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Go Home Mike Huckabee, You Insult My Intelligence

THE PLANK DECEMBER 20, 2007

Mike Huckabee, You Insult My Intelligence

BY EVE FAIRBANKS

I was struck by something Noam reported over on the Stump -- that Huckabee's now capitalizing on what I would call some very mild suspicion directed at his Christmas television ad. Huckabee whined in Ames,

Because I invoked [Jesus's] name on his own
birthday, to say to America, 'Happy birthday, merry Christmas,' somehow
everybody sees in it something that isn't even there. Have we so lost
our national soul? Have we become so coarse that even the attempt to
bring some civility to the political arena is met with nothing more
than scorn, disdain, and disbelief?

Oh, come on. First of all, it wasn't "his own birthday." That's next week. But it wasn't Huckabee's saying merry Christmas to America that drew attention to his ad, it was the luminous cross that floated behind his head while he said it. He insists it's just a bookshelf. It's worth replaying the tape:

Isn't it neat, how only one upright post and one perfectly-proportioned crossbar of the bookshelf are lit up, shining brighter than anything else in the room? Maybe I don't live a holy enough life, but bookshelves have never glowed like that in my presence.

Far from being too suspicious of the ad, I'd say reporters have been too kind towards Huckabee's silly bookshelf explanation. Huckabee's take on his own ad is incredibly haughty. Insinuating that those who don't buy his explanation have no sense of decency or holiday spirit insults the intelligence of anybody who actually watched his ad. Sorry, but I see crosses every Sunday, and the "bookshelf" is a cross. It is unmistakable.

So, it's a cross. Do we care, then? I don't know. I'm amenable to Krauthammer-esque arguments that faith often does, or even should, have a role in how people come to understand what is politically just. But aren't the fits and starts of progress strange? Isn't it strange that, two hundred and twenty years after we wrote a Constitution that enshrined black slavery and forbid women from voting but upheld the right of a citizen to be judged equal to other people no matter what religion he practices, we seem ready to elect a black or female president, but not a president who doesn't tout his relationship with Jesus Christ?

--Eve Fairbanks

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13 comments

Christians as victims is the meme for 2007.  I wonder if it will carry through 2008 as well, but Huckabee is milking it for all its worth.

- stgla

December 20, 2007 at 10:13am

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Christians as victims is the meme for the last 20 years, not just 2007.

And Huckabee is just being disingenuous.  Has anybody else here ever actually worked on any sort of film or video set?  If you want something to show up on camera, you have to place it there and light the hell out of it.  No cinematographer in the world could "accidentally" make that happen.  It was deliberate.  Claiming that it wasn't is an outright lie.

- ejbenjamin

December 20, 2007 at 10:20am

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When it comes to whining and sanctimony, Huckabee is starting to remind me of a gentile Joe Lieberman...

- thejauntyboulevardier

December 20, 2007 at 10:23am

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a gentile Joe Lieberman! That is hilarious.

- stgla

December 20, 2007 at 10:33am

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I'm no Christian, no Republican, and no Huckabee supporter.  But I watched the ad.  There was nothing terribly overt about the "cross"; it did not "glow"; it does appear to be a bookshelf; it is not "unmistakable" as a cross; I don't think that I would have noticed it if I hadn't read this article first.  Mike Huckabee isn't the one insulting my intelligence right now.

- jbullock

December 20, 2007 at 12:36pm

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Maybe I'm conditioned to look for symbols, but isn't that what intelligent, well-crafted advertising's all about? Aren't there consultants and ad agencies who earn millions from their expertise in determining the precise arc of the Nike swoosh, or the positioning of the Hewlett-Packard logo's cross-- no, wait, that's a PLUS sign, I get it, HP adds value, you can do more with HP products, right?

Huck's blindingly white cross is unmistakably a Christian reminder. First, it's far too bright for a typical background, which should be dark and muted. Second, it's a weird backdrop for a Christmas tree: who puts a tree in his study? Third, it's placed right next to his face, in the sweet-spot rectangle where every visual image focuses all of its emotional force. Fourth, the thing actually MOVES as the camera angle shifts-- why is it shifting, except to grab our attention?

The guy is without question pimping his evangelical Christianity for political gain. Shameful.

- teplukhin2you

December 20, 2007 at 1:08pm

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Commenter jbullock, I guess you didn't see the cross in Huckabee's Christmas ad -- but even the

- Anonymous

December 20, 2007 at 1:15pm

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jbullock...

it is, as that language mangler Bush would say, sub-ba-blim-in-nal...

- thejauntyboulevardier

December 20, 2007 at 1:19pm

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jbullock - perhaps not out of character for a fundie house, but there ain't no books on that "bookshelf." Besides, who puts his Christmas tree in his study? Alternatively, is Huck such a cracker that he can't find a more tasteful arrangement for his living room wall than a $10 Target organizer?

- teplukhin2you

December 20, 2007 at 1:47pm

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Huck tried to manipulate voters and then lied about it.  The problem is, he's turning it around to say he's being victimized for saying Merry Christmas.

- stgla

December 20, 2007 at 4:01pm

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Come on, the man did not hide that his message was "Christian" all around. And he is running against a Mormon that presented himself as "defender of faith", for God sake. Of course he will appeal to this. He would be incredibly dumb and stupid if he didn't....

With this I do not wish to disagree with Ms. Fairbanks. Even if her history is somewhat manipulative from a "secularist point of view" (but let's leave that, for now), it's a piety that religion is a matter of partisan politics in America. I sense that there are responsibilities all around. Also in the "secularist" side with their ridiculous notions of leaving conscience out of politics... The result is this...

Once, when there were not secularist dogmas prepared to take over the entire public space, religion was not mixed with partisan politics...

- luispc

December 20, 2007 at 4:26pm

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"Once, when there were not secularist dogmas prepared to take over the entire public space, religion was not mixed with partisan politics..."

Well put.

- boxofrox

December 20, 2007 at 10:21pm

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Slightly out of context, the absurd war no Christmas is arriving here and some nativity scenes were banned.

There are some jokes with a right wing flair (but still fun) going around, such as:

"This year there is no nativity scene. The cow is mad. The Kings cannot come because the camels are in government, the donkey is punished since he almost got us out of UEFA cup. Maria and Joseph have puten the papers to receive social minimum income but are very worried since the services have not dispatched the plea. The social services have closed the stable for lack of conditions and the minors Court has decided to attribute the guard of baby Jesus to his biological father. Since this last doesn't show, he is waiting for adoption for his new gay parents".

- luispc

December 21, 2007 at 3:31am

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