 Hosted by pastor Rick Warren Venue at Saddleback Worship Center | |
| Date | August 16, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Location | Saddleback Church Lake Forest, California |
| Participants | John McCain, Barack Obama Presumptive nominees |
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The Civil Forum on the Presidency was the venue of back-to-back interviews of U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama by pastor Rick Warren on August 16, 2008, at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
Held inside Saddleback's Worship Center, the event was the first joint appearance of the two presidential candidates during the campaign. [1] It was broadcast live on national news networks, as well as several evangelical Christian networks such as Trinity Broadcasting Network and Daystar Television Network. Tickets for the sold-out event were distributed to church members by raffle for prices as high as $1,000. [2] [3] Both campaigns agreed to the format of the debate—two consecutive interviews—and Senator Obama went first, as determined by a coin toss. [4] The coin toss was conducted by Rick Warren's staff on behalf of McCain and Obama, who were not present. [5] Some groups opposed the forum, including the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. [6]
The candidates each exposed their positions on a number of issues, including faith, abortion, evil, wealth, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research. [7] The two struck common themes, but differed on their views of abortion; Obama said the answer was "above his pay grade" a comment he later regretted [8] and also told Warren the issue "scientifically" and "theologically" is not a black and white one in defining the precise moment when a baby gets human rights. McCain answered, "At the moment of conception." [7] Asked about their greatest moral failures, Obama cited his adolescent drug use while McCain said his was failing his first marriage. [7] Obama and McCain gave different answers on which justices they would have refused to nominate to the United States Supreme Court, [7] McCain saying Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer and David Souter, and Obama saying Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. [7] The presumptive nominees presented contrasting views on the definition of rich; Warren asked, "At what point...do you move from middle class to rich?" Obama answered that rich Americans make more than $250,000, while McCain answered, "How about $5 million?" [9] When asked an issue on which they had changed their view in the last ten years, Obama said welfare reform and McCain said energy. [7] Both candidates were alleged to have made misleading claims and exaggerations during the forum. [10]
Because the questions posed to the two candidates in their separate appearances would be the same or similar, it was agreed in advance that whichever candidate went second would be sequestered so as not to hear anything asked of his rival. At the beginning of the forum, Warren stated, "Now, Senator Obama is going to go first. We flipped a coin, and we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence." [11] In fact, however, McCain did not even arrive at the church until nearly half an hour later. [11] Andrea Mitchell, on Meet the Press , alluded to the possibility that McCain may have been able to hear the questions put to Obama, partly because his answers were immediate and, according to Mitchell, he sounded well prepared. Another act that aroused suspicion was when McCain was asked to define marriage— he gave a straightforward answer, and then asked when he would be asked the importance of Supreme Court Justices, even though the question was not to be asked until later. [12] The McCain campaign stated that McCain did not hear or see any of the broadcast. [11] A spokeswoman for McCain said, "The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous." [13] ABC News has reported that, in subsequent inquiries about the incident, the McCain campaign, while continuing to insist that McCain did not hear or see the broadcast himself, "has so far refused to say no one told the senator about the questions Obama was asked." [4]
The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior U.S. Senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior Senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska. Obama became the first African American to be elected to the presidency, as well as being only the third sitting United States Senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy.
Richard Duane Warren is an American Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Lake Forest, California, which is the sixth-largest megachurch in the United States. His books include his guide to church ministry and evangelism, The Purpose Driven Church, which has spawned a series of conferences on Christian ministry and evangelism. His subsequent book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold more than 30 million copies, making Warren a 'New York Times' bestselling author.
Saddleback Church is a Baptist Evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, situated in southern Orange County, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It is the largest church in California, and one of the largest in the United States of America. The church has several campuses in California and around the world. Weekly church attendance was 23,494 people in 2020. The senior pastor is Rick Warren.
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Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, known as Joe the Plumber, is an American conservative activist and commentator. He gained national attention during the 2008 U.S. presidential election when, during a videotaped campaign stop in Ohio by then Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, Wurzelbacher raised concerns that Obama's tax policy would increase taxes on small business owners. Wurzelbacher is a member of the Republican Party.
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