McCain was outside the Cone of Silence. [Click the link. You'll be glad you did.] This has prompted some to propose that he cheated. The cheating theory requires, however, that McCain have (i) lightning fast anticipatory rhetorical reflexes, (ii) a sharp memory suitable for retaining scripted answers to questions, and (iii) poor verbal stimuli processing. Only (iii) is plausible.
The evidence cited in favor of the cheating theory consists of the following two interchanges, the first of which is between Warren and Obama:
[Warren:] Ok, let's go to education.
America right now ranks 19th in high school graduations, but we're
first in incarcerations.
[Obama:] Not good.
[Warren:] Not good. Eighty percent of Americans recently poled said they believe in merit pay for teachers... I'm not
asking, (1a) "Do you think all teachers should get a raise?" [But rather] (2a)
"Do you think better teachers should be paid better? [That] (3a) They should
make more than poor teachers?"
Here I've inserted parenthetical numbering and elided words (in brackets). When Warren and McCain got to this point in the debate, we got the following:
[Warren:] Let's talk about education.
America ranks 19th in high school graduations, but we're first in
incarcerations. Everybody says they want more accountability in
schools.
[McCain:] Mmm-hm.
[Warren:]
About 80% of America says they support merit pay for the best
teachers. Now I don't want to hear your stump speech on education...
[cut off]
[McCain:] (1b) Yes, (2b) yes and (3b) find bad teachers another line of work!
[Warren:] We're gonna, we're going to end this... You're answering so quickly, you ought to play a game of poker.
(Again, parenthetical numbering inserted.) Now on the cheating theory, McCain's answers (1b), (2b) and (3b) were prepared ahead of time in response to the putative questions (1a), (2a) and (3a) which Obama got. But really, Obama did not get three questions. He got only one (as the elided words I've provided make clear). Thus if McCain overheard anything, he misheard it. In short, if he cheated, he's a moron. Still, I very much doubt that, even if if McCain did overhear the previous Warren-Obama interchange, he would be capable of memorizing an answer to those putative questions, even one as simple as "Yes, yes and find bad teachers another line of work!" This because he wouldn't be able to hold (1a), (2a) and (3a) before his mind long enough to formulate answers to them.
Now suppose he didn't cheat. Then McCain is still a moron. As you can see from his interaction with Warren, he never received a question. So his repeated expressions of affirmation are supposed to be affirmations of what? Is he joking that his stump speech has zero content? He is telling Warren he agrees with what Warren is presenting as a statement of fact, namely, that he agrees that 80% of Americans say they support merit pay? He utterly failed to answer any question here, and for the reason that no question was ever asked. Congrats, moron! Worse still, the entire audience applauded. What's wrong with the people who attend Rick Warren's church?
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