Maybe I just don’t watch enough television to appreciate this.
You’re kidding, right? You really don’t see the cross? The stagecraft is obvious, even to an amateur photographer. Lights are being bounced off it. Huckabee is backlit, giving him a halo of light around his head. The intent is clearly to show Huckabee bathed in the light of Christ. Nothing in a campaign ad is accidental.
Ah yes: “In Hoc Signo Vinces, Huckabaeus!…” Or…maybe that just happens to be the way the room is set up? Incredible that Huckabee is bathed in light — it’s just like…every other candidate in every other ad shot in a dark setting?
The ad is already so overtly Christian — the music, the tree, the “Merry Christmas!” I don’t understand why there is any need to read so much into a bookshelf in the background. Does this somehow send the secret message that — gasp — Huckabee’s a Christian??? Ya think? Wait a second — I can see the next vertical pane on that bookshelf, to the left, just slightly obscured by the tree. Is he trying to tell us something? Ah, yes — it’s an “H” for Huckabee! No, wait — it’s a “#” sign there’s a toll-free number hidden among the Christmas ornaments that you can call to volunteer for the campaign!