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As Americans, we think we're very sophisticated voters and have such control over our democracy. The truth is that we get rolled with buzzwords and brainwashed with the echo-chamber: the same talking heads repeating each other's received wisdom.
There was an implied criticism in Obama's performance, viz. he was more "nuanced". Nuanced answers require thinking on the part of the listener, therefore McCain won because his answers were simplistic stump speeches, already honed and geared to the audience. They were not answers to the questions posed, nor thoughtful answers in a conversational dialogue. The audience (congregation?) should have been advised to applaud only at the end of each interview. They were overtly partisan (no secret), but they should have been forced to behave in an evenhanded manner even if they didn't feel like it.
It was an invitation that Obama couldn't have passed up even though it had its hazards. The point one may take from this encounter is that McCain is omniscient, because he has all the answers, right at his fingertips: he doesn't even have to think!
Who won? Rick Warren & McCain. People like to have their prejudices reinforced. It takes work to think.
