Reflections on Saddleback
Reflections: Dr. Linda Petrou, Wake Forest
First of all I have to say that both of them were good. I was very impressed by Sen. Obama. I had never taken the time before to sit down and watch him in this type of forum. With that said I was even more impressed by Sen. McCain. With this type of forum, the two candidates styles were very evident. Sen. Obama is very professorial in style. He gives long, thoughtful answers and tries very hard not to offend anyone. He never seems to come down firmly on one side or the other. While this is very appealing in a campaign, a leader has to be decisive. pSen. McCain tends to give short to the point answers to questions. He does not hesitate to take a firm position on an issue. That difference between the two candidates was very apparent. Obama reminded me a lot of President Carter; very smart, very cerebral but not an effective leader as he could not make decisions. McCain reminds me a little of President Reagan, full of stories and life experiences but someone who knows what he believes.
: town hall, religion, McCain, Obama
Couple of comments on their statements. First of all on abortion. McCain was firm and did not hesitate in saying that life began at conception. For those who think this is the most important issue he firmed up their support. Obama on the other hand tried to have it both ways by talking about his own beliefs but then saying making that decision was above his pay grade. That will help him with the leftwing but hurt him with the conservative Democrats in parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the southern states.
On what was the hardest moral decision they had to make. Again, their differences in style came through. Obama talked about going to war in Iraq. This is an answer that was geared to appeal to the leftwing anti-war faction but there is one problem with it. He did not have to make that decision. He was not in the U.S. Senate at the time but in the Illinois State Legislature which did not have a say in the decision. McCain said his hardest decision was whether to take the North Vietnamese holding him prisoner up on their offer to release him ahead of the other prisoners. How many of us might have had the moral character to say no.
McCain also blunted the Democrats attempt to drag him into the John Edward's cheating mess. In the last week or so several of them have brought up the fact that if you criticize Edward then you also have to criticize McCain for cheating on his first wife. There is one big problem with this line of thinking - the situations are very different - Edwards was just cheating on a sick wife; McCain had just returned from 5 years as a prisoner of war. He had not seen or had contact with his wife in all that time. So at Saddleback when asked about his biggest moral failing he just simply said his first marriage.
At the end Pastor Warren asked Sen. Obama "All right. I'm going to skip over a couple of these other important ones and I'll just ask you what do you say to people who oppose me asking you these questions?" Obama responded "These are the kinds of forums we need where we have a conversation and I think based on--based on these conversations the American people can make a good judgment." Great answer Senator, how why don't you agree to meet with Senator McCain in town hall meetings and more than three debates?
