Road Blog: Saddleback Civil Forum on the
Presidency

It was a bright and blue day in Orange County, CA, where both Barack Obama and John McCain came to speak with Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Worship Center. According to local officials, over 4,200 people were on hand here to watch the event, both live and on closed-circuit television.

To start the event, Barack and Pastor Warren shook hands and sat down at a table, preparing to discuss faith-based issues, as well as many of the tough questions that address all of us.

In the discussion, Barack addressed the need for our country to come together towards the betterment of our nation - especially at this crucial time.  Barack acknowledged that today's event is an example of exactly the kind of "forums we need" and that based on conversations like these, the American people can make a good judgment on who to vote for in November.

In response to Pastor Warren's question of "What would you tell the American public if you knew there wouldn't be any repercussions?" Barack answered:

Well, you know what I would tell them? That solving big problems, for example, energy, is not going to be easy. Everybody is going to have to get involved, and we are going to have to all think about how are we using energy more efficiently. There's going to be a price to pay in transitioning to a more energy-efficient economy and dealing with issues like climate change and if we pretend like everything is free, and there's no sacrifice involved, then we are betraying the tradition of America.

I think about my grandparents' generation, coming out of a depression, fighting World War II. They've confronted some challenges we can't even imagine. If they were willing to make sacrifices on our behalf, we should be able to make some sacrifices on behalf of the next generation.

Barack also stressed the importance that the American people "have good information -- that they're not just consuming negative ads or the kind of nasty tit-for-tat that has become so common in politics."

Barack finished by saying that if "people know where we stand on issues, you know, I trust in the American people. They're going to make a good decision and we're going to be able to solve the problems that we face."

Sharon Barnes
Aug. 16, 2008
Long Beach, CA

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A Special Invitation to Join the Grassroots
Finance Committee

Earlier tonight, Campaign Manager David Plouffe sent out the following special invitation by email ...

Barack will accept the nomination in less than two weeks, and the pace of this campaign will get faster than ever.

Millions of new people will be paying attention, and you can help bring them into our movement at this crucial time.

Join the Grassroots Finance Committee (GFC), a core group of dedicated supporters who are setting a personal goal to raise $1,000 each in small-dollar donations.

Barack is relying on ordinary people giving only what they can afford to support this movement. Join the GFC and reach out to your network of friends, family, and neighbors and encourage them to make a donation and own a piece of this campaign.

Sign up to join the Grassroots Finance Committee today.

You don't need to have any prior political experience. This campaign is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

In a few simple steps, you can create a personal fundraising page on My.BarackObama and start reaching out to the people you know today. You can track your progress on your page, send email invitations, and even see who has responded.

We've made it as easy as possible, and campaign staff will be available to make sure your personal fundraising efforts are a success.

The GFC team put together a video of Michelle, a committee member from the spring who wanted to share her experience:

Watch what she has to say:

More than a thousand people like you have joined the committee and helped power this movement through personal contact with fellow grassroots supporters. That stands in stark contrast to the campaign being run by John McCain and the RNC.

Right now, McCain and the RNC are raking in huge contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs to fund their increasingly negative attacks.

With just 80 days to the election, we need more supporters like you to join the GFC now.

Even if you have never done anything like this before, you can easily get started today.

Click here to learn more about the Grassroots Finance Committee and have a major impact on this campaign.

Thank you for getting involved as we prepare for our final push,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

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Thoughts on the Saddleback Forum

Any woman who is thinking about voting for John McCain is out of her mind. John McCain is a "pro life" candidate and wants to turn the clock back and outlaw abortion. John McCain is also a pro...

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Out of the Park

Wow. It's been a while since I saw Obama speak so informally like he did this evening at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church and... wow. He knocked the ball out of the freakin park.

As Andrew Sullivan puts it:

[T]his is [a] masterful performance. Having watched nothing but ads and soundbites and speeches for the past few weeks, I'd forgotten a little bit what a class act he can be.

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Sullivan Liveblog of the Saddleback Appearances

Andrew Sullivan is doing a great liveblog of Obama and McCain's appearances tonight at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.

Check it out.

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Barack Obama and John McCain LIVE at the
Saddleback Leadership and Compassion Forum

Tonight Barack Obama is at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency hosted by Pastor Rick Warren. This is the first event attended by both Barack Obama and John McCain since winning their respective primaries, and the nation will be watching to learn more about both candidates.

You can watch a live stream of the entire event at CNN.com.

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Barack Obama and John McCain LIVE at the
Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency

Tonight Barack Obama is at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency hosted by Pastor Rick Warren. This is the first event attended by both Barack Obama and John McCain since winning their respective primaries, and the nation will be watching to learn more about both candidates.

You can watch a live stream of the entire event below:

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Barack Returns to Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback
Church -- Live at 8 PM EST

Two years ago, some folks were surprised when Pastor Rick Warren, a renowned evangelical minister, invited a Democratic senator from Illinois to join him for a World AIDS Day summit with a Republican senator before Warren's traditionally conservative Saddleback Church congregation.

"I've got two friends here, a Republican and a Democrat," Warren explained. "Why? Because you've got to have two wings to fly."

The task of eradicating HIV/AIDS worldwide is simply too great to accomplish without bipartisan cooperation.

Warren led the congregation in a prayer for those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world and a prayer to rid the world of the deadly disease. He was followed by the Republican senator, Sam Brownback of Kansas, and the Democratic senator, Barack Obama, who both called for bipartisan cooperation in combating HIV/AIDS.

(You can read Barack's remarks before the Saddleback congregation in 2006 here.)

This afternoon, Barack will return to Saddleback Church as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. He will join the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, in their first overlapping appearance of the general election.

Warren will talk with each of them individually, asking questions about their personal values and how those values would impact decisions they would make as president of the United States.

Barack will speak for the first hour, and Senator McCain will speak for the second hour.

You can watch the video streamed live from Orange County at 8 PM EST tonight here at BarackObama.com/live.

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Obama Outraises McCain by Nearly Double

Wow:

Barack Obama raised $51 million in July, nearly twice as much as John McCain.

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Saddleback and forth

So Barack Obama and John McCain decided to sit down with Pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. It is certainly brave of Obama to venture into an obviously conservative evangelical setting where many of the questions are going to be directed at him from an evangelical viewpoint. That said, Obama probably knows his Scripture better than McCain. I don't see McCain as a regular church goer by any stretch of the imagination. He's a lot quicker to go for the four letter word than most politicians and his treatment of his first wife is less than moral.
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One of the first questions Warren asks Obama "Who are the three wisest people you know in your life and who are you going to rely on heavily in your administration?" After excluding Warren, he mentioned his wife and Grandmother, but I have to wonder howpeople who think of Obama as ultra liberal will react to learn that two of his choices were Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Oklahoma conservative Tom Coburn in addition to Sam Nunn and Ted Kennedy. He added, "What I've found is very helpful to me is to have a table where a lot of different points of view are represented and where I can sit and poke and prod and ask them questions...so that any blind spots I have or predispositions that I have that my assumptions are challenged."
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On the question of the definition of marriage, Obama is still playing it too safe by mentioning civil unions instead of supporting gay marriage. I suppose this is to be expected considering the fact that he has to woo many evangelicals to ensure a victory in the fall, but he is falling into the trap of politics as usual. Then again, he did get applause from the group inside the church with his definition of marriage.
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I did like that Obama attempted to show that Jesus would probably be a Democrat if he lived in the United States today when he quoted the New Testament and Jesus from the Book of Matthew in answer to a question about America's moral failings, "whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me." Not exactly where most conservatives stand. He added, "We still don?t abide by that basic precept. That basic principal applies to poverty, it applies to racism, to sexism, it applies to not providing ladders of opportunity for people to get into the middle class."
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One of the biggest differences in answers between the two men came after Warren asked for their definition of wealthy. Obama first joked and said, "You know if you?ve got book sales of 25 million ?" This was an obvious reference to Warren's book "The Purpose Driven Life" which is purported to be the biggest selling non-fiction book in history. The audience laughed and Warren proceeded to high-five Obama over his answer. Obama then settled down and said $250,000. McCain's answer? Five Million dollars. Well, that explains why McCain thinks Obama's plan to raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year is taxing the "poor". I would LOVE to make $250,000 a year.
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I like the fact that Warren obviously has a grasp on pop culture. He referred to the sound-proof room where McCain stayed during Obama's portion of the forum as "the cone of silence". Any "Get Smart" fan worth their while knows all about that reference.
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During the midpoint, after McCain was introduced, Obama not only shook the Arizona Senator's hand, he also embraced him. I wonder if Dubya got jealous.
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Many of McCain's answers were clearly playing to the Conservatives in the audience. When Warren asked him what point a baby is entitled to Human Rights, McCain quickly answered, "at the moment of conception. I have a 25 year pro-life record in congress, in the senate. This presidency will have pro-life policies. That?s my commitment to you."
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This may be the fundamental - no pun intended - issue evangelicals will vote on. As odd as it may seem, most evangelicals would rather vote for a candidate who would make their lives and living conditions worse so long as they were pro-life.
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Considering the audience and the questions, I think Obama did remarkably well. Perhaps his candor moved a few evangelicals to his side. We can only hope.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/zgdF/~3/366968681/saddleback-and-forth.ht
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