Politics, Now Wrapped In Holiday Cheer

Watch Ads From Candidates Who Are Trying To Keep Their Faces Front And Center Through The Holiday Season

(CBS)  This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

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With the crucial Iowa caucuses coming on Jan. 3rd, not long after the holidays, presidential candidates face a problem: How can they keep their faces front and center when advertising and campaigning could send the message that they're craven, overly-ambitious politicians perfectly happy to trash their opponents on Christmas morning?

Part of the solution, it seems, is to run political ads that don't look like political ads - the traditional kind, anyway. And most everyone is getting in on the action. Mike Huckabee kicked things off with a Christmas message that sparked controversy thanks to a bookshelf in the background that looks suspiciously like a white cross. Subtle message to evangelicals or plain old piece of furniture? Decide for yourself:



Huckabee laughed off suggestions that he was sending a secret message to believers, joking that "if you play the spot backwards it says, 'Paul is dead. Paul is dead.'" His rival Ron Paul wasn't smiling, however: He said the ad reminds him "of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, 'when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.'"

Paul's holiday ad features what appears to be his extended family singing "Deck The Halls" - a song, you'll note, conspicuously absent of religious language. It shows a Ron Paul we rarely see - not the memorable firebrand of the GOP debates but a warm and fuzzy family man in a bright red shirt.



Rudy Giuliani's spot, meanwhile, features the former New York City mayor in a red sweater, telling folks what he wishes for this holiday season - secure borders, lower taxes...and that "all the presidential candidates can just get along." After he says that, the camera pulls back. It's Santa! Mr. Claus and Mr. Giuliani share laugh in a spot seemingly designed to humanize Giuliani while also making a case for the candidate. (In a similar video released only on the web, Giuliani talks about the gifts he is looking to give, including strict constructionist judges, job growth...and a fruitcake.) Have a look:



There is no laughter in John Edwards' spot, in which the candidate uses the occasion to talk about homeless veterans and Americans living in poverty while in front of a Christmas tree. "This is the season of miracles, of faith and love," says Edwards, pushing his populist message. "So let us promise together - you will never be forgotten again."



Sen. Barack Obama's ad is a family affair, and it looks like a Christmas card: Michelle Obama, sitting in front of the tree and holiday stockings with Barack and the kids, opens the spot by thanking Americans "for the warmth and friendship" they've shown. Her husband talks about American unity and references "something larger than ourselves," and then the girls get the last word: One says "Merry Christmas" while the other offers "happy holidays." No talk of health care mandates here:



Sen. Hillary Clinton's spot has her preparing gifts, but you won't find any Nintendo Wiis: The boxes include tags saying "universal health care," "alternative energy," and "bring troops home." Towards the end Clinton, looking around, wonders aloud, "Where did I put universal Pre-K?" Along with Giuliani's spot, it's the most issue oriented of the bunch:



Sen. John McCain, unlike Huckabee, isn't shy about featuring a cross in his spot. "One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain," he says in the ad. "On Christmas, that same guard approached me, and without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas." McCain goes on to talk about how "no matter where you are, no matter how difficult the circumstances, there will always be someone who will pick you up."



Finally, Mitt Romney's holiday spot isn't, on its face, a holiday spot at all. It features Robert Gay, whose 14-year-old daughter disappeared in New York City. Gay was Romney's business partner, and he talks about how Romney closed down their company, set up a command center, and sent employees out to look for the girl, who eventually turned up in the New Jersey town of Montville. "Mitt's done a lot of things that people say are nearly impossible," Gay says at the end of the clip, "but for me the most important thing he's ever done is to help save my daughter."

[jonesforch]

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

[coolprophet]

RON PAUL WILL RESTORE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY
All of the trade deals and world government organizations, which all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all a major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, being built by a Spanish company, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organization or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty.

[sgtrds]

Place your bets on who will be the first to wear sandals, let their hair grow, sport a beard and start toting a wooden cross while campaigning...

Posted by JohnShaft4 at 09:49 PM : Dec 21, 2007

I have no problem if Huckabee or Romney does, just so we get to jam a crown of thorns on their head, flog them, scourge them and then nail them to that cross afterward. Works for me.

[johnshaft4]

Place your bets on who will be the first to wear sandals, let their hair grow, sport a beard and start toting a wooden cross while campaigning...

[coolprophet]

CONGRESS MAKES BUSH DICTATOR
With the full support of Senators Dodd, Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done in numerous cities throughout the U.S.

[sbb2211]

In the past 24 hours, MoveOn, perhaps the most powerful liberal advocacy group in the country, has raised $275,000 for the United Services Organizations (USO) for calling cards for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The USO may be most associated with Bob Hope-type visits to troops overseas, but the non-partisan organization is clearly comfortable partnering with MoveOn if the cause helps soldiers stationed overseas during the holidays.

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Hmmmm...speaking of Chrismas cheer, here is that evil liberal group, MoveOn, raising all of this money for our troops. Give a choice of the evil-left and the evil-right, I think I''''ll take the left. The evil left does charitable and kind things. Wait???? In that case, maybe they really aren''''t evil.

Posted by kansas1946 at 07:38 PM : Dec 21, 2007

People don''t get it. MoveOn is not trying to bring holiday cheer, they are trying to say "Hey soldiers, look at the neat ''free'' stuff you get from the Left. Why don''t you vote for us, you stupid GIs."

Fortunately for America, our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen are not the ignorant little trolls that MoveOn thinks they are.

MoveOn is despised by the vast majority of the troops and no amount of covering their leftist crapola with sugar will change that.

[kansas1946]

Say what you want about Bush - he''''s at least somewhat real - granted, maybe a bit of a sh*t kicker - but a genuine guy... but Hillary? Obama? And my God Edwards...

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Genuine guy??????? LMAO. Good God.

[kansas1946]

In the past 24 hours, MoveOn, perhaps the most powerful liberal advocacy group in the country, has raised $275,000 for the United Services Organizations (USO) for calling cards for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The USO may be most associated with Bob Hope-type visits to troops overseas, but the non-partisan organization is clearly comfortable partnering with MoveOn if the cause helps soldiers stationed overseas during the holidays.

*************************************
Hmmmm...speaking of Chrismas cheer, here is that evil liberal group, MoveOn, raising all of this money for our troops. Give a choice of the evil-left and the evil-right, I think I''ll take the left. The evil left does charitable and kind things. Wait???? In that case, maybe they really aren''t evil.

[coolprophet]

voting fraud is really bad now special intrests run the country we will be manning the guns this time counting the math.vote by vote by vvvvvooooooottttttttteeeeeeeee

[coolprophet]

bush olny won because of diebold by there own admission by the big cheese they had a case of theft by design

[coolprophet]

CLINTON MAKES BUSH DICTATOR
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul.

[piercetheval]

Bush and his ilk are what true Texans call pole cats. A pole cat is a cat that will climb a pole and let two other cats fight for a piece of meat and when the battles over come down and kick the weakened winners ***.

[nottellin1]

Too much hyprocacy,,,, the nerve of these people declaring peace on Earth after doing what could to create world disorder & "Stay the Course" on an endless war..... Tax Cuts for the wealthy, lost homes & mortgages, Katrina & Rita victims ignored, attacks on health care,, etc.



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Posted by j-whitman at 03:36 PM : Dec 21, 2007

I haven''t watched these videos yet, but I vbelieve these dorks would be stupid enough to say ''peace on earth''. What morons.

[sgtrds]

dogsoul,,,,, Bush is nothing but a dime store cowboy, he''''s afraid of horses, cows & service to country -- He ran from his obligation to active duty ----- But what''''s new ??

Posted by j-whitman at 04:04 PM : Dec 21, 2007

Absolutely and a cheap dime store cowboy at that. He''s the most phony cowboy in American history. He''s as much a country boy as my pet Shih-Tzu. His "ranch" is a movie set built in 1999 at the advice of Karl Rove that it would make him look more like Reagan. It''s a phony as he is. He was born in Connecticut and raised in East Coast prep schools and colleges. He''s as much a Texan as a Jewish Diamond Merchant.

[j-whitman]

dogsoul,,,,, Bush is nothing but a dime store cowboy, he''s afraid of horses, cows & service to country -- He ran from his obligation to active duty ----- But what''s new ??

[dogsoul]

My God - even you liberals must cringe when you see these phonies posing like this... sort of how we conservatives react when Bush handles questions at press conferences - aaaaint comfortable...

Say what you want about Bush - he''s at least somewhat real - granted, maybe a bit of a sh*t kicker - but a genuine guy... but Hillary? Obama? And my God Edwards...

You liberals really blew it THIS time - you had an EASY road to the White House with your mass media aggressively paving the way for 8 long years...

and you run a buncha schmucks...

hysterical

[j-whitman]

Christmas at Camp Pendelton --- Home troops have less time to spend with their families, increased stresses & more demands because of overall undermanning & increased deployments.

[j-whitman]

Too much hyprocacy,,,, the nerve of these people declaring peace on Earth after doing what could to create world disorder & "Stay the Course" on an endless war..... Tax Cuts for the wealthy, lost homes & mortgages, Katrina & Rita victims ignored, attacks on health care,, etc.

[denn034]

Here''''s Huckabee''''s Christmas present. Mormon Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley was involved in bisexual parties with young boys and prostitutes in the 1970s, I have three affidavits, a former church security employee letter, a deathbed testimony, and other evidence to back that up. Merry Christmas, Huckabee!

[sgtrds]

Huckabee and his people obviously and intentionally put the image of the cross in the background of his message. That''s not a problem. What is a problem is that Huckabee lied through his teeth when he said it wasn''t intentional.

Mike Huckabee is a complete and utter liar, which means many republicans will love him. Sad and pathetic.