McCain Wins

Instant pundit analysis had John McCain the clear instant winner in Saturday night's Rick Warren faith forum held in Lake Forest, California at the huge Saddleback Church. McCain was hailed on CNN and MSNBC for his quick and decisive answers to Warren's questions, his storytelling abilities,and his overall connection to both the TV viewing audience and those watching live at the church.

However, as time moves on from the initial responses, one has to wonder if McCain will still be seen as the victor in the dueling one hour gabfests. A sober look reveals:

- McCain is quick to pull the trigger. When asked about merit pay for teachers and school choice (code for public vouchers for private schooling), McCain literally stopped Warren and screamed out Yes & Yes! No nuance there.

- McCain is playing to the farthest right of the Christian vote. McCain again did not pull any punches with his definition of conception, his support for a Constitutional amendment to ban abortions, and his opposition to gay marriage. McCain did not see any reason to pander towards women's groups, social libertarians, and other more moderate voters.

- McCain loves his military roots. McCain revealed that the most important person he will listen to in his administration will be Iraqi war general, David Petraeus. He told the Russians in no uncertain terms to get out of Georgia immediately. Once, he mixed up Russia with the Soviet Union, which would not be hard for a person weaned on the latter country's cold war dominance. Unsaid was how McCain would pay for possible future war efforts.

- McCain will give them what they want when he knows that what they want will never take hold (interpretation: Oil rules!). McCain is taking a all of the above approach to energy. He supports oil drilling, conservation, clean coal, nuclear,wind etc. Sounded good on TV. Left unsaid was that McCain has voted numerous times to withhold federal funding for many new technologies. Like we said above, he knows most Americans will not read the bottom line and like the snake oil he is pushing.

- McCain can throw out the red meat like the rest of the GOP leadership. He especially enjoyed attacking the four more "liberal" Supreme Court justices and claimed he will pick "strict constructionist" judges if elected. Once again, this was a line to the Far Right that he had their back on issues such as gay rights and abortion access.

Finally, one has to wonder if this initial faith forum will now be penciled in for future election cycles. There is no problem with two candidates discussing some of their faith and Christian values. However, what will be the disadvantage if someone from a different belief system or religion is chosen to be one of the two main party standard bearers. Will the discussion center on shared values and concepts, or become a witch hunt to demean the candidate's religion and put him or her on the defensive for most of the night. As enlightening as the Saddleback discussion was, it was a strong step toward putting a "religious test" upon our prospective president. The meeting went on last night, much was learned, but it might be quite difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.