Just this Saturday, my uncle and I watched the Saddleback Church forum on CNN, where Pastor Rick Warren, pastor of Saadleback Church in California, asked questions to the two presumtive Presidential nominees from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
It was an interesting tv program as never in my life, have I seen a Church (and not a parachurch organization or a non-Church Christian organization) become so involved in politics, and on National Television (as in American National TV) as well.
It was also interesting as the questions asked weren’t those usually asked (both Obama and McCain were asked the same questions), i.e. “what’s your favourite sermon?” or “what was your favorite sunday school lesson?”, but “what is your greatest moral failure?”, “what is your position on/definition of marriage”, “what does your faith mean to you?”, or other questions about policies and other positions that they might have.
Watching this program, I was suprised as this wasn’t the usual preverted American political program where the moderator would be lobsided, completely bias, and just full of bs, but the style of questions and discussion was very close (with exception of the large audience) to how Steve Paiken hosts his show: unbiased, neutral, helpful commentary, questions and discussion.
Overall, I was very pleased how the program played out.
Now, to put the spotlight on the Candidates:
I found that Obama was here and there while he was answering questions from Rick Warren, but didn’t really connect with or focus on the audience, either in the Church auditorium or for those watching on television.
He was being his usual self: a very good orator, confident, and has good ideas.
Now, John McCain on the other hand, was being really straight forward, and the fact that he told stories, stories about his past, stories about his ordeal in Vietnam during his captivity, it help him connect with the people. As well, he focus more on and addressed the audience when the questions were being asked by Rick Warren, as opposed to Obama focusing on Warren.
In my opinion, although Obama did well and he did get his message across, McCain certainly “won” in the sense that he connected with the people and focused his attention on them.
And that was the key, in who came out of this forum as the better candidate.
(note: each candidate was asked the same set of Questions but Obama was “interviewed” first and McCain came on the stage as Obama was leaving)
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