The "Purpose Driven" Debate...

Five things of note about yesterday's "debate" (actually, more of a 1-on-1 interview) with Rick Warren, wherein both candidates got asked the same questions. With a coin flip, The Obamessiah went first while McCain went into an isolation area so that he would not be privy to the questions ahead of time.

1) Take the Obamessiah off-script and away from the TelePromptr and what you get is a lot of "umm... uhhh... yah know... hmmm... ahh...".

2) McCain, for all his faults, has definite command of the issues. It's an overused phrase but, yes, he's got "Gravitas" (with a Capital-G). The Obamessiah pales by comparison.

3) The Obamessiah's near slip-up when asked "Which existing Supreme Court Justice would you not have nominated." The Obamessiah says Clarence Thomas, and then he says:

“I don’t think that he was exp– a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time.”

Hmm... you don't think that Thomas was experienced enough for the position, Barrack O'Baby??? Is THAT what you were about to say? (heheheheheh)

4) The Obamessiah's response to the question, "At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?":

"Whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is, you know, above my pay grade."

Above your paygrade, huh? And you want to be President of the United States???

5) On the question as to which three people he would consult, McCain responded with General Petraeus (Great! Probably Sec. Def. or Sec. State in a McCain administration), Democrat-GA Congressman John Lewis (An interesting, across-the-aisle, choice.), and former EBay CEO Meg Whitman.

That last name is another VP trial balloon (I can spot them a mile away), so I did some digging. Whitman was behind the Romney campaign. Once Romney bailed out, McCain picked her up as Co-chair of his campaign. If (and that's a big if) she's Mormon just like Romney, that could potentially be a big problem for McCain among some Christians (especially Evangelicals). I haven't been able to find anything about her religious affiliation, other than a brief mention in a year-old article that she along with a few other members of Romney's campaign staff were "non-Mormon". I have yet to find much else on this point, and I don't know how valid that reference is.

Secondly, although she's contributed financially to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, the vast majority of her contributions have been to Republicans. Still, though she's contributed to the likes of George Allen, James Sensenbrenner, and Charles Pickering, she's also contributed to the likes of liberal Republican Olympia Snowe, and Democrats Maria Cantwell (?), John Kerry (??), and Barbara Boxer (???). Rumor has been going around that Whitman may also have her sites on the 2010 California Governor's race.

Finally (and this is the big one), while Whitman was CEO of EBay, there was a major dust-up about an auction on the site back in 2005 when a non-Catholic Iowan tried to sell a Eucharist Host. Archbishop Chaput sent a letter to Whitman to have the auction removed. The initial response wasn't up to snuff, but eventually EBay did remove the auction. This could be a BIG problem for McCain from Catholics if he chooses her for VP.

Another name that's been floated about is former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Don't know much about her, either. NOTE TO McCAIN: If you want a strong, successful, conservative woman on your ticket you can choose... oh, I don't know... maybe... Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska? At least she has some political experience and also fills most of the social and fiscal conservative bona fides.