Speculation has been buzzing on Obama forums, that McCain heard the questions - and Obama's answers - before he appeared on last night's debate. Rick Warren assured the audience that McCain was in a "cone of silence". Not so it seems...
Right-wing commentator, Andrea Mitchell spins the buzz as Democrats feeling Obama didn't do well:
MS. ANDREA MITCHELL: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there was the crisp, immediate, forceful response by John McCain, clearly in a comfort zone because he was with his base. And Barack Obama, taking a risk in going there but seeing an opportunity. And a much more nuanced approach. The Obama people must feel that he didn't do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because that -- what they're putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama.
MR. GREGORY: Right.
MS. MITCHELL: He seemed so well prepared.
Rick Sanchez confronted Pastor Warren at 6:30p EST on CNN. Warren admitted that McCain was not in the studio, but within the "cone of his Secret Service". Under pressure, he admitted that he knew McCain was not in a "cone of silence", though he told the audience he was. He tried to excuse this by saying he asked McCain point-blank whether he was listening, and was assured this was the case.
Sanchez's twitter post on the topic:
pastor rick warren just told me on air he thought mccain was in a cone of silence when he told people he was, though he wasn't. got it?
Update: NYTimes confirms McCain was not in the cone.