On the forum, first, thank you for not joining the school of liberals who claim that McCain cheated. I don’t know about you, James, but I can’t stand it when liberals whimp out and question the intellect of a conservative when tehy know they can’t intelligently debate or challenge them. It is such a cop out. I do disagree, however with your assertion that this forum will not matter. People may have been doing other things on a Saturday night, but it is being talked about all over the news today and it is on YouTube, so Obama’s smere of Clarence Thomas, his gutless dodge of the abortion issue and his uh’s and umms will be heard by all who have internet access.

Lastly, let me address your last point about the influence of religion and politics. No matter how you slice it, James, this country was founded on Judeo-Christian values and the majority of Americans embrace the Christian religion. Issues such as character, life, how one leads and missteps in life/learning from them ARE major tenets of the teachings of Christianity and rightfully so, Christians want their leaders to positively embrace these issues. In watching this, I learned much about the character of each candidate and would welcome future events such as the Saddleback Church Civic Forum!

Great Job, Rick Warren!

While Jefferson’s opposition to “all forms of tyranny over the mind of man” stands as a timeless milestone on the way to understanding — something beyond the reach, frankly, of most “educated people” today — not all answers offer themselves, even to the most sincere rationalist.

For civilization to persist at all, some answers have to proceed from settled ground, as the term “moral” implies. But that further implies authority, an authority above man’s tussling, rough and tumble world, where he assumes the strongest gets to ‘answer’ the ‘difficult’ questions, strongest being the one who wrests control of the law (govt.) away from its opposition.

Nope. This question is not man’s to answer; and, G-d has already answered it. But then, to know that, words like ” I am THE TRUTH”, and “I knew you before you were in the womb” have to have meaning, clear, uncluttered meaning. They are not there for our agreement; they are there to evoke our obedience — the hardest action for modern man to take. He wants instead to believe in his own godlike opinion, and he does.

In regard to the original post, however, while I agree that McCain did better than Obama, I doubt that the discussion will have much of an effect on anything. Given a choice of a religious/political discussion on a Saturday night in August, most of the relatively few people who were home watching television were tuned to the Olympics. McCain was going to get the conservative evangelical vote, anyway, though he may have boosted his credibility with the folks he once termed “agents of intolerance.” Obama may have countered the ongoing fiction that he is a Muslim, though the people stupid enough to believe that may not be able to figure out how to vote, anyway–and if they do, they weren’t going to vote for Obama.

I am a bit troubled that the candidates felt they needed to attend a church-sponsored discussion at all, a further complication of what I see as an often negative relationship between religion and presidential politics. It would bother me less if the candidates felt equally compelled to answer questions from a union leader, a state governor, the mayor of a major American city (New Orleans or New York, perhaps?), a panel of teachers and parents, and a panel of economists.

Even if one incorrectly assumed that the question of when life begins is not clear cut, I think this reader at the Corner reaches the only conclusion one could reach based on that uncertainty.

My first reaction when Obama finished was that he did better than expected. I agree that he gives an excellent speech but in terms of answering questions, Obama has a habit of losing his train of thought when trying to hide what he really believes. Last night, Obama’s demeanor was calm and he did a great job of paying lip service to conservative views. He even described pro-lifers as “pro-life,” not “anti-choice” or “opponents of abortion rights.” When Obama exceeded expectations, I thought McCain was in trouble because I am of the school of thought that this year is a referendum on Obama.

That said, his smear on Clarence Thomas was beyond weak, especially when he almost said he wasn’t experienced enough at the time he was nominated.

McCain’s performance was the best I ever saw from him. He passionately made the case for lower taxes and limited government. He did not hesitate to call himself pro-life and even made sure he tied that position to the importance of nominating good Justices. On the question of evil in the world, McCain simply blew Obama out of the water when he discussed Georgia and the need to defeat Al Qaeda.

What impressed me on the pure politics of the evening was McCain’s moving personal stories. Obama simply cannot compete in that regard. McCain was expected to do better last night because of the format. Thankfully, he exceeded expectations even more than Obama did.

A quick note: McCain did not misquote Reagan because he wasn’t quoting him, he was paraphrasing. That’s what happens every time someone offers a narrative of a past event rather than just reading a transcript or playing a video. I didn’t misquote McCain merely because he didn’t use the exact term “good Justices.”