Holiday Ads: Obama Plays Nice, Santa Endorses Rudy
Now that Mike Huckabee set
the tone with his Jesus-invoking, subliminal
cross-including Christmas ad, everyone else is climbing aboard.
Barack Obama’s holiday spot plants him and his family in
front of a roaring hearth and a giant Christmas tree. No Muslim prayer mats here! After a
few platitudes about family and friendship, Obama gives his daughters, Malia
and Sasha, a chance to say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.” Like
Huckabee, Obama goes easy on the policy.
Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, isn’t afraid of talking shop. In one
new spot, he sports a bright red
sweater vest and promises to give all Americans the “same gift: A safe America. Lower
taxes. Secure borders. Job growth. Fiscal discipline. Strict constructionist
judges.” Something tells me Giuliani really would enjoy coming downstairs to
find Antonin Scalia curled up under his tree.
A second ad has Giuliani wishing for all
those same things, and hoping that all the candidates could just get along. At which
point Santa, who was sitting there the whole time, interjects: “Ho, ho, ho, ho. I was with you right up until
that last one. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.” Santa endorsing the politics of personal destruction: this really is a special election.
UPDATE 11:28 a.m.: Now Huckabee is claiming the "floating cross," which looks like a window pane, was actually "a bookshelf." Or at least that's what he told Joe Scarborough. He added that "if you play the spot backwards, it says 'Paul is dead, Paul is dead.' "
UPDATE 1:46 p.m.: A reader points out, what's with the "Merry Christmas" AND "Happy Holidays"? Come on, Rudy. That's the kind of fence-sitting you'd expect from a Clinton holiday ad.
UPDATE 3:11 p.m.: John Edwards arrives fashionably late.
UPDATE 5:04 p.m.: Hillary's video: Like Rudy's, but classier.