Saddleback Sum-Up
I watched all of Obama's interview with Pastor Rick Warren, and about half of McCain's. My impression was that Obama was exceedingly comfortable in the setting, and he didn't try to go mealy-mouthed on his views just because he was before an evangelical audience. He declared he was pro-choice, he made a case for stem cell research and civil unions, he singled out Clarence Thomas and Scalia as the two worst judges on the Supreme Court, and advocated family planning assistance to address poverty.
He was obviously at ease discussing his faith, even though Warren didn't really ask many specific questions about it. I was expecting a more theological discussion, to get a sense of the candidates' philosophy and authenticity on faith issues. But instead Warren offered up Oprah-like questions about personal moral failings and hot-button issues.
Because there weren't any specific faith questions, the forum turned out to be tailor made for McCain. He established his faith cred by telling a "cross in the dirt" story that may have been stolen from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, then he scored easy points by agreeing with the evangelical audience on abortion, defeating "evil", keeping taxes low despite record deficits, and saying he would never approve the liberal judges on the Supreme Court. Warren didn't seem to have done any research on the candidates and failed to ask follow-up questions, making McCain's task even easier.
Warren never dug into McCain's infidelity, even though Obama was quite forthcoming about his past drug use and the lessons he learned from it. McCain cheated on his first wife and dumped her, yet he is claiming that the institution of marriage is so sacred that gay folks shouldn't have access to it. Heck, it sounded like he doesn't believe in civil unions either. Seems relevant to me.
Warren never asked McCain why he voted to approve justices Breyer, Ginsberg, and Souter if he dislikes judges with that philosophy. Warren never challenged McCain's assertion that people making $4.9 million per year are not rich. Warren never asked him about torture, or McCain's flip-flops on that issue. Nor did he ask McCain to clarify his sudden shift last year from Episcopalian to Baptist.
Plenty of folks are fretting that McCain "won" because the crowd enjoyed his George W. Bush impression more than Barack Obama's Obama impression. What a crock. I'm sure if this forum were hosted by Oprah Winfrey in front of a liberal Planned Parenthood audience, with the same exact questions and answers, it would be Obama who was declared the "winner" because of the ecstatic cheers for his answers. Like Norm Scheiber, I think you have to grade this one on the curve.
Using the curve, both men helped themselves but Obama probably helped himself more. Yes, McCain gave some assurance to evangelicals that he is anti-choice and anti-gays and anti-taxes and all those other b.s. issues that have come to define Christianity for too many in this country. But I find it hard to believe that anyone who watched that still thinks Obama is a scary Muslim; his Biblical knowledge was better than McCain's, and his professions of faith were not boiled down to canned stump speech anecdotes. Warren may be a more progressive evangelical leader (if only in comparison to the real phonies like Hagee and Parsley), but this was still McCain's crowd and McCain's preferred set of questions. Obama stood his ground and showed himself to be quite thoughtful. And McCain delivered some nice footage to his opponent's ad factory, both with his clear anti-choice statements and his declarations that $5,000,000/year is the threshold for being rich.
I'd also challenge anyone who thinks this is how the upcoming debates will go down. Unless Obama wants to lose the election, he will challenge McCain's b.s. Remember in the first 2004 debate, when Bush lost his mojo because Kerry was there to actually challenge him? I'm guessing the same will happen here. McCain has underestimated Obama's intelligence for so long that he now feels free to call him an empty suit, a traitor, a friend to Iran and Hamas and the Kremlin. That shit ends on September 26th, when Obama steps into the ring. Both men will likely become angry in the debates -- Obama because of McCain's insinuations and lies, McCain because Obama will puncture his sphere of delusion. We've all seen which candidate is cooler under pressure. And it ain't McCain.
Game on.
He was obviously at ease discussing his faith, even though Warren didn't really ask many specific questions about it. I was expecting a more theological discussion, to get a sense of the candidates' philosophy and authenticity on faith issues. But instead Warren offered up Oprah-like questions about personal moral failings and hot-button issues.
Because there weren't any specific faith questions, the forum turned out to be tailor made for McCain. He established his faith cred by telling a "cross in the dirt" story that may have been stolen from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, then he scored easy points by agreeing with the evangelical audience on abortion, defeating "evil", keeping taxes low despite record deficits, and saying he would never approve the liberal judges on the Supreme Court. Warren didn't seem to have done any research on the candidates and failed to ask follow-up questions, making McCain's task even easier.
Warren never dug into McCain's infidelity, even though Obama was quite forthcoming about his past drug use and the lessons he learned from it. McCain cheated on his first wife and dumped her, yet he is claiming that the institution of marriage is so sacred that gay folks shouldn't have access to it. Heck, it sounded like he doesn't believe in civil unions either. Seems relevant to me.
Warren never asked McCain why he voted to approve justices Breyer, Ginsberg, and Souter if he dislikes judges with that philosophy. Warren never challenged McCain's assertion that people making $4.9 million per year are not rich. Warren never asked him about torture, or McCain's flip-flops on that issue. Nor did he ask McCain to clarify his sudden shift last year from Episcopalian to Baptist.
Plenty of folks are fretting that McCain "won" because the crowd enjoyed his George W. Bush impression more than Barack Obama's Obama impression. What a crock. I'm sure if this forum were hosted by Oprah Winfrey in front of a liberal Planned Parenthood audience, with the same exact questions and answers, it would be Obama who was declared the "winner" because of the ecstatic cheers for his answers. Like Norm Scheiber, I think you have to grade this one on the curve.
Using the curve, both men helped themselves but Obama probably helped himself more. Yes, McCain gave some assurance to evangelicals that he is anti-choice and anti-gays and anti-taxes and all those other b.s. issues that have come to define Christianity for too many in this country. But I find it hard to believe that anyone who watched that still thinks Obama is a scary Muslim; his Biblical knowledge was better than McCain's, and his professions of faith were not boiled down to canned stump speech anecdotes. Warren may be a more progressive evangelical leader (if only in comparison to the real phonies like Hagee and Parsley), but this was still McCain's crowd and McCain's preferred set of questions. Obama stood his ground and showed himself to be quite thoughtful. And McCain delivered some nice footage to his opponent's ad factory, both with his clear anti-choice statements and his declarations that $5,000,000/year is the threshold for being rich.
I'd also challenge anyone who thinks this is how the upcoming debates will go down. Unless Obama wants to lose the election, he will challenge McCain's b.s. Remember in the first 2004 debate, when Bush lost his mojo because Kerry was there to actually challenge him? I'm guessing the same will happen here. McCain has underestimated Obama's intelligence for so long that he now feels free to call him an empty suit, a traitor, a friend to Iran and Hamas and the Kremlin. That shit ends on September 26th, when Obama steps into the ring. Both men will likely become angry in the debates -- Obama because of McCain's insinuations and lies, McCain because Obama will puncture his sphere of delusion. We've all seen which candidate is cooler under pressure. And it ain't McCain.
Game on.
posted by Existenz | 4:50 PM
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