Comments on the Warren Interviews

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 displayed clearly 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 clearly as 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. 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.