Live blogging Saddleback forum 6 August 16, 2008
Posted by Zack in California | write a commentWow. McCain is doing really well. He’s so relaxed and natural. What’s going on? He was supposed to be old and spent and out of touch. But he’s being so much more engaging than Obama was. I think… Right?
He’s even making jokes about how we have to imitate the French on energy policy.
OOOOH — and he’s getting a chance to tell that story about how he refused to leave the camp early.
“It took a lot of prayer. A LOT of prayer,” he said.
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, Rick WarrenLive blogging Saddleback forum 5 August 16, 2008
Posted by Zack in California | 4 commentsOK - I take back some of my initial over-enthusiasm for Obama’s performance. I think he did not meet the high expectations of evangelical leaders who are secretly plugging for him. Too many of his answers were vague. He just didn’t seem fully prepared. On a lot of those questions, he had wide open doors. He could have nailed them. But he just kind of went around in circles. A little John Kerryesque, I fear to say.
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, Rick WarrenLive blogging Saddleback forum 4 August 16, 2008
Posted by Zack in California | write a commentMake sure you watch the forum on C-SPAN, not Fox. Then you get to watch the super hip Saddleback band that comes on during the breaks.
That was sarcasm. This church was formed in the 80’s. So this is a boomer-based megachurch.
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, Rick WarrenLive blogging Saddleback forum 3 August 16, 2008
Posted by Zack in California | 1 commentOK. I think Obama actually really blew the abortion answer. Warren teed it right up for him. Obama should have strongly supported a woman’s right to choose (his position) while coming out very strong for “life.” But he just kind of mumbled on that one.
I know that several evangelical leaders recently gave his staff plenty of preparation for how to win the hearts of evangelicals on “life” while sticking with his support for Roe V. Wade, specifically for this Saddleback event. Maybe those staffers do not have direct access to Barack for debate prep? Barack would have benefited from a heavy dose of their direct involvement in his prep.
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, Rick WarrenLive blogging Saddleback forum 1 August 16, 2008
Posted by Zack in California | 5 commentsObama is absolutely going to kill McCain in this Saddleback forum. He already has just in the first few minutes. He just threw out a phrase made popular by Rick Warren’s purpose driven life, “It’s not about me.” He did it naturally, just like he was on exactly the same wavelength as this mass of white suburban evangelicals who have ALL read Warren’s book.
In other words, he is culturally bonding with these folks easily and naturally just like Bush did.
In his campaign, McCain has already made clear that he has no idea who these people are. I’ve heard about a number of conservative evangelical leaders—even those who have endorsed McCain—who can not even get their calls returned by McCain campaign staffers let alone McCain himself. Meanwhile, Obama has met and spoken with many of the same leaders—yes, even those who have endorsed McCain. Obama staffers are actively seeking input from key evangelical leaders including those who have not endorsed.
OK — we’ll wait to see how McCain fares.
By the way. There has been a little criticism of this event. Why should we have to watch a church-sponsored debate? Why should it be televised? But this is a normal thing. In this campaign we will also be watching events sponsored by African-American groups, Latino groups, young people’s groups, etc… Warren is a leader of a large constituency. Some research says there are 100 million born again Christians in America. Why not let them have their event with the candidates?
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, Rick WarrenJohn McCain, Left Behind? August 8, 2008
Posted by Zack in DC | 13 commentsAnyone want to weigh in on the new McCain ad that tries to equate Barack Obama with Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist from the Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series?
Here’s the ad:
Read Amy Sullivan’s Time Magazine piece for more context:
Tags: barack obama, John McCain, left behindAs the ad begins, the words “It should be known that in 2008 the world shall be blessed. They will call him The One” flash across the screen. The Antichrist of the Left Behind books is a charismatic young political leader named Nicolae Carpathia who founds The One World religion (slogan: “We are God”) and promises to heal the world after a time of deep division. One of several Obama clips in the ad features the senator saying, “A nation healed, a world repaired. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”
The visual images in the ad, which Davis says has been viewed even more than the McCain’s “Celeb” ad linking Obama to the likes of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, also seem to evoke the cover art of several Left Behind books. But they’re not the cartoonish images of clouds parting and shining light upon Obama that might be expected in an ad spoofing him as a messiah. Instead, the screen displays a sinister orange light surrounded by darkness and later the faint image of a staircase leading up to heaven.
Perhaps the most puzzling scene in the ad is an altered segment from The 10 Commandments that appears near the end. A Moses-playing Charlton Heston parts the animated waters of the Red Sea, out of which rises the quasi-presidential seal the Obama campaign used for a brief time earlier this summer before being mocked into retiring it. The seal, which features an eagle with wings spread, is not recognizable like the campaign’s red-white-and-blue “O” logo. That confused Democratic consultant Eric Sapp until he went to his Bible and remembered that in the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, the Antichrist is described as rising from the sea as a creature with wings like an eagle.
