WHAT ENLIGHTENMENT?:

Purpose-driven Hype (Lauren Collins, August 11, 2008, The New Yorker)

Billed as a “Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion,” the McCain/Obama event will occupy a prime slot: five to seven on a Saturday night. Dominating the church’s Web site is a pop-up ad in the style of an old-timey woodcut poster, the type you might see announcing a Willie Nelson stand at the Ryman. McCain and Obama face off in three-quarter profile, as if tuning up for a battle of the bands. Warren plans to introduce the presumptive nominees together and then to interview each for an hour. He determined who will go first—Obama—with a coin toss.

The idea for the summit goes back to April, when Messiah College, in Grantham, Pennsylvania, invited the Presidential candidates to campus for a discussion of moral issues. Obama and Hillary Clinton showed up. McCain bagged it. “Along about June, they asked, ‘Would you be interested in helping to host a second forum?’ ” Warren recalled. “Over the next month, it became clear that there was a stalemate between the campaigns. It was pretty much dead in the water.” Warren, who doesn’t make endorsements, called McCain and Obama—“good friends,” both—on their cell phones. “I just went straight to the principals,” he said.

Two presidential candidates, a pastor and Messiah College--who will tell the Brights?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 12, 2008 8:18 AM