Barack Obama didn’t do so well at Pastor Rick Warren’s forum Saturday night. How did the Obama campaign react? By whining and claiming that somebody else cheated:
I’ve been looking into all this buzz that McCain somehow cheated — that he wasn’t in a “cone of silence” — during Barack Obama’s half of the Saddleback summit Saturday night. The talk got started on “Meet the Press” yesterday, when Andrea Mitchell said, “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. He seemed so well prepared.”
Ah, yes. Because — of course — the only way to be “well prepared” for an event is to cheat. It can’t be that one candidate has more life experience than the other. It can’t be that one candidate is a good enough politician to know what kinds of questions to expect and to prepare accordingly. No. The other candidate must have cheated.
Even if it were true, whining isn’t the right response. When you’re auditioning for the job of “leader of the free world”, you should expect everyone else to cheat. You should expect that other world leaders will often attempt to mislead you. You should expect others to gain the upper hand through devious means. Whining just means that you can’t operate under normal conditions.
Except that McCain didn’t even cheat.
As far as the McCain side is concerned, I spoke to Charlie Black a few minutes ago. He told me McCain’s motorcade left his hotel at 5 p.m. Saturday — that’s the time Obama went on stage at Saddleback. Black told me the trip took 35 minutes, and that McCain was in the car with the Secret Service guys, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and press aide Brooke Buchanan. (Black was in another car.) Black says that McCain did not hear any of Warren’s questions or Obama’s answers during the car ride. Then: “We arrived at Saddleback and went into a holding room, which is a separate building from the main church. In the room there were four or five staff people, plus McCain, and there was no TV, no audio, no nothing. We talked through a few of the topics. We had spent time in the afternoon preparing, doing Q&A, and we did a few more questions to warm him up. At about ten til six, the advance guys came to get McCain to take him to the stage, because the handshake with Obama was a few minutes before 6 p.m. McCain never heard any of this stuff.”
Tell me again why Senator Obama is ready to lead? Right now, he seems to fit in well with kindergarteners. Give me a call when he’s moved up a few grade levels.
A Kindergartener. Wow. So what of the millions who voted for him?
Scripture warns against arrogance. You would do well to practice a little humility and a little charity. It’s foolish rhetoric like yours that has our country so polarized. You can disagree with his ideas, but let’s play fair. If you can’t recognize Obama’s leadership qualities then I would suggest your blinded by you own presumptions. Kindergarteners. You should ashamed of yourself.
You’re right. I do tend to be arrogant and too quick to criticize others. Calling Senator Obama a kindergartner was a little over the top. Mea culpa.
On the other hand, I think my basic point is valid. Accusing your opponent of cheating, without proof, is unwise. Accusing your opponent of cheating, without proof, in a Presidential race is unwise and needlessly polarizing. Accusing your opponent of cheating, without proof, in a Presidential race where your opponent has staked his entire career on his personal honor is unwise, polarizing, and more than a little petty.
If Obama’s leadership qualities are as stellar as his supporters believe, he should be able to survive something as minor as not knowing the questions in advance. Covering up a poor performance by claiming that the other guy was too prepared is not a good example of leadership.
Bravo on accepting the criticism about fair play.
I’m not convinced that Senator McCain didn’t cheat. You don’t know that he didn’t. I would be concerned if he had. It’s important. Why give McCain the benefit of the doubt and assume the worst about Obama?
Furthermore, I don’t think Obama did poorly at all. I was frankly impressed with his performance. He walked in to a conservative Evangelical church and answered the questions of a conservative Evangelical pastor. There are a lot of democratic politician who wouldn’t have touched that forum with a ten foot poll. Given the circumstances I think he did extremely well. Just because he didn’t give sound byte answers like McCain doesn’t mean he gave poor answers. McCain was playing to the crowd. Obama was being real, he didn’t sell out for votes. I’m not saying McCain did, necessarily.
The fact that Obama was even willing to discuss abortion in this setting reveals his character as a leader.
This:
This question does indeed reveal his character as a leader, but I’m not sure the view is as flattering as you think. I saw someone who took a tough question in a tough environment and completely ducked it.
He didn’t pander and say what he didn’t believe, so his answer could be considered courageous in itself. It doesn’t matter to me though. I don’t want a leader that ducks tough questions and refuses to give an answer.
you’re wrong. that’s not what was going one here, at least not when your willing to be less cynical and give him the benefit of the doubt. he was aknowledgeing that this is a hard issue and that there are people out there better qualified to treat the issue than he is. i agree. we should get our science about abortion from scientists, and our theology from theologians. he admitted that he doesn’t know best. a little humility in a politician, shocking. very different from john’s 5 second responses to almost everything. maybe i’m giving him a pass, but maybe you’re being too hard.
By that logic, Obama isn’t qualified to offer an opinion on much of anything. He want to law school, edited the Law Review, worked in a law firm, and ran for political office.
And yet he’s willing to offer an opinion — and a political plan — on everything but abortion.