Now that Mike Huckabee setthe tone with his Jesus-invoking, subliminalcross -including Christmas ad, everyone else is climbing aboard.
Barack Obama’s holiday spot plants him and his family infront of a roaring hearth and a giant Christmas tree. No Muslim prayer mats here! After afew platitudes about family and friendship, Obama gives his daughters, Maliaand Sasha, a chance to say “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.” LikeHuckabee, Obama goes easy on the policy.
Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, isn’t afraid of talking shop. In one new spot , he sports a bright redsweater vest and promises to give all Americans the “same gift: A safe America. Lowertaxes. Secure borders. Job growth. Fiscal discipline. Strict constructionistjudges.” Something tells me Giuliani really would enjoy coming downstairs tofind Antonin Scalia curled up under his tree.
A second ad has Giuliani wishing for allthose same things, and hoping that all the candidates could just get along. At whichpoint Santa, who was sitting there the whole time, interjects: “Ho, ho, ho, ho. I was with you right up untilthat 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.
