Lots of talk here and elsewhere on whether McCain knew Rev. Warren's questions ahead of time at the Saddleback confab.
Whether McCain looked sharp and positive because there was no 'cone of silence' or because he was on familiar territory, begs the question.
How well will he do from here on out?
David Gergen has a blog up on Real Clear Politics where he concludes that the tide may be turning in McCain's favor. His evidence is McCain's performance at Saddleback where Gergen says McCain looked sharp.
And let's face McCain did look sharp. Sharp, pithy, well-paced answers to big important questions. McCain sounded as though he were on top of the issues and, indeed, he sounded good.
And that is the problem.
Remember the Viagra incident awhile back. McCain blanked on camera for maybe a minute while he visibly racked his brain for something to say to the question, had he supported legislation that let health insurance fund viagra for men but denied birth control medication for women. His own Victory Chairman, Carly Fiorina, had made the observation and McCain was not quick on his feet with a reply on that one.
Remember the Sturgis motorcycle rally? There were a few wobbles on the punch lines and he made a uncomfortable joke about entering his wife, Cindy, in a biker beauty contest.
Remember the catastrophe back in the June the night Obama clinched his nomination? He was in Louisiana in front signs about Leadership We Can Believe In and he laughed at his own jokes and jabs with that weird dirty old man kind of guffaw he makes sometimes. He was not sharp that night, either
With the bar set low McCain has looked and sounded good. McCain has even encouraged low expectations for himself with the celebrity ads he ran that pointed an accusing finger at Obama's glibness.
Now with Kristol, Gergen and others calling attention to a new, sharper McCain, the expectations will go up. And unless McCain really has gotten sharper, heightened expectations are not good for him. The next time he has a deer in the headlines moment, the contrast with the sharp Saddleback McCain will be noticed. If the wobbles, gaffes and lack of sharpness keep coming, the press, even the MSM, will begin to look for them.
Until Saddleback McCain had been safe from serious attention to his stumbles. The expectations had been so low, he was okay. Now that Gergen and others have begun to see him as sharp, McCain will lose his Cone of Safety.
With any luck some MSM reporter will re-visit his great night at Saddleback and try to figure out how he could have been so sharp that one night and so not sharp so many other times.