A sad, sad tale. (Either that or Fred Davis is a shameless, disgusting hatchet man, willing to destroy America if that's what it takes to get his boss elected. It's one of those.)

Comments

[Elmo]

Fred Davis is a shameless, disgusting hatchet man, willing to destroy America if that's what it takes to get his boss elected.

What's so hard to believe about that?
Occam's Razor and all that dontcha know?

[cjmr's husband]

Given that this is from the same elite group that brought us "Oh, no, we *never* claimed that Iraq had ties to Al Qaida", I strongly suspect that the auteur in question knew exactly what he was in for.

[SchrodingersDuck]

What's up with the strange Obama logo that appears at the end? Surely the actual logo - the sunrise - is better recognised than some pseudo-Presidential seal that was dumped months ago and could logically represent any candidate.

What's so hard to believe about that?
Occam's Razor and all that dontcha know?

But Hanlon's Razor supports the auteur hypothesis. I wonder what happens when the two adages meet. Do they cancel each other out?

[DylanW]

I saw that video a while back, and while I sort of get they're calling him the Antichrist, I hoped they were just satirizing the mindset that some of his supporters have and I was reading too much into it. I think that sort of satire would have been worthwhile--not that I'm particularly biased toward either candidate, but it's something that needs to be pointed out anytime you get that sort of hero-worship surrounding a person. (To be fair, there were people on the right who did the same thing with Bush, and they need to be called out the same way.)

But actually suggesting that he is the Antichrist... yeah, that's just slimy.

Of course, maybe this is just another example of a "dog whistle," and the point of the ad was to shake up RTCs while merely looking like satire to everyone else.

[Matt]

I'm sorry, but this is reaching ridiculously. The video clearly intends to portray Obama as a self-important but clueless buffoon, riding a wave of Beatlemania. Hence the lighthearted music and the subtext of the final question "Do you want this goofy kid in the White House?" There is not a hint of the ominous foreboding you would see if this ad were actually trying to portray his as the antichrist.

In fact it's almost exactly the same as that Hillary Clinton speech during the primary season: "Now, I could stand up here and say, 'Let's just get everybody together. Let's get unified. The sky will open. The light will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect." Was she also calling him the antichrist?

[Spalanzani]

Of course, if he was the antichrist, wouldn't evangelicals want to vote for him, since his rise to power is needed for the eventual return of Jesus? Or when they the ad says "he may be the one, but is he ready to lead?", is it trying to say that Obama is not yet ready to assume his dark destiny, and evangelicals should wait a few more years before throwing their supposrt behind him to trigger the end of the world?

[Ms. Anon E. Mouse, Esq.]

As soon as I saw that ad, I hoped you would cover it.

Growing up in a RTC church, I had an emotional reaction to that ad that was kept (partially) at bay only by consciously reminding myself that I don't believe in that interpretation of scripture anymore. So, considering my gut-level revulsion when I saw the ad, you have to know that to the RTCs watching, it's a pretty powerful commercial.

If I was the Obama campaign, I'd be furious. That ad is everything that's bad about Christian propaganda. As a Christian, I'm furious that some people's honest beliefs are constantly being manipulated by the propaganda machine.

[Geds]

Matt: I'm sorry, but this is reaching ridiculously. The video clearly intends to portray Obama as a self-important but clueless buffoon, riding a wave of Beatlemania.

Seconding Matt, here. Believe me, I spend enough time with conservatives and Republicans and I'm not so far removed from evangelical Christianity that I've become deaf to the dog whistles. I didn't hear a dog whistle. I heard a, "You're calling this guy Jesus!" whistle and a, "You know you're an idiot for believing this guy is the second coming, right?" whistle.

Which, quite frankly, I think we need to be spending more time asking why we're expecting our politicians to descend from the clouds in a beam of light and solve all of our problems. I've been pretty disappointed with post-nomination clinching Barack Obama and think we'd all be better off if we'd all acknowledged from the beginning that he's still a politician, even if he makes great speeches. There isn't room for zealotry in a democratic election.

[damnedyankee]

I'm sorry, but this is reaching ridiculously.

Given that the concept now comes with merchandising, I think it's a little late to start saying "Oooooh, no, you just heard us wrong!"

[damnedyankee]

Please tell me we're still getting an LB Friday. I'm jonesing here.

[chaos_engineer]

About the Obama logo...there's an article in Global Weekly Time that says they chose that particular logo as a reference to the eagle-winged beast that rises out of the sea in Daniel 7:4. (Reading the passage, the eagle is one of the three practice Antichrists we have to suffer under before we get to the real one.)

[Chris Koeberle]

If your goal was to compare Obama to a run-of-the-mill false prophet without comparing him to the antichrist, how would you change the ad?

If they would have worked in Robert Redford, there would have been no confusion as to intent.

[LL]

RE "A sad, sad tale. (Either that or Fred Davis is a shameless, disgusting hatchet man, willing to destroy America if that's what it takes to get his boss elected. It's one of those.)"

You're more charitable than I am. It's not sad when an "artist" sells out to political interests and ends up regretting it. It's predictable. But I don't think this Davis guy is an artist. He IS a hatchet man, Karl Rove with editing software.

[damnedyankee]

Either that or Fred Davis is a shameless, disgusting hatchet man, willing to destroy America if that's what it takes to get his boss elected.

I'll take Door Number Two, Fred!

[Vermic]

I didn't get any Antichrist vibe off the spot, but then I'm not attuned to the dog whistles. But wouldn't the dog-whistle crowd be voting Republican anyhow?

[Geds]

Given that the concept now comes with merchandising, I think it's a little late to start saying "Oooooh, no, you just heard us wrong!"

Yeah, but how far did we have to reach to get that connection? I mean, it seemed pretty damn far-fetched to me and this post is the first time I'd even seen the ad.

I mean, maybe my particular branch of fundamentalist evangelicalism just didn't spend enough time doing the math on when the antichrist was going to show up, but by the same token I'm pretty sure that I spent 25 years in a pretty mainstream variety thereof. And if I missed it completely while reading a post about how it's explicitly calling Obama the antichrist, how many people are we expecting to notice it?

Aren't the people calling McCain's people out giving this way more mileage than it even remotely deserves, especially since the, "We're making fun of people who seem to think Barack is the Second Coming," defense is so easy to make in this case?

[Eric b]

If you don't think that Obama is the antichrist, then just wait until the convention when he steps up to the podium lists every single state. From memory. That'll show you.

[Mnemosyne]

I didn't hear a dog whistle. I heard a, "You're calling this guy Jesus!" whistle and a, "You know you're an idiot for believing this guy is the second coming, right?" whistle.

In other words, you heard them say he's a false Messiah ... you know, just like the antichrist will be. It's odd how you saw all of the pieces but resisted putting them together.

It's not like this is a new meme with Obama -- rumors started floating around on fundamentalist websites after Obama's speech back in 2004 and they never really died down. Because the antichrist will be a great speaker, don't'cha know, so therefore anyone who's a great speaker must be the antichrist.

[damnedyankee]

But wouldn't the dog-whistle crowd be voting Republican anyhow?

I think it goes more toward motivating the base, which is one of McCain's perceived weaknesses. After all, how many "undecideds" go searching on the internet specifically for political ads?

[DylanW]

If your goal was to compare Obama to a run-of-the-mill false prophet without comparing him to the antichrist, how would you change the ad?
I'd play up the idea of a politician as a messianic figure as silly, rather than taking the ominous, serious tone this video uses. The fact that they're talking about Obama and not some Biblical figure should be the big reveal at the end--the ludicrous punchline.

The varied responses on this thread suggests that there's a very fine line between saying someone is acting like a messianic figure and actually calling them the Antichrist. That's sad, because people need to be able to do the former without doing the latter. The concept of the Antichrist needs to be a warning about putting too much faith and hope in people, not a subsection of the End Times Checklist used to brand a person as evil.

[cjmr's husband]

Vermic: But wouldn't the dog-whistle crowd be voting Republican anyhow?

Assuming that they vote. Remember that they aren't enthralled with McCain, and might stay home. I think the recent mudslinging is a matter of convincing that crowd that McCain is the lesser of two evils.

I had the TV on for five minutes today (programming the DVR to record the Olympic Opening Ceremonies) and I got hit with an "OMG! OBAMA HAS PROMISED TO RAISE YOUR TAAAXES!!!" ad.

[damnedyankee]

I mean, maybe my particular branch of fundamentalist evangelicalism just didn't spend enough time doing the math on when the antichrist was going to show up, but by the same token I'm pretty sure that I spent 25 years in a pretty mainstream variety thereof.

As Fred has often pointed out, these guys aren't necessarily mainstream. Just well-funded, well-connected, and loud.

[Elmo]

Hanlon's Razor is a special case of Occam's. (Stupidity is the simpler explanation, in most cases.)

[Ms. Anon E. Mouse, Esq.]

@Chris Koeberle:

If your goal was to compare Obama to a run-of-the-mill false prophet without comparing him to the antichrist, how would you change the ad?

Narrator:"We hear a voice crying out, "peace, peace" even as the world is fraught with wars and dangers. We hear sweet words that please the ears, but do not bring us the truth this nation needs. We see a speaker willing to say whatever it takes to make people happy, instead of fighting for goodness and justice. He may say things that make you feel better, but is Barack Obama ready to lead?"

You could probably still interlace the narration with all of Obama's quotes from above.

[JT in SC]

Eric b, you owe me a keyboard....

[Jim]

As for dog whistles, the ad calls him "Pope Barack." You don't suppose they're still consulting Hagee now and then, do you?

[cp1919]

I can't say I came to the ad completely blank, since I've heard some wagging tongues on the subject, and then reading Fred's text is a bit biasing, but this was the first time I've seen it:

I definitely got the anti-christ connection, whether is was being played snarkily or not, I picked up on the implication. How that plays for RTC voters I have no idea, but to deny making the connection was the intent of the ad is lying.

but WTF with the ending -- "is he ready to lead?" Damn, that was a lame ending. Totally voided the impact of the ad. If he's the friggin anti-christ, of course he's ready to lead, AND YOU BETTER BE SCARED ABOUT IT!

[Geds]

In other words, you heard them say he's a false Messiah ... you know, just like the antichrist will be. It's odd how you saw all of the pieces but resisted putting them together.

Not at all. I put the pieces together for a completely different puzzle than you did.

In the "Obama's the Antichrist" version it's an intentional depiction of Barack Obama intentionally playing a roll. His intention is to seize power to, um, do whatever it is that the antichrist does (and I'm not saying that out of ignorance. If we've learned anything from L.B. Fridays it's that the antichrist is there because the antichrist is supposed to be there. He has no motivation beyond, "Well, the back of the book says it..."). So when you put the pieces together you see a picture of the ad depicting Obama of being intentionally nefarious.

In the "You Think Obama's the Messiah" version it's a commercial poking fun at the people who are, say, making statues of Obama as Jesus.

I see the pieces you're claiming and I'm saying they don't go together that way. I'm not unwilling to see the point, but I think that it's far more likely that the ad really is poking fun at Obama's more extreme supporters than that it's actually calling him the antichrist.

[Geds]

but WTF with the ending -- "is he ready to lead?"

This is a good point. It was actually the ending that completely and totally killed any antichrist connection for me.

See, the way I look at it, if you're claiming that your opponent is the antichrist, you don't end it by asking that question. You end with some variation on, "But is he really everything he claims to be?" However, if you're claiming that your opponents supporters are a gaggle of idiots wowed by the star power of a substance-less celebrity with pretensions of greatness, that's exactly the question you want them to be asking.

[damnedyankee]

Interesting aside: From another Daily Kos diary, a member of the Matthew 25 Network claims to have received a statement from L&J regarding the possibility of the Antichrist being an American President: "I’ve gotten a lot of questions the last few weeks asking if Obama is the antichrist. I tell everyone that I don’t think the antichrist will come out of politics, especially American politics....I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist...from my reading of scripture, he doesn’t meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American."

Obviously not a joint statement, but if I had to guess, I'd say LaHaye instead of Jenkins (assuming the diarist is being truthful).

[LL]

RE Eric b, you owe me a keyboard....

I did laugh at that one, too. Beware false prophets making long, boring speeches full of names and stuff...

[damnedyankee]

but WTF with the ending -- "is he ready to lead?"

This is a good point. It was actually the ending that completely and totally killed any antichrist connection for me.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the question is boilerplate for all of the anti-Obama ads coming from the McCain campaign.

[LL]

Eh, I don't really see "Antichrist" in that spot, but then again, I'm not effing crazy, determined to see Satan in everything I don't agree with. But the people who are like that, wouldn't surprise me if this was the connection they make. The connection they're supposed to make. Maybe it's way more subtle than the Republicans usually are in their campaign spots. I mean, they can't very well make a spot showing Obama in the Oval Office, asking, "Where all the white women at?"

Or could they? Maybe that's the next one.

[damnedyankee]

What I want to know is, will steaming piles of produce drenched in butter be mentioned in next year's Farm Bill under President Obama?

[Geds]

a spot showing Obama in the Oval Office, asking, "Where all the white women at?"

I think I'd actually send McCain money if his campaign did that.

I mean, not enough to make a difference and probably under a fake name so that nobody calls me up for the rest of my life saying, "Hey, give us more money," but, dagnabit, I'd pay money to see that campaign ad.

[Nate]

but WTF with the ending -- "is he ready to lead?" Damn, that was a lame ending. Totally voided the impact of the ad. If he's the friggin anti-christ, of course he's ready to lead, AND YOU BETTER BE SCARED ABOUT IT!

I think that this "lame" ending was entirely intentional. The rest of the ad imagery is too well crafted for me to believe that that Fred Davis botched the ending. The verbal meme of the McCain campaign that they're trying to reinforce is "Obama's not ready to lead." The emotional meme is "Obama's the anti-Christ/false prophet (take your pick) AND YOU'RE SCARED OF HIM." The juxtapositioning is intentional.

Effective campaigners/propagandists know that emotional responses, gut feelings, are generally more effective than rational argument in nudging behavior. They want their right wing Christian base to feel that fear again whenever you hear McCain or one of his surrogates say "Obama's not ready to lead."

[DylanW]

@damnedyankee That's interesting... but it's good that they're at least willing to shut down some lines of speculation they don't agree with, even though they seem like they're trying to convince people that everything in the news is yet another sign of the times. Reminds me of an episode of the 700 Club where they had one of those identity chip companies come in and explain why they couldn't possibly be the mark of the beast.

On the other hand, if I were the Antichrist, and people thought I was the Antichrist, then the first thing I would do is trick a well-respected prophecy expert into vouching for me. (That might make a good Right Behind entry.)

[Geds]

even though they seem like they're trying to convince people that everything in the news is yet another sign of the times

Speaking of, news that Russia and Georgia seem to be going to war right as the Olympics start got my End Times Alert(TM) going this morning...

[Roadstergal]

If you don't think that Obama is the antichrist, then just wait until the convention when he steps up to the podium lists every single state. From memory. That'll show you.

But how many languages does he speak? If it's only eight, he needs to wait another four years.

I agree that the ending appears purposefully disingenuous. Antichristantichristantichristantichristantichrist... wait, we just think he isn't experienced enough. Kidding!

[Retrogrouch]

This ad "The One" isn't the only shot in this coordinated effort by the McCain camp at dog-whistle politics for RTCs. David Brooks got into the act, as did Hal Lindsey.

Lindsey is here: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=71144

Brooks is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/opinion/05brooks.html?_r=3&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Indulge me while I cross-post from a discussion at Brad Delong's blog about the brooks article...

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2008/08/new-york-times.html

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Retrogrouch:

I'm calling dog-whistle politics here. The repeated reference to John 17: "In the World, not of it" is yet another code word attack intended for the evangelical christianist community.

First you have McCain's ad, referring to Obama as "The One" (read anti-christ). Now you have Brooks playing his role by using language intended to evoke christ like attributes, but in a way that ties Obama not to the kingdom of God, but to worldly institutions like law schools, state legislatures, scary radical black-panther churches (sic), and the US senate.

Again, in the evangelical mind, the anti-christ will have christ-like attributes, but be thoroughly of the world and not the kingdom of God.

Yet again Brooks plays his part in a coordinated attack effort... how can his editors not see this. Surely the times and PBS can find a conservative who is not so OBVIOUSLY a puppet... but then they would have to WANT to find an independent conservative. The death of the times and PBS news hour cannot come soon enough for me.

Murray Bowles: "In the world but not of it" -- didn't St Paul claim that was a Good Thing?

Retrogrouch: Yes, Paul said that.

But the meme being perpetrated by the McCain camp is this: Obama claims he is the messiah, and only the anti-christ would make such a blasphemous claim. This is a follow up to the McCain "The One" ad which also attempts to portray Obama as claiming to be divine.

To people not in tune with evangelical thought, this seems rediculous. In FACT it is. But McCain, cynically, does not care. His only goal here is to sway the evangelical vote by falsely claiming that Obama is blaspheming here. It's just one step up the ladder from the "Uppity" meme the McCain camp is aiming at the redneck vote.

Brooks isn't stupid, he's just corrupt. Using the in/of metaphor is quite strained and makes no sense outside of this dog-whistle code word coordinated attack. It is evidence that he is coordinating his articles with the McCain campaign, most likely at the direction of Steve Schmidt.

------------------------------------------------

[mcc]

I'm sorry, but this is reaching ridiculously. The video clearly intends to portray Obama as a self-important but clueless buffoon, riding a wave of Beatlemania.

Just like Moses?

[Vermic]

But how many languages does he speak? If it's only eight, he needs to wait another four years.

Obama is fluent in over six million forms of communication. He was originally designed to speak with moisture vaporators.

[mcc]

If you don't think that Obama is the antichrist, then just wait until the convention when he steps up to the podium lists every single state. From memory. That'll show you.

Actually I think Al Franken is two or three steps ahead of him on this one.

[Dorothy]

I've watched it a few times trying to catch the Antichrist FEAR dog whistle - not easy since I'm not of that tradition. That "but is he ready to lead" at the end seems to be the standard McCain campaign tactic. If I listen really carefully, what I catch is that the narrator goes a bit ominous in tone there at the end. "Barack Obama... may be the one...but is he ready... to lead." Deep male voice going doom...doom...doom...doom. Compare to the Spears/Hilton ad. Female narrator "is he ready to lead?" voice rising in the standard questioning tone.

OK, that's not much to go on, but I do think "The One" ad strikes a subtly creepy tone.

[Jim]

The Wall Street Journal article about this actually quotes Tim LaHaye:

"The End Times, a New Testament reference to the period surrounding the return of Christ, were popularized in recent years by the 'Left Behind' series of books that sold more than 63 million copies. The Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the series, said in an interview that he recognized allusions to his work in the ad but comparisons between Sen. Obama and the antichrist are incorrect.

'The antichrist isn't going to be an American, so it can't possibly be Obama. The Bible makes it clear he will be from an obscure place, like Romania," the 82-year-old author said.'"

Of course, LaHaye doesn't appear to have considered that Romanians may consider rural Kansas to be "an obscure place."

[Vermic]

"'The Bible makes it clear he will be from an obscure place, like Romania," the 82-year-old author said.'"

This is pretty shameless, even by LaHaye's standards.

[Praline]

I didn't get any Antichrist vibe off the spot, but then I'm not attuned to the dog whistles. But wouldn't the dog-whistle crowd be voting Republican anyhow?

Yep, it just seemed garbled to me too, not being versed in the shorthand. But I'd suspect that, while a lot of the crowd would be voting Republican, they're valuable as canvassers, not just as voters. The evangelical right is very energetic in proselytizing, and since they've got involved in politics, they must be an invaluable political tool when you want people banging on the doors of the Undecideds.

Let them be yellow-dog Republicans, and they're worth one vote apiece. Get them sufficiently scared, and they'll go out drumming up support until they're worth five, or ten, or twenty. You don't even have to pay them. It's a way of recruiting, not just voters, but campaigners.

[Consumer Unit 5012]

I forget the name of it, but one collorary to Hanlon's Razor is that "Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice."

[Nenya]

But why is it so obvious that the antichrist won't be an American? I guess I didn't read the bit of the patchwork checklist that says he's from "an obscure place." I always noticed the association with Rome, and figured that if it was metaphorical (and not about literal Rome), then the place we should be looking is at whatever the big empire who claims to be ruling the world for everyone's good. But then, I was raised RTC but definitely not PMD, so I dunno.

I get a very strong "Obama's blaspheming!" vibe off this ad; there's a bit in Matthew or something where Jesus says that lots of people will come claiming to be his second coming, but that Christians shouldn't go dashing after them. It's not that big a leap for me to see this as flirting with the antichrist question.

On the other hand, I've seen some Christians say they are quite offended at this ad, because it seems to them that it's mocking their faith, not just Obama. So, hmm.