Antichrist

Amy Sullivan wrote in TIME claiming that McCain's ad The One calls Obama the Antichrist. She writes As the ad begins, the words "It should be known that in 2008 the world shall be blessed. They will call him The One"

It was Oprah Winfrey who told an Iowa crowd that Obama was "the one!"

flash across the screen. The Antichrist of the Left Behind books is a charismatic young political leader named Nicolae Carpathia who founds the One World religion (slogan: "We Are God") and promises to heal the world after a time of deep division. One of several Obama clips in the ad features the Senator saying,

Note these are Senator Obama's words, not McCain's

"A nation healed, a world repaired. We are the ones that we've been waiting for.".... Perhaps the most puzzling scene in the ad is an altered segment from The 10 Commandments that appears near the end. A Moses-playing Charlton Heston parts the animated waters of the Red Sea, out of which rises the quasi-presidential seal the Obama campaign used for a brief time earlier this summer before being mocked into retiring it. The seal, which features an eagle with wings spread, is not recognizable like the campaign's red-white-and-blue "O" logo. That confused Democratic consultant Eric Sapp until he went to his Bible and remembered that in the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, the Antichrist is described as rising from the sea as a creature with wings like an eagle.

I think Eric is still confused. Daniel 7 does talk about Daniel's Dream of Four Beasts, but Daniel 7:4 said The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it. I always thought the AntiChrist was the fourth beast, described in Daniel 7:7 as After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. Daniel 7:23-25 says He gave me this explanation: The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.

It's not hard to see how some Obama haters might be tempted to make the comparison. In the Left Behind books, Carpathia is a junior Senator who speaks several languages

Obama speaks Indonesian and limited Spanish. Carpathia spoke all six languages of the UN, plus several related to Romania.

, is beloved by people around the world and fawned over by a press corps that cannot see his evil nature, and rises to absurd prominence after delivering just one major speech. Hmmh. But serious Antichrist theorists don't stop there. Everything from Obama's left-handedness to his positive rhetoric to his appearance on the cover of this magazine has been cited as evidence of his true identity. One chain e-mail claims that the Antichrist was prophesied to be "A man in his 40s of MUSLIM descent," which would indeed sound ominous if not for the fact that the Book of Revelation was written at least 400 years before the birth of Islam.

I am not sure what that means. Muslims claim Abraham and Moses were Muslims.

WSJ did a story on this, and they apparently contacted Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of Left Behind, who said 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.
Certainly Nicolae Jetty Carpathia from Left Behind was from Romania. Confessional Lutheran church bodies teach that the Roman papacy or office of the pope is the Antichrist, others hold the AntiChrist will come from Roman roots (that is why in the Left Behind series they said that Romania was initially founded by Ancient Rome, and that Nicholae came from that bloodline. Others say he will be an Israelite from the Tribe of Dan. The tribe of Dan is the only original tribe of Israel which is not included in the list of tribes in Revelation 7:4-8. Dan (the Northern most tribe) was conquered by the Assyrians (Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria), and exiled. Living in modern day Ethiopia are Beta Israel, a group of Jews claiming to be descendants of the Tribe of Judah, so I guess exciles from Dan could have gone south to Sudan and Kenya, where Obama's father was from, but as far as I can tell exiles from Dan went to Macedonian (near Greece) and more recently Caucasus, North America and Western Europe.

I personally doubt Osama is the AntiChrist. I just think he is a con man with a gift of gab, but not the experience to be President.

Read More...

Summary only...

Aides Working on Plan

WaPo reported With the clock running out on preparations for the Democratic convention, advisers to Sen. Barack Obama are scrambling to reach a compromise with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to appease her supporters and find roles for her and her husband.

How about just letting the delegates vote.

The Obama and Clinton camps said this week that they agree on a central point: They would like to avoid an embarrassing display of discord from Clinton's most ardent backers when the national convention begins in just over two weeks.

And they think blocking the vote, but lettig them speak will do it? What about McCain offering to let Obama speak when McCain is innaugurated, if he will just drop out now before the election.

Conversations about how to achieve that have increasingly focused on the question of whether Clinton's name will be offered in a roll-call vote by delegates to determine the nominee, even though she has said she is not challenging Obama's claim as the party's standard-bearer.

Then why is he afraid of a vote.

Read More...

Summary only...

Bill Clinton to Speak at Denver Convention

The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog reported After a curious week of back-and-forth between the Obama and Clinton worlds, the former president was offered an invitation to speak on the second-to-last night of the party’s convention in Denver.

But will Obama allow Hillary's name to be placed in nomination? Will he take a chance that enough of the super delegates have not been unimpressed at his sharp drop in popularity that thye won't switch back to her?

He will take the stage on Aug. 27, three Democratic senior officials said, before the address by the party’s vice-presidential nominee.

And will that be his wife?

The offer was extended by the Obama campaign on Thursday to Mr. Clinton, who accepted it. So with Mrs. Clinton speaking on Aug. 26, followed by her husband, the Obama campaign is giving two nights of prime time coverage to the Clinton family.

And if Hillary's name is placed in nomination Wednesday, she may well be speaking on Thursday as well.

While the invitation was only extended on Thursday, officials said a speaking role for Mr. Clinton had long been in the works.

Read More...

Summary only...

Bizarre Incident

Chronicle.com reported Officials of the U.S. Secret Service say there is nothing they could have done to avoid an incident yesterday in which Barack Obama was heckled by a strangely behaving man

Why is it strange to call on someone that wants to be President of te United States to say the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of a town hall meeting.

in the press section during an appearance at an Ohio college. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was beginning a town-hall style meeting at Baldwin-Wallace College when John Quinn, a freelance photographer on assignment for Bloomberg News, interrupted him by calling on him to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Senator Obama went along and led the crowd through the pledge.

Timmy commented Good thing Obama had just memorized the Pledge of Allegiance the day before. Whew! That was a close one!

Ed Morrissey blogged At a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked the Democrat why he wants to be President — and he told her that America has gone downhill:

“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”

Betsy Newmark blogged As you watch the video, it's clear that he formed his words carefully and was thinking about how to answer the little girl.

And if he has trouble responding to a 7 year old girl, just think what will happen to him when he is talking to the Iranians.

I'm wondering when is the time that Obama thinks that we were what we could be.

People that do not really know history always assum it was better then than it really was.

It couldn't have been when we had slavery. So that takes us to 1865. It couldn't be when we had states divided by terrible Jim Crow laws that segregated society and disenfranchised an entire race. So that takes us to the mid-1960s. It probably wasn't when we were divided and torn apart by the Vietnam War and racial violence. So that takes us to the 1970s. I doubt that it was when we were suffering devastating stagflation and seeing our hostages being paraded in front of the cameras. So that takes us to 1980. We're left with the Reagan-Bush years. Is Obama yearning for Morning in America? Many conservatives remember that period with nostalgia; does Obama share that feeling? No, certainly not the 1980s, that decade of greed.

Or is he talking about the Clinton years? Was that the time when we were what we could be? Why then run against Hillary Clinton? And that was a time when we were supposedly being divided by bitter partisanship. Is he yearning for the time when the Republicans controlled Congress? The days of impeachment? Or is he thinking about when we had our heads in the sand regarding the growing development of Al Qaeda terrorism? If that was the one period in our time when we were what we could be, then wouldn't he have wanted to put that team back in the White House? And we know that he isn't talking about the Bush years. So what was he talking about?

Cassy Fiano blogged none of this matters to Obama. Why? Why is it that the man who runs on a message of "hope" preaching such a message of despair?

It's because he is supposed to be your hope. He is supposed to be your savior. You aren't supposed to look around at your country and feel pride; you're supposed to feel shame and despair so that you can follow Obama to the promised land. America sucks, unless we elect Obama President. America is racist, unless you elect Obama President. America is mean, unless we elect Obama President.

Is this really what we need in the White House? A man who sees himself as our personal saviour, who looks at his country and can see only negative? It certainly isn't what I would want. Loving your country means being willing to admit our failures, but it also means feeling pride in our successes. Yet, with Obama, it's all failure... and no success.

Read More...

Summary only...

Drill where there is no oil

cbs5 reported At a news conference inside San Francisco's Ferry Building, Boxer, D-Calif., echoed Obama's call for oil companies to begin oil exploration in some 68 million acres already leased to them,

Maybe they are not drilling there because there is no oil there.

approximately half of which lies offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and not in pristine wilderness areas such as Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Where there is so much oil that if they could drill in a very small area, like the size of a large airport, they could tap oil that is under a much much large area, and do it without disturbing the "pristine wilderness area"

Obama has recently indicated a willingness to consider limited offshore oil drilling if needed as part of a bipartisan compromise on energy. "Drilling is part of our plan," said Boxer, who chairs the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works, but "not drilling in moratoria areas."

Just where there is no oil.

Noting a rise in gas prices of more than $2 per gallon in the past seven years, Boxer said the plan would also crack down on energy market speculation, which some have blamed for the rise in gas prices,

The some being Dems that do not understand supply and demand.

and call for the release of oil from the country's strategic reserves.

Do you understand the meaning of the word strategic

And even Leno sees thorough their statement that drilling would not produce oil for 10 years

Read More...

Summary only...

Pelosi firm: No vote on offshore drilling

USATODAY.com reported House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday ruled out a vote on new offshore oil drilling

A lot of Democrats see the need for drillig (which is why Pelosi will not let it come up for a vote). How about calling for a vote for a new Speaker of the House. If Republicans team up with reasonable Democrats, maybe they could select a new Democratic speaker.

even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he might be open to a compromise that included it.

TheHill reported The White House has rejected calls from House Republicans that it convene a special session of Congress on energy, saying it wouldn’t make a difference. “We don't have plans to call Congress into session -- it won't make a difference if Democratic leaders are unwilling to bring up a bill for an up-down vote,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

How about calling Congress back in session but shutting down the air conditioners until they cme up with a solution to this energy problem.

Read More...

Summary only...

Vote on allowing more domestic and offshore oil drilling

Ben Pershing wrote in WaPo reported Having thoroughly enjoyed their revival-style meeting on the House floor Friday, a group of Republican lawmakers plan to return to the chamber today to deliver more speeches on why they believe Congress should come back from its August break to vote on allowing more domestic and offshore oil drilling.

Wonderful!!!!!

... once again, today's proceedings will not be broadcast because the House cameras are off when the chamber is not in session. So readers looking for updates will have to rely on reporters' descriptions or on members who use Twitter, Qik and other electronic applications which sound vaguely like breakfast cereals.

Actually I thought his use of twitter was very interesting, and it is telling that Ben cannot think of any way to demean it than by saying it sounds like a breakfast cereal.

... On Friday, House Republicans succeeded in drawing attention to their efforts because although their message -- DRILL! DRILL! -- was not new,

It is something we should have been doing the last 30 years.

their presentation of it was decidedly novel.

Glad to hear Ben admit that.

And the GOP managed to catch the Capitol press corps just as it was finishing up work on a fleet of "the politics of energy" stories, with reporters still in the building to witness what Republicans were doing.... Their stated goal -- to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the House back into session to vote on drilling -- will never be achieved,

I thought it was th President that called Congress back into session to deal on an important matter, and I hope Bush will do so.

so the coverage-starved minority's primary hope is to earn some valuable free media. But now that everyone has written their stories and blogged their posts on the unusual non-session, what will we all write today?

I am writing tis, in response to your article.

How many reporters will even be in the Capitol press galleries, which are normally deserted in August?

Maybe more than you think, because what other news is competing with it.

Read More...

Summary only...

Seeing what you want to see

Any intelligent person just saw Mc'Cain's ad The One as funny, but the unhinged see it differently. Michael at Discourse.net thinks McCain is saying it indicates Obama == The Anti-Christ and says In light of last week’s attack on a Unitarian church for being too “liberal,” is it so far-fetched to worry that some unhinged true believer may hear all this and decide he has a call to assassinate the anti-Christ?

Does a church attacking Obama for being too liberal prove he is the anti-Christ? And any true believer that has read the Bible knows the Anti Christ cannot be killed until three and 1/2 years after the start of the Tribulation, which occurs after the Rapture, and even then he will not stay dead.

and David Gergen believes the ad is code for calling Obama “uppity”

Looks like Gergen is desperate for something to let him say someone other than Obama is introducing racism in the campaign.

Read More...

Summary only...