Time magazine writer Amy Sullivan, the former Tom Daschle aide, has been one of the media elite’s most enthusiastic evangelists for the implausible idea of Democrats closing the "God gap" among Christians (including a book titled The Party Faithful). This leads to all kinds of aerobically biased writing. But the latest article was truly ridiculous, headlined "An Antichrist Obama in McCain Ad?"
She began: "It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it." The first problem for Sullivan: The people who made the Willie Horton ad used his name and picture. Trying to locate the the Antichrist in this comedic ad is like trying to find little orange Oompa Loompas. It takes an overactive imagination.
The ad clearly and unquestionably mocks the Obama-the-messiah tone of the liberal media (including Time magazine). Sullivan tried guilt by association: "The ad was the creation of Fred Davis, one of McCain's top media gurus as well as a close friend of former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed and the nephew of conservative Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe." She ended with more baseless accusation: "A new TIME poll finds that the most conservative Evangelicals are the least enthusiastic about McCain's candidacy. Convincing them that Obama does have two horns and a tail might be the best way of getting them to vote."
Her most pathetic attempt to prove the Antichrist conspiracy was Google-sorcery:
A Google search for "Obama" and "Antichrist" turns up more than 700,000 hits, including at least one blog dedicated solely to the topic. A more obscure search for "Obama" and "Nicolae Carpathia" [the Antichrist in the Left Behind novels] yields a surprising 200,000 references.
There is no weaker argument in alleging an overwhelming communications trend than doing vague word-searches and never attempting to read the thousands of entries that you find. The mere numbers are an indictment. (By now, the ever-increasing connections of "Obama" and "Antichrist" are augmented by hundreds of Democrats like Sullivan accusing Republicans of Antichrist-baiting.)
Over at The Corner, NRO’s Andrew Stuttaford collapsed the conspiracy:
I googled "Obama Antichrist" and, sure enough, a remarkable 779,000 hits come up. Cue sinister music. Then I googled "McCain Antichrist." 510,000 hits. Oh. I then googled "Obama Nicolae Carpathia" and came up with 3,160. Hardly the number of the Beast, I reckon, let alone 200,000.
Here’s another example. A Google search for "McCain adultery" turns up 489,000 hits. Does that mean the Obama campaign is exploiting stories of McCain’s adultery to discourage evangelicals from voting for McCain? To Sullivan, it wouldn’t matter that the Google search would include headlines like this from NewsBusters: "NYT Suggests Unproven Adultery By McCain."
