McCain cheated on 'cone of silence'

By Libby

It appears that the "cone of silence" at the Saddleback event was about as serious as the one in the old teevee series Get Smart. McCain arrived in his soundproof booth a half hour late, giving him plenty of time to be briefed on the questions. That could explain his seemingly well-prepared 'spontaneous' answers. Furthermore, he lied by ommission when asked about it directly at the beginning of his segment.

Mr. Warren started by asking Mr. McCain, “Now, my first question: Was the cone of silence comfortable that you were in just now?”

Mr. McCain deadpanned, “I was trying to hear through the wall.”

Warren said we'll have to take McCain's claim that he didn't try to game the interview on faith. Meanwhile, the McCain camp is appalled that anyone would dare question their man's integrity, saying, "The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."

However, the denials have been somewhat nuanced. McCain's team hasn't flatly denied that no one in contact with McCain accessed the program while he was in enroute, although another McCain spokesman said they have no to reason to lie. But as Jake Tapper points out, obviously they had every reason to do so. And as I added in a post at the Detroit News, our "above all criticism, former POW" has a long history of outright lies.

I don't suppose this will have much effect on McCain's support among the hard core fundies, but one can only hope that some of it filters out to the sane voters and cracks the "straight talk" facade at least a little bit.

Comments

[Ron Beasley]

This was an ambush for Obama from the begining.

[Libby]

Yes, but I don't think in the long run it will hurt him and it might swing a few of younger fundies. You never know.

[anderson]

This was a bad move on Obama's part. You don't go into the enemy's camp and not expect to get roughed up. And thinking the Repubs weren't going to game the show would be foolish. But as you say, Libby, I doubt this silly meeting will matter much. Much more of a matter will be the continued name-calling and smear assault of the GOP. That's their bread and butter campaign platform.

[Libby]

True enough Anderson.