Fallout From Saddleback

The Saddleback Forum was an interesting display this past weekend. John McCain shined, and Barack Obama stumbled, badly. Not only were viewers not treated to the superb oratory skills of the man from "Chope," but they were embarrassed to see him stutter and ramble his way through fairly simple questions.

What is truly sad about the Saddleback Q & A is that starting Sunday the water carriers in the media, who are in the tank for Senator Obama, started floating the meme that John McCain cheated:

MR. GREGORY: Andrea Mitchell, that's a pretty clear contrast.

MS. ANDREA MITCHELL: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there was the crisp, immediate, forceful response by John McCain, clearly in a comfort zone because he was with his base. And Barack Obama, taking a risk in going there but seeing an opportunity. And a much more nuanced approach. The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that -- what they're putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.

Senator McCain arrived late to the forum and was immediately sequestered into a private green room. He did not hear a single question that was being asked of Senator Obama. But Senator Obama's allies are floating this idea that because of John McCain's quick, concise. and forceful answers he had to have had some advance knowledge of the questions, or somehow overheard the questions that Mr. Warren was asking Senator Obama. The truth, it appears, is that they both had a head's up on some of the questions:

So it turns out that Pastor Rick Warren, in an effort to increase the candidates’ comfort level with his pioneering format, gave each of them a heads-up on several of the hardest questions he asked Saturday night during his “the Saddleback Civil Forum on the presidency.”

A source close to Warren tells Playbook that the candidates knew in advance they would be asked their own greatest moral failure, America’s greatest moral failure, and the three wisest people in their lives.

The source said Obama also knew he would be asked if he’d be willing to commit to an emergency plan for orphans, like President Bush has for AIDS.

So the idea that McCain cheated is moot. They both had advance notice of some of the questions that they would be facing. What is irritating to the Left is that their guy dropped the ball. When asked about abortion, Senator Obama responded with a meandering ramble that ended with "it's above my pay grade." (For the record, senator, you are running for the presidency. Obviously you believe that these issues are not above your pay grade.) When asked which people he would not have nominated for the Supreme Court, he outright slammed Justice Clarence Thomas. He stated:

“I don’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time, for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of a lot of the constitution."

But K-Lo @ NRO points out that there are several cases that Senator Obama and Justice Thomas actually agree on. So that answer does not really wash in the overall scheme of things. In fact we call into question Senator Obama's ideas regarding the Constitution given the interview Thomas found with the Boston Globe where he obviously does not comprehend the separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

The simple fact is that the Saddleback Forum exposed Barack Obama for what he is. He cannot think on his feet. He is conflicted in his views. He showed a complete lack of understanding about this world, and this spoke volumes to his inexperience. It is clear to us that Senator Obama is not only not ready for the presidency, but he is obviously not ready for primetime. When it comes to the debates in the fall, this will be exposed even more.

Marcie