I finally got around to watching the Civil Forum on the Presidency hosted by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church. DVR is a great thing. I was looking forward to the interaction between Warren and each of the candidates, excited that the first time that they would be on the same stage after becoming presumptive nominees would be in a church, and interested to see if there would be anything unexpected or off the wall.
But, I was disappointed.
I only made it through Obama’s portion of the show before having to go to bed and I found myself having to fight to stay awake for what I did see. Maybe I was just tired last night or maybe the event was really not as good as I had anticipated.
One week later, instead of being a defining moment in the political season, I think that this event has passed quickly into the political drain of old news.
Rev. Andrew Conard 
8 replies on “McCain, Obama and Warren – One Week Later”
I haven seen it yet, but from the reaction of the pundit class, and from some of my friends – it sounded like Obama got his clock cleaned. Perhaps its why his poll numbers are slipping so drastically? A lot of folks I’ve heard from say it was a much better format than the typical debates and that it exposed the deep media bias that is fueling the Obama candidacy. I honestly cant believe that Obama isn’t trouncing McCain in such a heavily democratic year. Its honestly baffling to me. For the first time I think there is a 50/50 chance the big O will not be our next president.
Carlos – Thanks for your thoughts. I do think that the typical format for debates is not very effective as it ends up that the candidates do not necessarily debate each other. I think that the moderator should be less a part of the whole thing and let the candidates speak directly to each other – the more well reasoned, the better.
My impression after watching the “debate” was that very few people will change their minds. Obama was not smooth in his answers to questions and looked either dazed or contemplative depending on your point of view. McCain was very crisp in his responses, which either looks decisive or like he’s not thinking through things. You could spin either candidate’s approach however you like. The one thing that was a plus for McCain, though, is that expectations for his public speaking are so low that most people were probably impressed with how composed he was.
I went on the record several months ago saying McCain would win the presidency. What the pundits are forgetting is that the Democratic controlled Congress has even lower ratings than President Bush. There is not a groundswell of support for Democrats. There is support for change. McCain potentially represents change as well as Obama since he has a reputation of workig across the aisle to get things done. I think in an uncertain world people will ultimately trust McCain more than Obama even if the potential of Obama as a strong president is higher than McCain’s. This is not an endorsement of either candidate, I just love analyzing politics.
David – Thanks for your thoughts. I think that you raise an interesting point about the low approval of congress as well. Hmmm… It will be an interesting next couple months.
I wasn’t that impressed with either candidate, but mostly because there wasn’t a dance-off.
A dance-off would have settled the whole thing once and for all.
Perhaps something like this?
deviantmonk and Nikki – A danceoff would be good stuff. Do you think that they could incorporate one into the conventions?
I just watched this on DVR a couple days ago as well. I agree with some of David’s initial posts above.
Obama took this as an opportunity to genuinely and thoughtfully discuss the issues, but didn’t do a very intentional job of “selling his position” or “politicking”. Whereas McCain did give very intentional focused answers geared toward voters, but really didn’t “discuss” the issues with the depth and context that Obama did. I would be surprised if this forum changed many people’s voting tendency, but I did find it semi-informational.