The Apocalypse Presidency

A lot of people were creeped out when Mike Huckabee, the likable gop presidential contender and onetime preacher, seemed to suggest that his campaign was backed by Jesus Christ. But not former White House and Pentagon adviser Douglas MacKinnon, bestselling author of America's Last Days. MacKinnon just added it to the fodder for his new Washington thriller, The Apocalypse Directive. As luck would have it, Huckabee's Christian-influenced campaign came along as MacKinnon was working on his latest, a novel about a Christian conspiracy including the president and the Pentagon's "Christian Ambassadors" to take out the world's radical Muslims and other "sinners" with sub- and land-based nukes. It was the idea of friends in the Pentagon concerned about the influence of the "Christian Embassy," a prayer and Bible study group praised by a top Air Force general in 2006 for being devoted first to God, then family and country. "They said, 'Doug, you should pay attention to this,' " he tells us. Other characters in the book out in early July are based on real-life people, like Karl Rove. It ought to sell. His last Washington-based book sold over 80,000.