Obama Made the Most of a Subtley Hostile Interview
Now that I've watched the show at Saddleback, I'm not surprised that people thought McCain had the questions beforehand. He seemed so smooth and confident whereas Obama seemed tentative and always a little off balance (although the content of what he said was usually, after too much erring and ahhing, very good).
Why? Go back and watch a bit of it again. During Obama's entire hour, Rick is constantly sending him "wrap it up" signals. Usually not verbally, but by very impatient sounding "uh huh"s and so on. The general demeanor of the interviewer seems to be, "Don't try to put one over on me, buddy, I'm tired of all your rhetoric." If you don't believe me, please review the part where Obama actually says as much: "Oh, I'm getting the cues." or something to that effect. That kind of treatment can really put a crimp in one's style.
And what about McCain? He gets a big bear hug and the two of them sound like old straight-talkin' buddies.
With such obviously unprofessional and biased treatment, it's a wonder Obama came off as well as he did, and garnered so much applause with this audience.
I repeat, Pastor Warren lied to millions beyond his congregation about the 'cone of silence', et al.
Communications of outrage (e mails, faxes, phone calls) should be sent ASAP by all to media (not only CNN, but all media outlets) about this!
Note: Rove was most likely 'sending the McBush answers' to McCain.
This is truly disgusting.
August 18, 2008 2:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oops, sorry for the typo, it's getting late.
August 18, 2008 2:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, Warren treated the men very differently--I got the uh uh uh uhs right away. McCain was having fun because he had the questions and could hardly wait to nail each one. McCain's face is virtually frozen stiff from Botox. Notice the long immobile upper lip--that's the Botox--they warn you about that effect and without mobil lips you have to keep you anseres short. Maybe he was getting the injections in the limo while he was in the zone.
August 18, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
How do they explain the part when he asked, "Is it time for the Supreme Court yet?"
The very fact that he could spout the 4 names (of course without giving any intellectual argument about their judicial gifts, or lack thereof) of the only liberal judges -- showed that he was prepped & probably had his own "bulge" ala Dubya piping in answers.
August 18, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
After all the handwringing reviews and the talking head nonsense, Obama pulls ahead in the polls the day following the event.
Obviously, while all the armchair experts explained that McCain "won" the event, it appears that Obama won outside of the event with the less ideological public in general.
August 18, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, my argument is that regardless of McCain's preparation going in, Warren seemed to do everything he could to make sure that McCain would come off well and that Obama wouldn't. My argument is that this alone could be (whether or not it is) enough to account for McCain's uncharacteristically good performance.
There are two issues. Was McCain in some secluded place where he could not possibly have received inside information? This we know, definitely not. It would be nice to see some recognition of this, and for Warren, at least, to publicly take some heat for it.
But did he get inside information? To my knowledge there is no proof of this, and it's extremely unlikely we'll ever know, so it's time to move on on that point.
PS: Along with AAs comment, I think it's funny (in a bitter sort of way), that so many naive Obama supporters are so ready to jump all over him for "losing" in front of an audience that no one in their right mind would expect him to do well with. I don't know what it is about these people, but it's time to grow up.
August 18, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder what McCain supporters would do if he failed to perform spectacularly in front of a room full of socialists, answering questions from, I don't know, let's say Amy Goodman.
I'm sure they'd all freak out.
August 18, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that Barack WON! It is so nice to see intelligence at work instead of stump speeches.
I really think that a lot of people will get more used to Barack's 'intelligence' speaking and get really tired of hearing McCain's stump speech, even when he is in a forum like this, over and over and over again. There is nothing new there so McCain's hour was a total waste! It was his chance to say something different and new, or at least in a new way.
Warren told Barack... no stump speeches. He didn't say that to McCain and then even let him do stump speech after stump speech.
A little more humor on Barack's part maybe could have helped.
August 18, 2008 9:27 PM | Reply | Permalink