Why, oh why do we have a PASTOR asking the questions?????????????????????? Can someone please explain that to me?? What happened to this country?
I didn't see this event, and I doubt too many other people did, but after reading a summary of it, I think it was a mistake for McCain to participate. Rick Warren is one of these "new age" evangelicals who want to go beyond the old style politics of the traditional evangelicals. So he begins this program by saying that he is "friends" with both candidates and that both are patriots. Frankly, that made the evening a win for Obama, no matter what he said. I don't really see the point in presidential candidates submitting to extremely personal questions regarding their "biggest moral failures", what Jesus means to them and other such things. We are electing a president, not a pastor. We should be judging them on their record, but of course that would be awkward for Obama since he doesn't have one. Put this down as yet another misstep by the McCain campaign.
No.............. I saw the debate (or whatever you wanna call it)........... McCain, out of no where, cleaned Obama's clock in this event!! The Discussion panel after wards were all saying the same thing. McCain clear winner. ****SHOCKING***** After the event one of CNNs reporters was interviewing Obama, and said to him (while asking a question about Obamas record) "Lets call a spade a spade"
I may have to reconsider my assessment. I didn't see the event, but I thought Rick Warren basically presenting them as equally valid choices for evangelicals was troubling. However, it seems the viewers overwhelmingly agreed with the prior poster that McCain dominated. See the comments here. http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/08/16/obama-says-pointed-abortion-query-above-his-pay-grade/
Obama was only addressing the pastor.... and gave long, and fuzzy general answers. Some one must of tipped this off to McCain.... Cause when he came out, he addressed the audience and gave quick and sharp answers..... sometimes before the pastor even finished the question. How he really kicked Obama's ass was the way he incorporated his POW experience into his answeres..... he gave a few moving stories of when he was a prisoner that had the entire audience dead silent. Of course he knows this is an area he has Obama ..... he he sure used it tonight. The news panel afterwards were stunned at McCains performance.... cause it was not expected. Im sure Obama learned from this and will adjust for next time
heres the CNN analysis .... with clips from the Obama and McCains responses. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/08/17/obama.mccain.analysis1.cnn?iref=videosearch
I agree. McCain was sharp. Obama has a good presence and it showed.....he connects with the audience, but after a while, all his answers sounded like a cliche........like he wasn't speaking his true feelings/views, but what he thought the audience wanted to hear. It will be interesting to see if they do some more of these type events.
I watched the event. I must say that McCain handled himself better than I had expected and, on balance, had the audience's favor. However, I don't think that Obama's responses were "fuzzy," as someone here had suggested. Rather, they were nuanced, as compared to McCain's rather pat answers. It seems that the more pat answers carried the day for this audience. As an aside, as an atheist, I was initially appalled that the candidates would have to jump through evangelical hoops, political realities notwithstanding. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the direct religious references, I thought that the questions were quite well thought out.
Exhibit A: McCain..."I will follow Osama bin Laden TO THE GATES OF HELL..." ergo...as President, and leader of the nation, I will drag the entire country TO THE GATES OF HELL. Case closed. Vote Obama.