The Omen V

One of the things that’s been said about Barack Obama is that he’s the modern version of the Manchurian candidate.  In case you didn’t read the book or see either the original movie or the fairly recent remake starring Denzel Washington, the idea is that Manchurian Candidate guy is about to become elected to the U.S. Presidency, at which point he plans to secretly turn over the keys to the country to China.  It was quite a thriller.  Now, not so much.  Ho hum. 

In the updated version, Barack Obama will turn over the keys to the country to Islamic terrorists, who will be aided from within by the likes of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.  As preposterous as that sounds, the people who believe this stuff are models of sanity compared to the other camp, who believe that Barack Obama is The Omen.  Yes, indeed, the End Times are upon us. 

The Omen is a 1976 movie which details the early years of Damien, the baby spawn of Satan.  After the death of his (adoptive) parents, and pretty much everybody else who ever came into contact with him, he’s adopted by his aunt and uncle who live in…Chicago.  Thus begins the second movie, Damien: Omen II, made in 1978.  This is the movie where Damien learns of his mission, whereas previously he was thoroughly in the dark (ha ha) about why all these people were dying.  More people die.  In 1981, we get to Omen III:  The Final Conflict.  Now our budding Antichrist is all grown up, and it looks like he has a very good chance of taking over the world.  He’s fairly young, handsome, and charismatic.  He particularly appeals to young people.  Is this ringing a bell?  Spoiler:  he loses, and is killed…but not before fathering a little girl, which is the premise of Omen IV, which if I’m not mistaken, was a made-for-TV movie.  The original Omen was a very good movie, but as the sequels go on, the plots and the actors get worse. 

So although the real crazies won’t say so, they are far more influenced by The Omen than by The Manchurian Candidate.  With the hysterical, lynch-mob tone now emerging in McCain rallies, I’m reminded of another mythological tale:  Pandora’s box.  Suddenly everyone wants to pat McCain on the back for saying this morning that Obama is a decent guy–for which he was booed.  Apparently McCain finally remembered that he’s supposed to be an honorable guy, and that he’s supposed to be in charge of his campaign’s tone.  Too late.  He and attack-dog Palin (or as Kathleen Parker called her this week, “Palin the Impaler”) opened up the box, and now find they can’t stuff the evils they unleashed back in the box.