J's Cafe Nette

Sue:

This is the new report from yesterday on the questions which the candidates were given prior to this forum:

Next, McCain, like Obama, knew the first two questions that would be asked of him — the “three wisest people” question and the “greatest moral failure” questions. Both men knew exactly what was coming at the start of the appearance. This morning I talked to A. Larry Ross, who is the media representative for the Saddleback Church, and he told me that Warren “gave both candidates the first two questions because he didn’t want them to be nervous…so they would be at ease.” Ross says that in separate phone calls with the McCain and Obama, Warren also went through the four general categories of questions and said things like, “I’ll probably ask you a question on this, or on that,” but gave no specific wording.

In addition, according to Ross, Obama knew a third specific question that Warren would ask — the one about a “president’s emergency plan for adoption.” “[Warren] felt that since that was basically asking for a commitment, he felt that it was fair to tell them in advance that he was going to ask them that,” Ross told me. So Warren told Obama, and planned to tell McCain when McCain arrived at Saddleback, but wasn’t able to because of other distractions. So according to what Ross told me, Obama actually knew one more question in advance than did McCain.

(emphasis-mine)

Source:National Review.

I take nothing away from the forum or the attempt to allow voters to gain information from the candidates.

What bothers me is that this event was presented from a standpoint that neither candidate would have any idea of the questions and therefore would have no opportunity to format their answers. If in fact these facts were presented prior to the event then please correct me and I will gladly amend my opinion.

Why not make the questions available to the public ahead of time then so it is understood the candidates have had time to think through their reply?

I would agree that debate situations are no different as candidates prep for those extensively and have some idea of the topics to be covered, but, this was not promoted that way.

Now we discover that McCain and Obama knew the first two questions and Obama a third and they were given a general idea of the areas remaining to be covered. For me personally that brings into question the credibility of the forum.

This whole election has become theatrics played out on so many levels that it is dizzying.

I don’t deny that some probably learned something about either of the candidates in their replies to the Pastor’s questions, however, I don’t know how many minds were changed.