The McCain Edge At Saddleback

So now we know why John McCain was decisive, forceful, and quick on his feet when he appeared with Reverend Rick Warren at the latter's Saddleback Church in Orange County, California on August 16, 2008. At the beginning of the forum, Reverend Warren assured us:

So you can compare apples to apples. Now, Senator Obama is going to go first. We flipped a coin, and we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence.

And once McCain did appear:

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Good to be here.
WARREN: My first question, was the cone of silence comfortable you were in just now?
MCCAIN: I was trying to hear through the wall.

Very cute. And very dishonest. Pretending to be enraged at NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell's report that the Obama campaign was saying that McCain had broken the rules, McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis argued the candidate "was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green room with no broadcast feed.” Inadvertently, Davis had acknowledged that the Repub candidate had not been in a cone of silence, but rather first in a motorcade (where the broadcast could have been communicated to him in any number of ways) and then in a room "with no broadcast feed," where nonetheless content of the broadcast could have been communicated to him in any number of ways.

Appearing on Larry King Live on Monday night, 8/18/08, Reverend Warren was asked "could McCain have heard it (the Obama interview) in the car coming over?" and incredibly replied "not a chance- the Secret Service would have reported it."

Which claim of Warren was less sincere a) that McCain was in "a cone of silence" he either knew he wasn't in or at least could not be certain that he was; or b) claiming that the Secret Service, mistaking its role for that of a babysitter, would have "ratted out" the guy who could be the next President of the United States and leader of the Free World? That's a tough call.