The Flaming Pants of John McCain

McCain and Obama were supposed to be asked the same questions at the recent forum at a California Church. Neither candidate was supposed to know the questions in advance, but Obama went first while McCain was supposed to be in the church and sequestered where he could not hear the questions or Obama's answers.

He wasn't and he could!

Eyebrows started rising when John McCain started answering questions before they were even asked. Several news commentators spoke about this and the McCain campaign has gone ballistic, demanding that the comments be stricken from the record.

At the beginning of the forum at California megachurch, Warren told the crowd and TV audience, “I'm going to ask identical questions to each of these candidates, so you can compare apples to apples. Now, Senator Obama is going to go first. We flipped a coin, and we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence.”

That turns out to be a lie (or rather, let me call it a "mis-truth") on the part of Pastor Warren.

John McCain was no where near the Church and in fact, was still at his hotel, according to CNN.

Then comes the "truthiness" part, and anybody who has raised a child can spot this one:

"Warren told CNN Sunday evening, “we flat out asked him” if he heard any of the questions. The McCain campaign “confirmed that McCain did not hear or see any of the broadcast” in the motorcade or after he arrived, Ross said."

That is obviously a carefully parsed question that allows the McCain camp to lie with the truth...McCain did not hear or see...But they did not ask him if any of his staff "Heard or Saw" and told him the answers.

I can see little John looking his mom straight in the eye saying, "I did not touch those cookie, Mamma!" ("But the gloves I was wearing might have")

The McCain camp is furiously working the refs trying to keep this from boiling to the top. So far it is working for them.

An even more transparent "fib" simmering at the same time is McCain's story about a guard in his POW camp who drew the sign of the cross in the dirt and let him get away without getting a beating. Of course that story did not appear in any of his writings and in fact was sort of situationally contradicted by them, until he was running for resident decades later. It's one of those stories that really sounds good until you realize it never happened to John McCain at all. It is from a tail told by Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

So we are starting to see solidifying evidence that the Straight Talk Express is nothing more than John McCain's imagination. Worse than the question of whether John McCain is someone who can't tell fact from fantasy in his own mind is the realization that he is someone who is willing to cheat and then lie about it.

Peace,

Steve

Update: McCain's staff is working extremely hard to kill this story. That is leading some news people to push back and question why? Is it true?