McCain Attack Ad Casts Obama As Self-Entitled Moses

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John McCain’s campaign sure knows how to evolve! Realizing that their Barack Obama as Paris Hilton angle wasn’t sticking, the Republican’s ad team has thrown together this Biblically-proportion video: “Praise The One,” which paints Obama as a self-entitled, self-professed messiah.

A placidly sarcastic narrator opens the piece, “Let it be known that in 2008, the world will be blessed. They call him ‘The One.” Thus begins a collection of Obama footage that a fearful person might read as evidence of a false prophet – or, perhaps, as an exceedingly presumptuous charlatan.

The narrator quotes an Obama comment from Tuesday, delivered while speaking to Congressional leaders. “Said” Obama, “I have become a symbol of America returning to our best traditions.” While that’s definitely a scary concept, the narrator conveniently forgets the context of that remark: “‘It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol…” But, you know, McCain doesn’t want to play fair. So, he’s just getting more foul, like imagery at the end of this commercial, when “Obama” chants are played over Moses parting the Red Sea. The commercial ends, “Barack Obama may be the one, but is he ready to lead?” We don’t know, but Moses did some pretty great things…

While McCain’s hoping to shed some negative light on his competitor, he simply can’t help but draw some to himself. While speaking to civil rights organization the National Urban League today, the Senator from Arizona opened by slamming Obama, saying, “You’ll hear from my opponent, Senator Obama, tomorrow, and if there’s one thing he always delivers it’s a great speech. But I hope you’ll listen carefully, because his ideas are not always as impressive as his rhetoric.” If he endeared any audience members, it didn’t last long, because the Republican took a major tumble when things turned to equal treatment:

After the speech, McCain held a question-and-answer session with the audience that was awkward at times, especially when he defended his opposition to affirmative action. Asked why he has decided to back a ballot initiative in Arizona that would repeal affirmative action programs, McCain replied, “Affirmative action is in the eye of the beholder…. Americans reject a quota system. That is a system that does not help anyone and has not helped anyone.”

When McCain added, “The best equal opportunity employer in America is the United States military,” the audience started to laugh, visibly uncomfortable with the idea that blacks would have to enlist in order to receive equal treatment.

Another audience member later asked McCain how he plans on opening America up to black adults, quoting a James Brown song, “Open up the door so we can get it ourselves!” McCain’s reply? Charter Schools. The questioner was not amused, replying, “The answer is not charter schools. We’re saying open up America because we are Americans.” The crowd applauded. McCain, we’re sure, was sinfully envious.

Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that McCain referred to universal education as a “the civil rights battle of the 21st century.” While we think that’s all well and good, should that battle also include, you know, rights for gay people? Just asking…