What Really Matters?

I agree, Reid, that it’s a must watch. I’m reminded of a trip I took to South Carolina exactly 20 years ago, when I was briefly covering Jack Kemp’s run for the Republican presidential nomination for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There we were at the Greenville Rotary Club, and Kemp began his speech by wishing […]

I agree, Reid, that it’s a must watch. I’m reminded of a trip I took to South Carolina exactly 20 years ago, when I was briefly covering Jack Kemp’s run for the Republican presidential nomination for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There we were at the Greenville Rotary Club, and Kemp began his speech by wishing everyone the best “in this Christmas and Hanukkah season.” Kemp loved to do the then pretty new religious side of GOP campaigning, and enjoyed some real support in that quarter; but he also considered it very much his duty to convey a message of religious inclusion. Now we live in a different era, when (thank you, Bill O’Reilly!) social conservatives have been encouraged to think that seasonal inclusivity constitutes a War on Christmas. Huck’s ad proffers not the least tip of a hat in the direction of those who might be celebrating the season in non-Christian ways. It takes a subtle dig at all those other candidates who clearly don’t care enough about what really matters to ease up on the political throttle. It is of a piece with the faux naivete of his innocent question about Mormonism. It has “Christian Leader” written all over it.
Update: I may be visually impaired, but a lot of other folks aren’t, and they’re drawing attention to the “floating cross” in Huck’s Merry Christmas ad. Me, I think they’re on to something. The way the camera is fixed on Huck while the background slowly rotates onto the bright cross and thence to the Christmas tree–very, very clever.

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