18 August 2008

A curious exchange during Saddleback

Many people watched or read about the interviews of Obama and McCain by the megachurch pastor Rick Warren this weekend. Political junkies are also aware that there are murmurs of cheating by McCain because he was not in a "cone of silence" which would theoretically have prevented him from hearing the questions ahead of time. McCain apparently was in his limosine on the way to the interview while Obama was being interviewed, so he potentially could have heard/seen the interview that was broadcase live on television, or he could have plausible deniability by not hearing/seeing anything by letting his handlers listen in an forewarn him of what the questions would be (they were to be the same for both candidates).

But we'll let that go. It's been hashed over even on the mainstream news networks and everywhere in the political blogosphere. I'd like to focus on one brief exchange that occurred during McCain's interview session, documented at the Pensito Review:

WARREN: OK, we don’t have to beleaguer on that one. Define marriage.

MCCAIN: A union — a union between man and woman, between one man and one woman. That’s my definition of marriage.

Could I — are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices or should I mention –

WARREN: We will get to that.

MCCAIN: OK. All right. OK.

WARREN: You’re jumping ahead…

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: When we speak of the issue of the rights to the unborn, we need to talk about judges. But, anyway, go ahead.

This is most curious. The Supreme Court had not been discussed with McCain. The words and topic had not come up during his maybe 10-minute session. (Here's the CNN transcript of both interviews.) According to a Townhall column, Warren says in an interview with Beliefnet that it's a "flat-out lie" that McCain cheated and knew the questions ahead of time.

There's no way to prove anything here. It's just, shall we say... curious that John McCain would ask:
MCCAIN: Could I — are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices or should I mention –

WARREN: We will get to that.

MCCAIN: OK. All right. OK.

WARREN: You’re jumping ahead…
Judge for yourself.

2 comments:

  1. Ted BakerAugust 18, 2008 at 10:51 PM

    This juror does not vote to convict. He knew that in front of this crowd he would need to emphasize his promise to appoint conservative judges and justices.
    When later asked about tension between security and freedom McCain also threw in a phrase about secret ballots for union elections - which was not asked about anywhere else before or after. I think he was just making sure his memorized talking points got in regardless of the question.
    Not guilty.

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  2. Ted BakerAugust 19, 2008 at 12:54 AM

    To add to my previous comment, since you were kind enough to provide a link to the transcript of the presentation...I looked it up.
    In the question immediately preceding your quote, McCain is asked about abortion and the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade. His response is that he will be a pro-life President and will have pro-life policies. That seems like a very short step to talking about the Supreme Court and his appointees - which may be why he spoke of the Supreme Court in the next section - to complete his thought from the previous section.
    Not guilty.

    ReplyDelete