All Voters Should Watch This
It is now clear why Barack Obama has refused John McCain’s offer of joint town hall appearances during the fall campaign. Mr. McCain is obviously better at them.
Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency — two hours on Saturday night evenly divided between the relaxed, tieless candidates — was expected to be a sideshow. Messrs. McCain and Obama would make their specialized appeals to evangelicals as if they were an interest group such as organized labor or the National Rifle Association. Evangelicals would demonstrate, in turn, that they are not rubes and know-nothings. And Americans would turn en masse to watch the Olympics.
What took place instead under Mr. Warren’s precise questioning was the most important event so far of the 2008 campaign — a performance every voter should seek out on the Internet and watch.