A good synopsis for anyone who was unable to watch...
http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/?p=760
Analysis of the Rick Warren Presidential Forum: Passion and Conviction Versus Monotone Smooth-talker
Posted by Rachel Alexander
August 17, 2008 at 9:50 pm
McCain may have finally redeemed himself among the evangelical right. While it was clear in his facial expressions that Pastor Rick Warren preferred Obama over McCain, McCain easily outperformed Obama in his responses to issues evangelicals care about.
The first presidential forum featuring John McCain against Barack Obama took place at evangelical Pastor Rick Warren’s megachurch Saddleback. Warren, who has all but endorsed Obama, is unlike the vast majority of evangelical pastors who are conservative, signing a statement advocating for government measures to prohibit global warming and promoting U.S. funding of AIDS prevention around the world. His sermons tend to focus on the positive feel-good aspects of Christian teachings, or the “social gospel,” avoiding the inerrant truth of the Bible.
While it was clear in his facial expressions that Warren preferred Obama over McCain, McCain easily outperformed Obama in his responses to issues evangelicals care about. McCain shone, especially since he wasn’t trying to run to the middle of the electorate which Obama was doing. Obama hedged and stalled while answering the questions. McCain was so sure of his responses sometimes he interrupted Pastor Warren in answering before Warren had finished asking the questions. McCain had no hesitation asserting strong conservative positions. The format consisted of a series of identical questions selected by Warren to both candidates, without knowledge first of how the other answered. To Warren’s credit, the questions were pretty balanced, and didn’t overly favor either candidate (he wouldn’t want to risk alienating too many in his generally conservative evangelical audience).
The first question asked was which three people did each candidate consider the wisest sources they would consult during their administration. Obama said his wife, his grandmother, and several members of Congress including Ted Kennedy, one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate. McCain’s response was a little better, although none of the people he mentioned are particularly close friends of his: General Petraeus, a military soldier named John Lewis, and the CEO of Amazon, Meg Whitman.
Warren asked both candidates what they thought was their biggest moral failure and what was the U.S.’s biggest moral failure. McCain scored points with conservatives here by acknowledging it was his first marriage. But when it came to the biggest moral failure of the U.S, he should have said it was abortion. Instead, he said not devoting ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest.
Obama kept repeating throughout the forum that he’s come to realize it’s not about himself, which was nothing more than a rip-off from Pastor Warren’s book (Obama even noted that the first line of A Purpose Driven Life is “It’s not about you”). Those words rang pretty hollow, since as it’s been pointed out numerous times throughout this campaign that Obama has made it all about him and his “change.” His remarks were clearly an attempt to deflect attention from his presidential campaign being all about promoting himself. Even when asked at the end of the debate why he wanted to be president, he said it’s because when his mom was mad at something he did, she would tell him to put himself in the shoes of someone else.
The other theme Obama kept coming back to was that we don’t do enough for the least in society. That also rang hollow because he wasn’t referring to encouraging Americans to get active in charitable work, but instead wanted them to vote to raise taxes so we can force everyone, even those who don’t want to help in this manner, to turn over their earned money to the government to then dole it out to favored groups.
Obama’s example of going against his party? He had a hard time answering this, because he has been one of the most consistently liberal members of the U.S. Senate. He came up with being against the resolution to go to war against Iraq. Well, Senate Democrats were split on this issue; 29 voted for it, and 21 voted against it, putting Obama safely within the ideological base of the party. The other issue he cited was campaign finance reform. Only 2 Democrat Senators voted against McCain-Feingold in 2002, so it’s a real stretch to say that advocating for campaign finance reform bucked the Democrat Party line. McCain had no problem listing several issues where he’s gone against the Republican Party line.
McCain scored points when he responded to a question on what issue he’s changed his mind on within the past 10 years – offshore oil drilling. “We’ve got to drill here and we’ve got to become independent of foreign oil.”
The candidates were asked what was the most gut-wrenching decision they ever made, and McCain won that round, recounting the decision he made not to be set free early when he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Even though his high-ranking father could have gotten him out early, he refused, since there were others who had been in prison longer than him. It made it all the more poignant seeing him at the beginning of the forum next to Obama, unable to move his arms very high in the air as he waved to the crowd, because of the severe torture he underwent in North Vietnam.
When asked about abortion, Obama dodged the question, saying that answering that question was above his pay grade. This is doubly troubling considering Obama is raking in millions of dollars as a presidential candidate, and is paid a hefty salary as a U.S. Senator ($165,200) precisely to decide issues like the legality of abortion. That wasn’t even the most ridiculous thing he said about abortion. “I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade and come to that conclusion not because I’m pro-abortion, but because ultimately I don’t think women make these decisions casually. They wrestle with these things in profound ways, in consultation with their pastors or spouses or their doctors and their family members.” This is not true. There are plenty of women who have abortions because they would prefer a different gender, or they think it would be “inconvenient” to have a baby at that particular time in their life. Many don’t bother consulting the father. This statement by Obama was sadly telling; he would prefer to gloss over the truth on this issue. He also claimed that abortions have gone up under President Bush, which was immediately disputed as false by major pro-life organizations. In actuality, abortions are at their lowest level in 30 years.
McCain’s response to when a baby is entitled to human rights? Unhesitatingly, “At the moment of conception. I have a 25-year prolife record in the Congress, in the Senate, and as president of the United States, I will be a prolife president and this presidency will have prolife policies. That’s my commitment, that’s my commitment to you.” His answer was impressive and John Jakubczyk from Arizona Right to Life should be credited in part with ensuring McCain’s understanding of this issue. Although McCain didn’t completely reverse himself on his support of government funding of embryonic stem cell research now that imitation adult stem cells have been developed (kudos to Pastor Warren for asking this question), he came pretty close, “I am wildly optimistic that skin cell research which is coming more and more into focus and practicability will make this debate an economic one.”
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