December 20, 2007--The Cross, Fruitcakes, & Noblesse Oblige
Is it my imagination or is this the first time so many candidates for the presidency have been running warm-and-fuzzy Christmas ads?
The first, one, like the infamous Willie Horton and atomic bomb countdown ads, which will be referred to forever as sadly effective, is Mike Huckabee’s. He looks great in his red sweater and what he has to say is fine —Enough with the negative campaigning already during this holiday season—until he gets to the Baby Jesus references and the camera pans left to reveal the ethereally lit “bookcase” behind him that just happens to be in the shape of the Cross. It’s not hard to miss the point in spite of his disingenuous denials that any such allusion is accidental.
Then we have Rudy, also in Santa-Claus red. His sweater, though, is a sleeveless vest that looks more like a Christmassy flack jacket than something most Americans, except Militiamen, would wear around the Xmas tree.
Looking into the camera, Rudy claims he’s been so busy this year that he hasn’t completed his Christmas shopping. So instead of individual presents such as video games, scarves, and flat-screen TVs (what people really want) he will give all of us the same present—“peace with strength” (take note Islamofascists), lower taxes, and secure borders. But quickly realizing this is not what folks are hoping to find on Christmas morning, he looks to his left and adds, “Maybe I should also get everyone a fruitcake. “You know”, he slips here into a thick New York accent, “one wid a big ribbon on top.”
The camera moves right and reveals that sitting on the sofa next to our just-plain-folks presidential aspirant is none other than Santa himself decked out in the fakest beard ever and Ben Franklin bifocals.
Things could only have been worse, or funnier, if Giuliani, knowing his penchant for dressing in drag, had donned the Santa suit.
Topping them all, though, is Hillary Clinton’s attempt during the holiday season to represent herself as a cozy homebody. This week’s Clinton political agenda is to show her “warm” and “human” side. Polls indicate that she is trailing both Edwards and Obama on the “likeability” meter; and realizing that this can be fatal, because being perceived as amiable, since the dawn of TV era, has almost always been essential to electability, she too thus has her Christmas ad.
Hers finds Senator Clinton at home, or in a home-like setting, wrapping gifts. Again, we’re not talking Xboxes or iPhones but rather--“This one,” she says “is the gift of ‘Universal Health Care’; this one, with the pretty ribbon, is ‘Alternative Energy,’ and this other one, ‘Universal Pre-K.”
Putting aside for a moment the fact that these “gifts” are not on anyone’s wish list, isn’t it true that universal health care and universal pre-K are not gifts at all but rather government programs that will not be paid for by the gift-giver but rather by the recipients? By us, the taxpayers.
Her noblesse oblige, Huckabee’s conflation of himself with Christ, Rudy’s fruitcake, and Obama’s video Christmas card that has his daughters wishing us, first, “Merry Christmas,” and then, politically correctly, “Happy Holidays,” all of this schmaltzy hucksterism brings out the Bah, Humbug in me and makes me long for the return of old Ebenezer.
The first, one, like the infamous Willie Horton and atomic bomb countdown ads, which will be referred to forever as sadly effective, is Mike Huckabee’s. He looks great in his red sweater and what he has to say is fine —Enough with the negative campaigning already during this holiday season—until he gets to the Baby Jesus references and the camera pans left to reveal the ethereally lit “bookcase” behind him that just happens to be in the shape of the Cross. It’s not hard to miss the point in spite of his disingenuous denials that any such allusion is accidental.
Then we have Rudy, also in Santa-Claus red. His sweater, though, is a sleeveless vest that looks more like a Christmassy flack jacket than something most Americans, except Militiamen, would wear around the Xmas tree.
Looking into the camera, Rudy claims he’s been so busy this year that he hasn’t completed his Christmas shopping. So instead of individual presents such as video games, scarves, and flat-screen TVs (what people really want) he will give all of us the same present—“peace with strength” (take note Islamofascists), lower taxes, and secure borders. But quickly realizing this is not what folks are hoping to find on Christmas morning, he looks to his left and adds, “Maybe I should also get everyone a fruitcake. “You know”, he slips here into a thick New York accent, “one wid a big ribbon on top.”
The camera moves right and reveals that sitting on the sofa next to our just-plain-folks presidential aspirant is none other than Santa himself decked out in the fakest beard ever and Ben Franklin bifocals.
Things could only have been worse, or funnier, if Giuliani, knowing his penchant for dressing in drag, had donned the Santa suit.
Topping them all, though, is Hillary Clinton’s attempt during the holiday season to represent herself as a cozy homebody. This week’s Clinton political agenda is to show her “warm” and “human” side. Polls indicate that she is trailing both Edwards and Obama on the “likeability” meter; and realizing that this can be fatal, because being perceived as amiable, since the dawn of TV era, has almost always been essential to electability, she too thus has her Christmas ad.
Hers finds Senator Clinton at home, or in a home-like setting, wrapping gifts. Again, we’re not talking Xboxes or iPhones but rather--“This one,” she says “is the gift of ‘Universal Health Care’; this one, with the pretty ribbon, is ‘Alternative Energy,’ and this other one, ‘Universal Pre-K.”
Putting aside for a moment the fact that these “gifts” are not on anyone’s wish list, isn’t it true that universal health care and universal pre-K are not gifts at all but rather government programs that will not be paid for by the gift-giver but rather by the recipients? By us, the taxpayers.
Her noblesse oblige, Huckabee’s conflation of himself with Christ, Rudy’s fruitcake, and Obama’s video Christmas card that has his daughters wishing us, first, “Merry Christmas,” and then, politically correctly, “Happy Holidays,” all of this schmaltzy hucksterism brings out the Bah, Humbug in me and makes me long for the return of old Ebenezer.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home