Blazing Saddlebacks

To borrow and take liberties with the Mel Brooks classic;

"How 'bout more questions, Mr. Warren ..."

"I'd say you had enough! ..."

In a nutshell, Obama, and Rick Warren, at the much ballyhooed Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, seemed comfortable with each other and engaged in honest conversation (more so than "answer this" in thirty-seconds, or less, much as in the "Lightening Round" Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain had), perhaps on more of a considered, thoughtful level, a sort of low key "My Dinner with Andre", minus the food.

Something that could, just as easily, been broadcast on PBS, rather then the cable channels.

McCain?

Pure Faux News, screaming kirons, and equally empty rhetoric.

Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny teed up every-and-all Right Wing Freak Show/GOP talking points and whacked them around the church.

The only thing missing was having the Dead Campaign Express bus parked, on-stage, behind him.

Warren didn't seem as interested, via his body language, in getting in an intellectual discussion with Arizona John, tossing the questions to Stumblin Bumblin' Johnny, like sardines to a trained seal.

If you didn't know before the Saddleback event, you knew it a few minutes into the McCain segment;

JOHN MCCAIN WAS A POW IN THE VIETNAM WAR!

McCain fired out the old POW tales as if there were a panel of judges, who would score them based on his detail and animation.

He blustered the ever-growing-tiresome babble about chasing Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell (because "he knows how", he assured us; Surely, that gives the evanglists a thrill up the leg, no doubt, the basic, core, Good vs. Evil bone).

This boast, from a man who says he needs to sleep-in, in the morning, to be sharp.

If you are gay or lesbian under a McCain administration?

Second-class citizens, "My Friends" ... If I have to, I'll get a Constitutional Amendment, so get lost ...

Stem Cell Research?

Stumblin' Bumblin' John wants us to wait another 20-or-30-years, for Skin Cell research to blossom.

And, if you are a moderate or liberal member of the Supreme Court, specifically, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens?

Keep a suitcase packed, McCain, without hesitation, expressed his disgust for you.

As to audience reactions, applause, standing ovations, let's not lose site of the fact that Saddleback Church is in the heart of Orange County, in Southern California, where fountains there bubble and froth the semen of Ronald Reagan and John Wayne (for whom the airport is named after).

You could stand in the middle of Los Alamitos Boulevard throwing rocks all day and not hit a Democrat.

Cone of Silence or Coneheads?

While the MSM and Talkin Heads are gushing on how great McCain did, how he won the evening, it was anything but.

After ripping off a Top Ten Cloves List this morning, around the "Code of Silence" that Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny was said to be tucked away in, so as not to hear the questions and answers, numerous posts have been bubbling up today that the "Code of Silence" was a Code of Scam ... That Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain wasn't even in the building, but in a limo (equipped, possibly, with a television ... Hmmm);

FiveThirtyEight: Pastor Warren Contradicts Self on 'Cone of Silence'

furiousxxgeorge: No Cone of Silence

Having watched the telecast, and hearing Warren's references to "The Cone of Silence", I don't recall seeing any cut-away shots of McCain, sitting in a booth, sweating, ala Herbert Stempel on the gameshow "Twenty-One".

No shots of a janitor's closet, or non-descript backstage door, perhaps with a handmade, handwritten sign hanging on it, indicating "Cone of Silence".

No ice cream cones, no snow cones, no orange roadwork cones ...No Coneheads in the audience

No shots of any type of cones, whatsoever.

And, check this post out.

Cathy, from Cincinnati noticed, during the broadcast, a rather odd, but telling exchange, seemingly giving a tip that Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny knew the questions in advance.

And for those of you who need a more authoritative, MSM voice, even Andre Mitchell brought up the prospects of McCain's cheating.

Now, just a few hours ago, Rev. Warren vouches for McCain (which in doing so, he admits that his opening, on-air, statement of McCain being in the "Cone of Silence" was not true);

But at 8 p.m. ET, as Warren said that, McCain was actually not in the building. He was just leaving his hotel, with his motorcade arriving at the church nearly a half hour into the event. A. Larry Ross, a spokesman for Warren, says McCain then went directly into the holding room they dubbed the “cone of silence” (in reality, a room with no TV or audio).

When asked if McCain overheard anything, Charlie Black, a McCain adviser who was with him at the time, told CNN: "We were in motorcade until 5:30 p.m. ET; then a holding room in another building with no TV."

Warren said, “I trust the integrity of both” candidates, and said he “knew they would abide by the rules.” He joked McCain may not have been in the cone of silence, but “he was in the cone of a Secret Service motorcade”.

Oh ... Charlie Black is vouching for McCain ...

Perhaps in the same way Charlie Black vouched for Ahmad Chalabi?

That just wraps it all up ...

I guess we don't have to question this again, at all ...

If this turns out to be the case, that McCain, and/or someone on his campaign staff, was taking notes, then the whole event was nothing but an overblown, self-flagellating, farce.

And for all the hype, in just this, sort-of, first head-to-head match, it showed how truly frightening it would be to have McCain as the President, of anything, let alone the country.

Yes, another shout out;

Help Me Mr. Wizard!


Bonus Jesus Saves, But McCain Wins Links

Transcript: Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency

Jay McDonough: Saddleback, Schmaddleback

Creature: Saddleback Spin

John Cole: High Comedy at Saddleback Church