The Times/Bloomberg poll has McCain in a statistical dead heat with Obama and the Reuters/Zogby poll has him up by five. The Saddleback Civil Forum [full transcript here] probably had a lot to do with this. From John McCain’s answer to pastor Rick Warren’s question, “Why do you want to be president?”

I want to inspire a generation of Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest. I believe that America’s best days are ahead of us, but I also believe that we face enormous challenges, both national security and domestic, as we have found out in the last few days in the case of Georgia.

And I want to be — make sure that everybody understands that this is a time to come together. Throughout my life from the time I was 17 and raised my hand and was sworn in as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, I’ve always put my country first. I put my country first when I had the honor of serving in the military, and I had the honor of serving my — putting my country first as a member of the House of Representatives and then the United States Senate.

America wants hope. America wants optimism. America wants us to sit down together. I have a record of reaching across the aisle and working with the other party, and I want to do that, and I believe, as I said, that Americans feel it is time for us to put our country first.

I’ve come late to this party due to only getting to finish watching the TIVO’d program yesterday, even though I’ve read several live blogs and analysis, as well as hearing full commentaries on it on Hugh Hewitt’s and Dennis Prager’s radio shows. Laer Pierce at Cheat Seeking Missiles had an insightful take on the back & forth between McCain and Obama as well as the Left’s hyperventilation over their man showing up to talk politics in a church!

Barack Obama’s overall performance was so poor that the MSM’s Andrea Mitchell on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” stepped in to help him out by intimating that McCain was listening to Barack’s answers in the candidate’s motorcade, as McCain was a few minutes late thereby not being in pastor Rick Warren’s stated cone of silence the full time. Maybe he had time to hear the first two, although the Secret Service denies this, but hey, Warren had given both candidates those first two questions in advance, which really calls into question Obama’s answer to this one: “Who are the three wisest people you know in your life, and who are you going to rely on heavily in your administration?” To which Barack answered:

I was going to say — you know, there are so many people that are constantly helping to shape my views and my opinions. You mentioned one person I’d be listening to, and that’s Michelle, my wife, who is not only wise, but she’s honest. And one of the things you need, I think, any leader needs is somebody who can get up in your face and say boy, you really screwed that one up. You really blew that.
[...]
So that’s very helpful. Another person in that category is my grandmother, is an extraordinary woman. She never went to college. She worked on a bomber assembly line during World War Ii while my grandfather was away, came back, got a job as a secretary and worked her way up to become a bank vice president before she retired. And she’s a very grounded, common sense, no fuss, no frills kind of person. When I’ve got big decisions I often check in with her.

Asked the same question later, McCain answered in order, General David Petraeus, black civil rights leader John Lewis and finally Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay. Hmmmm, Gen. Petraeus or Michelle Obama? I ask, you decide . . .

It goes on like that the entire two hours. Mumble-mouthed Obama vs. crisp and succinct McCain. The abortion question is above Barack’s pay grade while John McCain knows when life begins, “At the moment of conception.” With at least two, likely three, Supreme Court justices to retire over the term of the next president, who they would and would not pick is of prime importance. Here is a clip of Obama answering the question about which sitting SCOTUS justice he would not have nominated. Watch him as he almost says about Clarence Thomas that he, Thomas, was not experienced enough. He gets the “ex” part out before he catches himself and then berates Thomas for his intelligence instead — almost the gaff of a lifetime, there Barry! I’ll bet Hillary took note, maybe she’ll reference it in her speech next week?

For McCain, the answer to the same question was, “With all due respect, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Souter, and Justice Stephens.”

It truly was an amazing, civil presentation of ideas. In her Yahoo News opinion piece Georgie Anne Geyer takes that thought further:

I have seldom swooned since I was 17, many years ago, but I could almost swoon — with gratitude — in thanks to pastor Rick Warren for what he did for common sense and, his favorite word, “civility,” in the candidates’ visit to his California church Saturday night.
ADVERTISEMENT

He provided for us, in another of his favored biblical words, “revelations” through a true civic forum in this too-often artificially conflictual campaign. He showed that we can have an interesting and informative time with the candidates without everybody engaging in the constant smear attacks that Americans say they are so tired of. In fact, this is the internal sickness of television coverage that has been growing over the years and that has now so affected everything we hear and do that we see the nation as a vulgar screaming machine. Remember the late and unmourned “Crossfire”?

The candidates actually said things that were coherent and complete Saturday — and why? Because they were given time and space to say what they felt without being interrupted rudely, challenged at every new turn of phrase and put down at every corner. No “gotchas,” not even one!

I heard pastor Warren a few days later on Hannity & Colmes say something to this effect, “If after watching that you don’t know who you are going to vote for, I can’t imagine why.”

Oh, ya betcha!

Technorati Tags: Saddleback Civil Forum, John McCain, Barack Obama

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 10:16 am and is filed under Decision '08, Here Comes McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

Recently Posted:

• “Young Mattie Fein” Political Ad — Hot Linkage & More . . .
• Just Bloggin’ Around: VJ Day Video, Ground Zero Mosque, Obaminations & More . . .
• We The People — An Open Letter To President Obama
• Remembering Annie & Some Hard-Life Lessons
• Obama’s Nightmare In The Gulf
• Obama’s Exectuive Order Banning Federal Funding of Abortion Proves To Be Just More B.S.
• American Women — Takin’ Names, Kickin’ Butt!
• Now Obama’s F’ing Up NASA!
• Happy 4th of July Y’all!
• VOTE!