A quick note before I get to my impressions of the forum on the presidency at Saddleback Church this past weekend: Obama and his website have finally been caught lying about his vote on the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTBkYTYzZDNjNDgyMWJmMzMxYzljYjYxNmEwMTdhYWE=&w=MA==).  Dave Ullman and I had a good discussion about this earlier this summer in a previous post which I encourage anyone who is interested in the issue to check out. Worth watching if the media presses Obama on this or if they let him off the hook. On to Saddleback.

Biggest Loser: The Media. Anyone who watched the hype for this event was exposed to talking head after talking head drooling over the prospect that evangelicals had abandoned non-negotiable issues, like life and marriage, in favor of a big government approach to things like health-care and poverty, and might even be persuaded to ditch the GOP for Obama. The forum’s audience provided the sternest rebuke to those who had persuaded themselves that serious religious folk would look past Obama’s stance on the issues, specifically abortion, that brought together groups like the moral majority in the first place. The biggest applause line of the night was McCain’s promise to be a pro-life president, closely followed by his insistence that life begins at conception.

That’s not to say that we on the Right shouldn’t welcome the debate about how to best provide care for the needy. As Pastor Warren pointed out, more than 70 percent of Americans agree that faith-based charities are more effective than government poverty programs.  If the Left thinks they can appeal to the Christian obligation of solidarity with the poor by making the IRS the agent of charity they have another thing coming.

Big Winner: McCain. About half-way through his hour I had one of those “Dude, where’s my car?” moments. The bumbler in front of the green screen of two months ago had been replaced by a concise, eloquent, apt candidate! For the first time ever I felt McCain actually cared about the issues near and dear to the hearts of social cons. He managed to not mention campaign finance reform for one whole hour and even critically altered his position on a federal marriage amendment in case the courts force Massachusetts’ gay marriages on the whole country. If this is a preview of things to come in the debates I might just be at a victory party instead of crying myself to sleep Nov. 4th.

Meh: Obama. Not bad, not great. Exactly what we have come to expect from Obama; thoughtful, elegant answers without too many specifics or commitments. To be fair, considering the tough spot he was in, he did pretty darn well. Trying to court Clinton supporters while speaking to a church full of evangelicals about abortion is a little like trying to apply to law school from prison. The only really rough moment was when he said that determining when babies get human rights was “above his pay grade.” Well I am glad he is only running for President and not something really important.  On a serious note, he probably left feeling awfully good about his decision NOT to engage McCain in a series of town halls.

Did anyone else tune in?