Warren just made it worse today in an attempt to cover his own ass. He has announced that he told both candidates some of the questions before hand. Maybe some of the nation's evangelicals tuned in to hear about religion. However, for most Americans, it was an opportunity to see if McCain had enough functioning brain cells left to conduct an intelligent conversation. On Saturday, the nation was lead to believe that they going to see McCain answer questions off the cuff. Now, on Monday, we discover that McCain was reading a script.
During the Saddleback Forum, Pastor Rick started the spectacle by telling the audience:
NOW WHAT I'VE DECIDED IS TO ALLOW FOR PROPER
COMPARISON I'M GOING TO ASK IDENTICAL QUESTIONS TO EACH OF
THESE CANDIDATES SO YOU CAN COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES. Now SENATOR OBAMA IS GOING TO GO FIRST. WE FLIPPED A COIN.
AND WE HAVE SAFELY PLACED SENATOR MCCAIN IN A CONE OF
SILENCE. EACH OF THE INTERVIEWS WILL BE SEGMENTED INTO
FOUR DIFFERENT SECTIONS WE'RE GOING TO LOOK AT A FOUR
DIFFERENT THINGS AND THE NUMBER OF QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN
EACH SEGMENT WILL DEPEND ON HOW SUCCINCT THE SENATOR IS.
http://rickwarrennews.com/transcript/civil_forum_transcript-01.txtThe implication of “we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence” was that he was being kept isolated so that he would not hear the questions in advance (or Sen. Obama’s answers). Anyone would expect the audience to assume that this was what the statement meant, and this is what everyone did assume.
Later, the charade was continued. Here is Warren speaking to McCain:
Q. WELCOME BACK TO THE SADDLEBACK CIVIL FORUM ON
THE PRESIDENCY AND WELCOME SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN.
NOW MY FIRST QUESTION WAS THE CONE OF SILENCE
COMFORTABLE THAT YOU WERE IN JUST NOW?
A. I WAS TRYING TO HEAR THROUGH THE WALL.
Here, John McCain goes along with the “cone of silence” charade. The audience and viewers at home are now sure that the Senator from Arizona has spent the last forty minutes sequestered in some sound proof room and that he has never heard the questions he is about to be asked---for this is the implication of the farce which Rick Warren has produced.
However, a lie like this is too easy to disprove, especially when John McCain was not even in the building. The news crews gathered for the event were able to note the time of his arrival---and learn that he was in a car when he was supposed to be in the fictitious "cone of silence". From the New York Times yesterday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/us/politics/18mccain.html?ref=politics ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain was not in a “cone of silence” on Saturday night while his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback Church in California.
Members of the McCain campaign staff, who flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren, the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”
The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who followed Mr. Obama’s hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s performance was well received, raising speculation among some viewers, especially supporters of Mr. Obama, that he was not as isolated during the Obama interview as Mr. Warren implied.
Snip
Interviewed Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was not in the building during the Obama interview.
“Surprised” is a mild word for Warren’s reaction. Here is the CNN interview.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/08/17/rick.warren.forum.interview.cnn?iref=videosearchNote how Warren loses his cool under cross examination. He tries several different subterfuges----McCain crossed his heart and hoped to die swore that he did not listen to the Obama part of the interview. Warren really did believe that McCain was in a cone of silence and was shocked, shocked I tell you to find out that he wasn’t. Warren told both men the first question beforehand. Warren told both men the general themes but no specific questions beforehand.---he tries out at least four different excuses to cover up for himself and McCain over the course of about 2 minutes, all while giving the tell tale glancing to the side “I’m making this up as I go along” sign.
The above video is a must watch. Be sure to note Warren's early comment about the “casting” of the two men. The whole thing was a sham, a stage play. Obama was cast as the liberal intellectual, and McCain’s script called for him to be the straight talking, jump right in there and get things done guy. The man who has intact intellectual and verbal function, contrary to everything we have witnessed so far in the campaign.
Twenty four hours have passed, giving Warren enough time to settle on one of these excuses, and it is a poor one, at least from John McCain's point of view. From today’s New York Times.
Who Knew What When? or Warren now claims he told both candidates the questions in advance.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/who-knew-what-when/ It turns out that the Rev. Rick Warren gave both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain an advance look at some of the questions he posed to them on Saturday night at the Saddleback Church forum in California, according to church officials.
snip
On Thursday night, Mr. Ross said, Mr. Warren told Mr. Obama three of the questions he would be asking: What is your greatest moral failing? What is America’s greatest moral failing? And who are the three people you rely on most for wise advice?
On Friday, Mr. Warren gave the same three questions to Mr. McCain.
Mr. Warren also told them the general categories of the questions, some of the broad themes and that he would also be asking about their tax policies.
In addition, Mr. Ross said, Mr. Warren later told Mr. Obama that he would be asking him another question: whether he would support the church’s emergency project for orphans.
Note that the same page at the NYTs has a big photo of McCain as a returned POW and a link to a video, and you will begin to wonder if the Bill Kristol, NeoCon wing of the newspaper has taken over the story. Also note that today’s article prominently features the “Cross in the Sand” story about how McCain may have lifted an anecdote from the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. As I discussed in my journal yesterday, I think that this story may be a red herring thrown out by the McCain campaign itself or Karl Rove as a distraction to obscure the much more damaging “McCain cheated” story. If you were a candidate and you could choose to defend yourself against charges that you made up a POW experience about a cross in the sand or that you cheated in a televised forum, you would pick the former.
Warren’s latest version of events is good for Warren, because he can tell his followers
I wanted both men to be able to give full answers about their religious beliefs and eliminate any advantage that Obama might have since he is a better extemporaneous speaker. However, his strategy creates an enormous problem for McCain, because it puts the lie to the image that he was trying to create----that he is able to talk off the top of his head.
All those people who thought that he had the questions in advance and who suspected that he was coached now have supporting evidence. We did not see him perform under fire. We saw him read a script.
That means that the conservatives who were crowing about his stellar performance on Saturday have to eat crow. People like this:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/small_hopes_and_large_upsets.html Finally, McCain's performance at the Warren forum helps change the political psychology going into the conventions. Republicans have spent the last few weeks pleasantly surprised at the closeness of the presidential race. But they have generally chalked this up to Obama's weakness, not McCain's strength. After Saturday night, even Republicans most skeptical of McCain must conclude: "Perhaps we aren't doomed after all."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/08/fresk-off-his-s.html Fresh off his Saturday Saddleback triumph, John McCain attacks on Iraq
To the surprise of many, John McCain seemed in his element Saturday at the candidate forum Rick Warren conducted at Orange County's Saddleback Church.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTBjN2RkY2Y3ODZhYmRmYTZjYTI1NTQ4ZGNkM2Y2YmU= (T)here were at least a few McCain insiders who were a bit nervous about their candidate’s prospects. Obama can be remarkably polished in this sort of situation. Unlike other Democrats, he’s not afraid to hang out with evangelicals. McCain, on the other hand, can at times be cranky and take pleasure in irritating his base. Could he come out ahead in this one?
snip
McCain was the clear winner of the night.
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/bresciani/080817 Senator McCain answered without hesitation
http://jay1949.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/the-saddleback-forum-mccain-1-obama-0/ But, having said all of that, there is an overriding reason why I believe McCain took this match: one of the problems that a significant number of voters have had with John is his age. At Saddleback, John McCain looked nothing like the picture the Democrats want to paint, i.e., the picture of a tired, confused old man; on the contrary, going with less rest and preparation time than Obama, John McCain looked vigorous and alert and on top of his game. Regardless of specific responses to specific questions, that, in my opinion, is the impression that many viewers will have taken away from this match.
That last comment is the most telling. The Saddleback Forum was a cheat, a stage play set up to give the public the impression that the two candidates were being asked to come up with extemporaneous answers to complicated questions involving religion and morality. We were told lie after lie. First that McCain could not hear the questions or Obama’s responses, because he was in a “cone of silence.” McCain took part in this deception himself, knowing full well what the viewing audience would assume by the phrase “cone of silence.”
We were also told a lie of innuendo and omission. When Warren made a point of talking about the cone of silence and the coin flip, he knew that the audience would assume that neither candidate had been given the questions beforehand. There are two reasons for such maneuvers. The minor one is so that you will not hear your opponent's answer. The main one is so that you will not have extra time to formulate your own answers. Warren aided the McCain camp in perpetrating a hoax on the American public by not disclosing that he had coached the candidate on the questions before hand, giving him time to memorize answers.
Would Warren ever have admitted the truth? Or would he have let conservative pundits continue to write about what an amazing job John McCain did answering questions off the top of his head, when Warren knew that this was not the case? To let stories like the ones above circulate and not correct the record was a lie in itself--a lie that Sen. Obama knew about, since he, too had been given some questions beforehand,though in his case no one doubts that he could have answered them without coaching. Warren only admitted that he had deceived the public after the first lie was revealed
and after John McCain’s scripted performance proved to be so good that people found it difficult to believe (There is something terribly ironic about a man running for president who is so impaired that he can not be coached in advance for fear that he will be caught).
Now that we know more of the truth, the nature of what we saw is changed, much like witnessing a magic trick before and after you are shown how it is performed. Those people who were impressed that McCain could formulate answers that made sense off the top of his head----they would have had a different opinion if they knew he knew the questions beforehand. And since we now know that both Warren and McCain attempted to deceive the public, there are more degrees of uncertainty added to the spectacle we saw. How do we know that McCain did not get the actual wording of the actual questions, in the order that they would be asked? We have to rely on the word of a man who waited 48 hours to tell the truth. How do we know that McCain did not hear Obama’s answers and that his script writers did not formulate his responses for him while he was in his motorcade? We can not know. We have to accept the word of a man who wants to be president so badly that he has commissioned some of the most disgusting ads ever made since the Daisy Ad.
All we know for certain is that Warren lied to us----he tried to pretend that we were seeing McCain answer questions he was not prepared for---and McCain lied to us----he pretended that he was in a cone of silence---and when people lie about one thing, they will tend to lie about other things.
If this much lying went on in relation to a game show, it would be pulled off the air, and a national scandal would erupt, because the nation can not stand a cheater. It violates our basic sense of fairness. This is not a game show. This is something much more important.
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