Leaks in McCain's Cone of Silence?

I must admit that listening to McCain answer Pastor Rick Warren's questions so quickly and glibly Saturday night at the Saddleback Faith Forum made me wonder if he somehow knew them in advance. He was so confident, so concise. But I put the thought aside as unduly paranoid -- that is until Sunday afternoon. I was routinely checking my favorite election website fivethirtyeight.com and the webmaster, Nate Silver, referred to a piece in Daily Kos about the whereabouts of John McCain for the first thirty minutes of Senator Obama's interview with Rick Warren. Was he in a cone of silence? Apparently not.

Daily Kos blogger Furiousxxgeorge wrote at 3:27 pm Pacific time the following blog:

Pastor Warren, the host of last night's forum was just on CNN. In an interview with Rick Sanchez the pastor admitted McCain was not even at the Church for the first half hour of the event. This admission comes as a surprise to those of us who watched the event and were told many times that McCain was at the Church and in isolation.CNN says they talked to McCain's camp and they said no one in his camp was listening. The honor system, are you kidding me?I think it is pretty clear at this point McCain did indeed know the questions in advance.

Is this a big deal or not? It seems like someone ought to ask both McCain and Warren what really happened. The "truthiness" of this Forum is at stake. Warren will be on CNN Monday night, August 18 at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific. Tune in and comment!

Update 1: Pastor Warren states that McCain told him he did not "hear" the questions. He was in a motorcade from his hotel to the church, arriving about 30 minutes into the Obama interview hour. McCain did not say whether anyone else on his staff "heard" the questions, however. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/17/warren-mccain-did-not-violate-cone-of-silence/

Update 2: Warren has now given 2 or 3 different versions of which questions he told the candidates about prior to the event. First he said he told them about the orphan question and the abortion question. Then he said he told them about the "wise advisers" question and the "moral failure" question. That's four questions so far. Are there more?

Comments

[dadw5boys]

Pastor Rick also said " The Secret Service would have told me if Mc Cain had heard the questions".

Does Pastor Rick think all Americans are stupid ?????

Most Americans (outside of Pastor Rick group) know Secret Service will never talk about anything the people they are guarding do, say, see or where they go.

It is just not done ever !!!!!!!!

All these lies have make me respect my first feeling that this was nothing more than a RIGHT WING SETUP !!!!!!!!!!!!

[GrandmaSue]

When McCain answers the 3 part education question before Warren finishes asking it, and when McCain asks "are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court justices" when Warren had not mentioned to Mccain about Supreme Court justices, I know he had rehearsed the answers to these specific question. I believe that McCain AND Warren rehearsed their duet enough times to confuse McCain about having asked the justice question already and he remembered what to answer about the teachers so well, he didn't wait for the question. There is another interchange were McCain says "we may disagree on a specific issue" and watch Warren. Hey, go listen to it again, it's over a CNN. This attempt at deception is repugnant to me.

[Criticalthinktank07]

Why is anyone surprised??? When I watched McCain at the forum, I kept thinking to myself, Who is this man? Because, I have never seen him answer questions so concisely, he is typically a gaffe machine. I personally think that whole forum at the church was a trap for Obama. It should have been hosted by Pastor Rick but facilitated by a neutral entity. Secondly, they should have shown us both candidates at the beginning, and did a coin toss like they do in football games; which lets us know that the playing field is "somewhat" leveled. Think about it. Altough Rick Warren tried appease both camps by saying he is friends with both Senators, it just seemed suspect.

[hlechols]

Warren said on Larry King that He and his staff did the coin flip months ago. I was done when he disclosed that lil diddy. He also said that McCain had a tear in his eye when He talked about the adoption of his daughter. This definitely was a set up.

[jaygirl]

Americans must love and repect liars. Look at the present administration. Their history of telling the truth is about one sentence long. Their history of lies will go on through eternity as 911 volumes of lies told by President G.W. Bush and Vice President Cheney, among many others. McCain will add on to these volumes because he has learned how to lie from the experts. It is the only way to win an election in America (not counting rigging the votes). McCain's snappy, and concise performance in the Evangelical Church last Saturday, can be credited to his knowledge of all the questions before his performance. He gained points on his carefully crafted answers, no doubt about that. The fact that his numbers immediately rose in the pols, indicates how much Americans love liars.

[YankeeCanuck]

Mega-church pastors have always been the flip side of con men. Make that both sides.

[getz u]

Clearly Pas. Warren was officiating what was clearly a biased audience and watching him take note that McCain teared up on 3 occasions on Larry King Live makes one wonder whether he was biased himself.An understatement of the fact.
This forum was specifically designed to malign Sen. Obama especially use his stance on abortion against him.Now the Republican attack machine vis-a-vis Sean Hannity & Co. are using it to dig up Sen. Obama's voting record.Passing judgments like saying he (Sen. Obama) was for killing babies born after 'botched' abortions is simply despicable.

[diogeron]

Obama asked for it by taking Warren's bait. He and his campaign should have said, "Fine, we'll go on Warren's show" if you'll do a joint appearance with me before the Unitarian annual assembly (if there is such an event.)

[bayside]

The whole point was to have an honest person in charge of debate so we could get an honest debate. The point is ,did we get it..If warren said he was in cone of silence, why did he lie ..Are there any any honest cons out there. This country deserves better..

[butchie65]

This wasn't a debate, it was a forum. McCain made it out to be a debate with his cocky, self rightous anwers. McCain didn't follow the rules as usual. What a sad situation when the minister has to lie before millions of people. Again we have the sheep leading us to a disaster.

[dsrapa]

I don't think there is anything wrong with being given the questions in advance....or even hearing the other guys answers. EXCEPT if you have been told that this is not the case.
the biggest problem with the election so far is that the american people, and apparently the press as well, have the attention spans of gnats.
More than a 3 word answer is more than we can handle (one word is even better).
These are difficult times and complicated issues. Like any good, thoughtful law professor, the candidate must look at all sides, or at least 2, think through the issues, develop an opinion and then an argument. Obama actually appears to be thinking. I guess that confuses us. by the way, does anyone know where the gates of hell are? And haven't we been trying to defeat evil for about 5,000 years? didn't god give it a try as well?

[phender]

The New McCain
He stood 5"9" with the lift in his shoes
Everyone knew which side he"d choose
Exxon John
Now John couldn"t stand being Left in the lurch
Especially at the interview in the Saddleback Church.
Once John was a man who honored ethical compliance,
But he just couldn"t take staying put in that "cone of Silence"
Exxon John
John used to be a Maverick who was shrewd and keen
But now John McCain has gotten just plain mean
The truth has fallen victim with his new-found persona
But nothing he can do will damage Barack Obama
Exxon John

By LK

[OleSmartee]

I continue to be saddened by the way everyone claims cheating here. Do you all think Obama lost? Is that why you're clinging to the cheating excuse?

I thought Obama did quite well. He gave lengthy, nuanced answers that examined all sides of even the simplest questions.

[jmaycock]

What do you mean you are saddened????? He bloody cheated. Period. He wasn't in the damn cone of silence. Did he hear some of the questions beforehand? Well only John McCain and whoever was with him during the time Obama was being interviewed knows that. But IT IS NOT THE POINT!! McCain cheated!

[Ponderonit]

It's not about who won or lost. It's about how the game was played.

[soundfury]

This forum was similar to the abc debate - a deliberate setup. Ri ck War ren looks very bad in this.

[yallkiddn]

Gullible me. Pastor Warren SEEMED like such a "nice guy."

[MysticInd]

Is there no limit to the shenigans?

Obviously not... Way to catch it... thanks.

[kburlz]

Thanks for writing this, but there are a couple incriminating passages that are being documented here. The Supreme Court Justices question especially. Us commenters are screaming about it and no one else seems to notice. Check out this one:

It's 3:25 in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Li1okW5Rg

[JenMI]

I believe he had the questions given to him WAY before the forum.

[stickshift]

finally, a comment reflecting true insight

[kburlz]

There is no doubt he knew some of the questions. Mccain asked if they could get back to Supreme court justices when Warren hadn't even asked about that yet. Why is no one talking about that? Cheats at at church! What a guy!

Feel free to cut and paste and post it elsewhere.

Here's the proof. It's 3:25 in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Li1okW5Rg

[deminmo]

This should be shown to Warren and to McCain. Taken from the
forum, they can't deny it happened. Then Obama needs to bring
up integrity as a virtue for a Presidential candidate. Also, send it to
CNN and MSNBC as well as FOX.