1. The fact that the interrogator is a religious leader is put in brackets for the purpose of these comment.

2. The content of the responses, i.e., the policy positions of the candidates will not be commented upon by me.

3. Barack's obviously better when scripted, much less so when extemporaneous.

4. The questioning was more thoughtful, more serious, than previous professional media interrogations of the candidates.

5. McCain showed that questions dealing with abstract concepts, such as "evil," are not his thing. He immediately reified the concept "evil" into bin Laden. In other words, deep thinking is not Johnny Mac's forte.

6. Obama revealed himself to be a deep, abstract thinker, for better or worse. His response to the "evil" question, for example, showed he understood that "evil" is an abstract idea, a concept. Warren asked the question from that point of view as well. Obama's answer was 40-times as complex as McCain's; it was also 40-times as edifying.

7. The style of the responses by the two guys was also revealing: Obama pondered; McCain shot from the hip. Obama listened to Walker until Walker completed his question; McCain blurted responses before the question was fully asked.

8. McCain came across as a guy who has made up his mind on EVERY question that may be out there; Obama, as a guy who thinks.

9. Warren and his staff did a helluva job in preparing the questions.

10. This format actually did give the voting public a fairly good venue for assessing the two candidates beyond their positions on the issues.

11. Obama listened to the questions before answering; McCain often answered mid-question, with canned talking points.

12. Finally,and I hate to admit this because of the fact that Warren is still--when the dust settles--an evangelical religious leader--the real Winner was Warren and the real Loser was the professional media.

Is the lazy fat half two beers suburban golfer redneck wannabe of Evangelicals. He's the Planet Hollywood T-Shirt of Churches. His brand of Church has got to be the least demanding lowest impact faith, ever. Show up, have a boat drink, we'll ride our ATV's out back and talk Jayzus. You wanna nutha burger?

That politicians would even court the biblically-illiterate, unchristian American Christianists is the height of irony. The same Christianists who have no problem with wealth, so long as they have it -- can we get an SUV testimonial? Their faith is in prosperity, their loyalty to the almighty dollar. Some are sincere, but most aren't -- you can't build a megachurch out of true believers, although you can fill it with charlatans and hypocrites and people wanting to be led astray. The megachurch movement makes me think of Jesus and the moneylenders, except American-style, they're like "It's a-okay!" Case in point...

"We are one of those people that make over $250,000 a year, and I don't agree that that makes us rich," said Melinda Sacks, who runs her husband's law office in San Clemente, referring to Obama's answer at the forum that put her in the "wealthy" category. "Even with that kind of income, we struggle to pay everything we have gotten ourselves into."

A perfect representative of the kind of faithful drawn to megachurches, embracing the "party of personal responsibility" and apparently demonstrating very little personal responsibility if $250K a year isn't enough for their no doubt pious, "Christian" lifestyle.

It's going to be a truly tough time for America when hypocrisy is our only thriving export remaining.

I was disappointed in the Warren "conversation" with candidates. Obama faced Pastor Warren and thoughtfully tried to answer the questions while McCain talked at the audience and blared away with his Stump Speech pieces that I have heard and read before. McCain seems positive that his folowers don't rethink anything. It was a good try by Rick Warren, but far from perfect as he seemed to favor McCain.

Actually, that the politicians would court them isn't so ironic; politicians are whores. But that there would be this notion of the American Christianists as this voice of moral authority, it's just absurd. I think Warren was given a forum he didn't deserve in this event, and I can only hope that his own charlatanism comes back to haunt him at some point, although there'll be another Christianist huckster waiting in the wings, ready for their turn at bat.

Warren says:

"Don't just look at issues, look at character. Issues are important, but you also have to look at character."

I think issues are far more important, since we can't really know the character of another person except by their actions, But OK, Warren. Here's what I see: Obama's somewhat of an unknown. But McCain is down on his knees sucking up to the same sort of "agents of intolerance" who Swift-boated him out of the 2000 nomination in SC. He's shamelessly adopted their positions in the process and... well, so much for any claims of character he might have.

Warren did say, though, he couldn't vote for an atheist. "An atheist says, 'I don't need God,'" Warren said. "They're saying, 'I'm totally self-sufficient in myself,' and nobody's self-sufficient enough to be president -- it's too big a job."

This one is even creepier! He's describing what we've just had for the past 8 years- a person who, because he believes he has god, is totally exempt from any kind of decent moral behavior towards his fellow humans. When you have a direct personal line to The Man Upstairs, there's no need to listen to, much less consider anyone else's opinion. Indeed, since were all a bunch of sinners in His eyes, we deserve the abuse His agents afflict us with. It's for our own good, right?

I apparently haven't been kicked in the head enough- none of this makes any sense to me at all and makes me feel very cynical about my fellow men. I hope to god these people are soon consigned to the trash heap of history, and don't drag the rest of us along with them when they go. Amen!

between such McMansion, Humvee, Disney-friendly Megachurch Evangelicalism and the "Fosterite" church described in Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land"? True, the latter featured roulette wheels and an open bar in the Church sanctuary, and Warren's place of business seems to stop short of such things, but otherwise Heinlein's notion of authoritarian, paternalistic fundamentalism with a WalMart smiley face is spot on.