It seemed pretty clear that there was no cone of silence surrounding McCain at the Saddleback forum. This has been addressed by many Kossacks already, but one of the more interesting things I remember was a particular response by McCain, which even in my drunken state (tis the only way to watch Republicans) seemed to leap out as curious.
This occured right around the time Rick and John stopped salivating over those ol' torture tales McCain rarely seems to bring up, and followed the question pertaining to when life begins:
A AT THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION. I HAVE A 25-YEAR
PRO LIFE RECORD IN THE CONGRESS, IN THE SENATE. AND AS
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, I WILL BE A PRO LIFE
PRESIDENT AND THIS PRESIDENCY WILL HAVE PRO LIFE POLICIES.
THAT'S MY COMMITMENT, THAT'S MY COMMITMENT TO YOU.
Q OKAY. WE DON'T HAVE TO GO LONGER ON THAT ONE.
DEFINE MARRIAGE.
A UNION -- A UNION BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN, BETWEEN
ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN, THAT'S MY DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.
ARE WE GOING TO GET BACK TO THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPREME
COURT JUSTICES.
The bold is mine.
The full transcript is here. Part IV is where McCain starts. I went through it quickly so maybe I missed something, but I saw no prior reference to Supreme Court Justices.
So when a seemingly over-prepared McCain asks, "Are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court Justices" red flags start to go up. Call me crazy but I don't remember John and Rick discussing Supreme Court Justices prior to McCain putting that out there. One could argue that it was mentioned obliquely the statement before in reference to Roe v Wade but that's a stretch. I do, however, remember Rick and Barack talking about that, but McCain being in his impenetrable conical fortress of silence wouldn't have heard that. I found that curious.
So either I missed that conversation or McCain has super sensitive hearing....Or McCain knew what was coming.