UNITED STATES:THE PRESIDENTIAL candidates were on stage together for just a moment, but John McCain and Barack Obama offered an arresting contrast on Saturday night, both stylistically and on sensitive issues, most sharply on abortion.
In the two-hour forum at Orange County's Saddleback church, Mr Obama told pastor Rick Warren that it was "above his pay grade" to define when a baby gets human rights, while Mr McCain quickly answered: "At the moment of conception." The Republican candidate from Arizona had the easier task in the back-to-back interviews before about 2,800 members of the evangelical church in Lake Forest. He drew frequent applause with answers intended to reinforce his conservative credentials.
Mr Obama offered more nuanced answers on some of the issues important to conservative voters: abortion, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.
But Mr Obama, a Christian who until recently attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, spoke more revealingly than Mr McCain about his faith and its role in his life. Explaining what it meant to him to be a Christian, the Democratic senator from Illinois talked of "walking humbly" with God. "I know that I don't walk alone . . . that I can maybe carry out in some small way what He intends," he said.
He used a line from the New Testament to answer Dr Warren's question about what had been America's greatest moral failure. "We still don't abide by that basic precept of Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me," Mr Obama replied. Asked about his own moral failure, Mr Obama cited his use of drugs and alcohol as a young man.
Mr McCain, an Episcopalian who attends a Baptist church in Phoenix, has frequently been criticized by evangelical leaders for failing to speak as openly about his faith as Mr Obama and for relying on stories about how he found God during his captivity as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He did not diverge from that practice on Saturday. Asked what it meant to be a Christian, Mr McCain said: "It means I'm saved and forgiven." He quickly moved on to a story about a guard in his North Vietnamese prison camp who secretly drew a cross in the sand. "For a minute, there was just two Christians worshipping together," he said.
Without elaboration, he said that his greatest moral failure was his first marriage.
The candidates met briefly between interviews. Mr Obama greeted Mr McCain with a handshake and hug, but they exchanged few words. They struck some common themes, such as the importance of rising above self interest to serve one's country. But they also offered starkly different answers to Dr Warren's pointed question: "At what point does a baby get human rights?" Mr Obama said: "I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."
He then offered an explanation of his views, saying he supports the landmark abortion-rights decision Roe v Wade, but adding that the issue has "moral and ethical content" and stressing his commitment to reducing the number of abortions.
Mr McCain, however, immediately responded that a baby's rights begin at conception. Perhaps seeking to tamp down alarm among conservatives over his recent comment that he's open to a running mate who favours abortion rights, he continued: "I will be a pro-life president, and this presidency will have pro-life policies."
Though the candidates came down on opposite sides of the California ballot initiative banning gay marriage, both stressed that they opposed same-sex marriage. Mr Obama called marriage "a sacred union", drawing applause when he added: "God is in the mix." Mr Obama and Mr McCain gave sharply divergent answers on which justices they would not have nominated to the Supreme Court.
Mr Obama named Clarence Thomas, who he said was not a "strong enough jurist or legal thinker" and Antonin Scalia, though he said he didn't doubt "his intellectual brilliance". Mr McCain quickly ticked off the four liberal members: Ruth Ginsberg, John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer.
Despite suspicion about Mr McCain among Christian conservatives, a recent poll by CNN found that 67 per cent of white evangelical voters favour Mr McCain, while 24 per cent support Mr Obama.
Among the forum's lighter moments was Dr Warren's challenge to "define rich". Mr Obama poked fun at the pastor, whose book, The Purpose Driven Life, was a bestseller. "If you've got book sales of 25 million, you qualify," Mr Obama joked, before saying: "I would argue that if you're making more than $250,000, you're in the top three per cent or four per cent of the country, and you're doing well."
Mr McCain, whose wife's wealth has been estimated at more than $100 million, dodged the question. But, with a chuckle, he finally gave a figure. "I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?" he said.
- (LA Times-Washington Post service)
