July 30, 2008 5:47PM 

# It’s Midnight in America 

By [Gene Healy](https://www.cato.org/people/gene-healy) 

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You could be excused for getting that vibe from this McCain campaign video, what with its vaguely X‑Files-esque theme music and apocalyptic imagery (am I the only one who finds the little girl picking flowers reminiscent [of “Daisy”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKs-bTL-pRg) the famous anti-Goldwater ad from the ’64 campaign?). The Teddy Roosevelt tape is [from TR’s unhinged speech ](http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/10/tr-and-mccain/)to the 1912 Progressive Party convention, a speech that ends “we stand at Armageddon–and we battle for the Lord!”

Election 2008: the Messiah vs. the Prophet of Doom. Sigh. Whatever happened to [normalcy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy)? Where have you gone Warren Harding? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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