Joel Stein Attempts to Link Obama to Satan; Fails

View Story On One Page

Print This Story

Share This Story

By Matt Haber

September 5, 2008 | 3:52 p.m

Not content dabbling in stunt journalism and celebrity profiles, Joel Stein has decided what he really wants to do is use his writing to make a difference.

Actually, that's not quite right. He wants to use it to drum up fake controversy, as he admits in his latest Los Angeles Times column.

Mr. Stein was in Denver covering the Democratic convention (or something) when he spotted the following scene:

I was at a party thrown by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom featuring a bunch of indie bands, including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, which played its catchy new song 'Satan Said Dance.' The chorus goes like this: 'Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan! Satan!' And I had my video camera.

So, under huge H-O-P-E letters and alongside giant posters of Obama as Abraham Lincoln, the band started yelling, 'Satan! Satan! Satan!' And by the second chorus, the entire crowd of hundreds starting singing along, shouting, 'Satan! Satan! Satan!,' many pumping their fists in the air. That's when it finally struck me that video of the Democratic Party faithful chanting for the devil was footage Sean Hannity would love to broadcast over and over. Even the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. would not approve of this tape.

Mr. Stein has helpfully posted his video on YouTube (title: "Democratic faithful chant 'satan'") in hopes that "it gets ludicrously e-mailed around by the far right as proof that Obama is the antichrist, or winds up on 'The O'Reilly Factor,' or, at the very least, it merits a footnote in the next book by Jerome Corsi."

Hail, Satan.