Strange Bedfellows Behind Anti-Obama "Turban" Ad

When Barack Obama explained his decision to opt out of public financing for the general election, he said he needed to defend against attacks by stealth conservative groups.

He pointed to one ad in particular, which showed an edited clip of him: "We are no longer a Christian nation … We are also a Muslim nation," spliced with a photo of Obama wearing a turban.

"It took a speech that I had made, extolling faith, and made it seem as if I had said that America was a Muslim nation," Obama told reporters on June 20.

The ad, the first truly inflammatory spot to air on television this year, was produced by a shadowy group called the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric.

Though it only aired once — just before the South Dakota primary — it created a hubbub by linking Obama to Islam. Yet few clues helped answer the question of who was behind the coalition.
It turns out the ad was the product of a hypnotherapist who later appeared in a pro-Clinton demonstration at the Denver convention, an apolitical wedding videographer, and a felon who is now on the run.

Their saga highlights the outsize influence that a hodgepodge collection of political amateurs can have in a national election — in this case, by accident.

The Hypnotherapist

Cristi Adkins says she was a gung-ho Clinton activist when some friends, an informal group of Christians from the South, asked her for help in responding to an Obama speech that offended them.

They had come across a 2006 speech in which Obama, addressing issues of faith, said it would be problematic to base public policy on Christianity because parts of the Bible seem to support slavery and "stoning your child if he strays from the faith."

Adkins, who was also bothered by the speech, says she helped her friends organize and come up with a name — the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric. She set up a Web site for them. And she helped produce the ad, using her husband's firm, Washington-based Allen Media Strategies, to place it on TV in South Dakota in time for the Democratic primary there.

The ad used an edited clip of the speech in which Obama actually says, "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation — at least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers." Other parts of the speech, where Obama discusses his own Christian faith, have been used in radio ads supporting him.

Adkins says the group itself didn't support or oppose a specific candidate — the members just wanted to take Obama to task for comments they felt denigrated Christianity. Adkins, who says she's an independent who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004, has much stronger feelings about Obama.

"I truly fear an Obama presidency. This guy's so dangerous, who needs al-Qaida?" she told me.

Adkins is a hypnotherapist and nurse who has a fat loss program and wellness center in Reston, Va. She has become a John McCain supporter and formed a new group: Clintons4McCain. She's been on Fox News and says she met with Sen. McCain in June along with other Clinton supporters campaigning against Obama.

The Convicted Felon

Adkins says she met Mike Donovan through her pro-Clinton organizing. As far as she knew, she says, he was another ardent Clinton activist. They even protested together at a rally, she says.

Donovan, now 31, told her he could raise money for the ad, according to Adkins. She recalls him saying he was a minister and could handle press.*continues*