If you watched the candidates’ forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church Saturday night, in which the popular pastor asked first Obama and then McCain identical questions, you were assured that the Arizona senator was in a “cone of silence” during the first half. “I was trying to hear through the wall,” McCain joked when he took the stage.

Now the New York Times has reported that he was actually in a motorcade when Obama was being questioned and could easily have heard Warren’s rather James Lipton-like queries — which could explain why he seemed to hit each one out of the park while Obama’s batting average was slightly more human.

Take this Warren query: “What’s the most gut-wrenching decision you’ve even had to make and what was the process you used to make it?” Obama went with his opposition to the invasion of Iraq, a stance considered treasonous by many at the time, which was not exactly news to anyone in the country. McCain came up with a far more exotic (though again familiar) story about how he turned down an offer of early release by the Viet Cong which they wanted for PR reasons, adding “It took a lot of prayer.” 

And on it went: when asked about moral failings, Obama spoke of experimentations with drugs as a kid, while McCain said it was the failure of his first marriage (glad he got that out of the way!); when asked , “At what point does a baby get human rights?” Obama demurred that the answer was “above my pay grade,” while maintaining, “I am pro choice.” McCain said simply, “At the moment of conception,” to the rapturous applause of the rapture lovers in attendance. 

I chalked the disparity in their performance to their nature — Obama nuanced, McCain, not so much — and despaired a little. To learn that he may have cheated while claiming to be spontaneous makes him seem a little slimier than I had thought — but a much better actor. His campaign, meanwhile, is outraged: “The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” said a spokeswoman. (Did you know he was a POW?)

In fairness, both candidates got a heads-up on some of Warren’s questions but can we dispense with the idea that McCain’s service and detainment make him above criticism? Might I remind people that the war in Vietnam was morally wrong and of dubious legality, fought for selfish reasons in the name of freedom and democracy? Does that remind you anything?

Now