(2008-08-18) — NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell today explained how Sen. John McCain may have violated the ‘cone of silence’ at Saturday night’s forum with Pastor Rick Warren, allowing him to get a sneak preview of questions posed to Barack Obama before he took the stage to answer the same questions.
Rumors that Sen. McCain broke Pastor Warren’s rules for the forum remain alive because he gave a performance that made him look like a seasoned, confident, principled leader, which most journalists realize would only have been possible for the Republican if he had been prepped with the questions and had practiced his talking points beforehand.
Ms. Mitchell said unnamed “Obama people” have now told her that Sen. McCain may have smuggled a cell phone into the soundproof room at Saddleback Church, perhaps concealing the device in the heel of his shoe.
“Of course, because I’m a journalist, I’m not expressing my own opinion,” said the veteran newswoman, “I’m just sharing what they’re saying about the alleged shoe phone that McCain had inside the cone of silence. I’m merely an objective observer and reporter of fact — and the fact is that Obama people think McCain cheated.”
[BREAKING: ScrappleFace readers have leaped into action to help editor Scott Ott go to the Republican National Convention in September. Mr. Ott has acquired press credentials and will report live from the Twin Cities via ScrappleFace, Twitter, Townhall.com, Facebook, YouTube and The Michael Koolidge Show. You can be part of this historic journalistic event by contributing what you can to fund the trip. Just click the "Donate" button below, and give until your rotator cuff aches.]
51 responses so far ↓
1 Big Java // Aug 18, 2008 at 8:42 am
Shame on you Senator McCain for “alleging” to smuggle in a cell phone in your shoe. The “facts” are compelling.
2 conserve-a-tip // Aug 18, 2008 at 8:57 am
Rumors all started by Kaos - er - Kos - er - as in Daily, that is - er - Daley - Chicago’s Daley? The Chicago Machine is in on this caper?!!?
I’m wrong? Sorry about that Chief. Missed it by that much.
3 boberinyetagain // Aug 18, 2008 at 8:57 am
Where Hymie when you need him? Funny Scott
4 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 18, 2008 at 8:57 am
CONE…..cone…..cone…..cone…..cone…..
OF…..of…..of…..of…..of…..
SILENCE…..silence…..ilence…..lence…..ence…..nce…..ce…..e…..
Starring Chuck Norris
5 Big Java // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:00 am
Hey, Guys, it seems that Senator McCain and his people think that NBCNews is biased toward ole whathisname! Ya think?!?!?
6 Ms RightWing, Ink // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:17 am
Just keepin’ it real bro… If Borack the mess.i.ah didn’t wear those Odor Eaters his answers would still exist today.
It takes a cheater to know a cheater.
7 Michelle Malkin » Sore loser: Obama and Obamedia accuse McCain of “cheating” // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:19 am
[...] Ott: Har. How McCain breached the cone. Posted in: Barack Obama, Media Bias Send to a Friend Printer Friendly comments [...]
8 conserve-a-tip // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:20 am
Wow. Today’s headlines and news pundits are just handing me material!! I just heard that the hurricane’s warning cone could move to the west or to the east and depending on where the cone is, shows where the hurricane will hit. Somebody needs to tell the Oblahblah camp that, since cones evidently move, McCain could have just been trying to keep the Cone of Silence pinned down because it was moving around and he didn’t have time to be listening to his shoe.
Of course, Andrea Mitchell will reply, “I asked you not to tell me that.” (You did notice that I included her in with the Oblahblah camp)
“fools! Bunglers! Incompetents! Dumkopfs! Sissies!”
9 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 9:42 am
Are you crying? Are you crying? Are you crying? There’s no crying! There’s no crying in Presidential politics !
10 conserve-a-tip // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:09 am
I wonder if the OB1 camp has figured out that they are, in essence, admitting that McCain mopped the floor with their Save-Yer at the Saddleback Telefloorum. Anytime one screams “cheated”, that means that somebody won and it wasn’t you! Accusations are the sincerest form of flattery.
11 conserve-a-tip // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:09 am
did it post?
12 mig // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:21 am
Sure McCain was prepped. He went to a different church that preaches a different moral cone than Owawas preacher. Am I on the Wright cone?
Snorkle says: Theatrical SS on my gosh. Who comes up with these words and in this order?
13 DrivebyMeteor // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:29 am
Otto : Are you telling me you don’t have a social security number?
Beldar : Correct. I am an illegal alien.
Otto : Damn! I knew you were too good to be true!
————————————
[ Beldar tears off the roof of Ronnie’s car ]
Ronnie : H-hi, Mister Conehead.
Beldar : I find you unacceptable !
Ronnie : Y-yes, sir.
Beldar : If I did not fear incarceration from human authority figures, I would terminate your life functions by applying sufficient pressure to your blunt skull so as to force its collapse!
Ronnie : Th-thank you.
(Coneheads, 1993)
14 gafisher // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:07 am
Here is a detailed report.
Hey, I’ll donate to send Scott to the Convention, as I hope all of us will do, but I’d donate a lot more if he was going as a candidate.
15 gafisher // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:14 am
Bober Re#3: He’s been laying low in Jessetown lately.
16 boberinyetagain // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:32 am
gafisher…now that’s funny!
Even I contibuted to Mr. Ott’s quest, should produce articles too good to miss!
17 mig // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:41 am
just for fun…
http://producten.hema.nl/
just let the page load, don’t touch the mouse…
18 Hawkeye // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:45 am
McCain and Obama can get together as a comedy team… “Cone and the Barbarian”
wv = proposes Scotty — Let’s beam him up!
19 Mack // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:53 am
I remember one of the debates in the last election when people were so concerned. President Bush had a wrinkle in the back of his suit. People were swearing Rove was answering the questions and the President was lip syncing. It had to be a trick because Kerry looked like a pompous Massachusetts air bag and the president came off as credible and likeable.
The same people are swearing Bush knocked down the World Trade Centers, blew up the Pentagon, and crashed flight 93 into a field. (They have proof you know.)
On a side bar, does anyone else have problems decifering some of these code words at the bottom?
20 Obama camp thinks McCain cheated at Saddleback Forum « The Political Page // Aug 18, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] How McCain may have “breached the cone“. [...]
21 boberinyetagain // Aug 18, 2008 at 12:47 pm
As Max was fond of saying to the Chief at times like this…WHAT?
Mack…yes!
22 Mack // Aug 18, 2008 at 12:55 pm
How ya been Boberin? Worthy opponents are so hard to come by.
23 Shelly // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Riddle me this, though, fellow Scrapplers:
How did McCain get Obama to lie twice about abortion, first saying that the number of abortions has not gone down in the last eight years, and then lying about his position on killing babies after they were accidentally born alive?
I watched this forum and McCain absolutely mopped the floor with Obama. This was the best I’ve seen of McCain. I hope he keeps it up.
24 Big Java // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Mack, you know the “proof” is in the rumors!
and Yes, me too
25 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Howdy, boberin. How’s it going?
Mack - some a them words are harder than others! N.B. - if you click on the little question mark button in the reCaptcha box, you will get a pop-up with some interesting info on the whole reCaptcha project. (click on the “yin-yang” button above the “?” & you’ll get a new challenge …)
/gafisher, you were the one who pointed that stuff out to me a while back, right? I’m having one of those “senior moments” …
26 nylecoj // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:15 pm
WV=alarmed be
Good advice and probably from Yoda
27 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Shelly #23: A.
JediRovian mind trick …28 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm
nylecoj #26: LOL! GMTA …
29 Maggie // Aug 18, 2008 at 1:51 pm
McCain revealed enough about himself to now allow me to vote for him without holding my nose.
It just confirmed why I will not be voting for Obummer.
Job well done!
Scott, a check will be in the mail after Sept 3rd.
30 boberinyetagain // Aug 18, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Mack and Red…all’s well on the boberin front, this is just the busiest time of year at work so I don’t get out much. I read most but can’t post much or I’ll get swamped!
Shelly, no one beats George for killing kids that managed to be born
31 Mack // Aug 18, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Dearest Red Pepper. Sarcasm is one tool of the blogger trade. I recall many a troll here, some better spoken than others but all one theme and one direction. I frankly don’t see any of them worth reading.
Take his last comment about killing those who manage to be born. It’s a lie and he knows it but shamelessly even flippantly posts it as truth. Liberal habit: State audacious lies as fact and ridicule anyone who “didn’t know that.”
“Everyone knows that this is a war for oil, Bush lied and kids died, and that Rove is secretly Satan.” But when given facts to the contrary they refuse to defend or debate their so called points. They instead attack, they personally attack the person who dared use facts to counter them.
32 Mack // Aug 18, 2008 at 2:32 pm
At risk of sounding stupid, or better yet ignorant, what is the recaption button?
33 Just Ranting // Aug 18, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Maybe we should see if Rush Limbaugh could hold a bake sale to send Scott Ott to the Republican Convention. Sort of like the one he held for Dan in CO years ago to raise money for a subscription to the Limbaugh Letter. Scott sould provide daily updates to the Limbaugh audience during the convention. How do we get a petition started?
34 Shelly // Aug 18, 2008 at 2:57 pm
JR, I love the idea!
Mack, libs don’t understand the purpose of military force, and bemoan our toppling of the saintly Sadaam. I feel sorry for people who need to hate their country so much that they’ll knowingly swallow lies to do so.
35 MajorDomo // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Folks, Andrea resides perpetually in the “cone of silence”, a place devoid of truth and common sense.
By the way, are any of you familiar with where the term, “cone of silence” originated, and what it refers to?
36 Shelly // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Major Domo, I guess I don’t.
37 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Full Disclosure:
In text messages and emails (and, yes, sometimes, in phone calls) I am Agent 86 and Mrs. 3rd is Agent 99.
38 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Mack #32: The only way announce one’s ignorance - and to perpetuate that ignorance - is to refuse to ask questions.
Directly underneath the “box” that we type our comments in, there is a checkable box to allow you to request that you be notified of followup comments via e-mail. Since I don’t use that feature, I can’t tell you anything about it.
Underneath that line is the box that is labelled “Submit”, that we click on when we are ready to post our comments. This is an example of what I refer to as a “button”.
Underneath the “Submit” button is a much larger red, white & yellow box that is divided into four basic areas. The top area is a white space outlined with red that contains the two “challenge” words.
Under this area on the left is the yellow-colored space with a white box in the middle that you type the two challenge words into before hitting “Submit”.
In the far right-hand lower area is the “reCaptcha” logo, along with the slogan. “stop spam. read books.”
Between the yellow “Type the two words:” area and the red Logo area, there is, finally, a lighter reddish-orange area containing a stack of three “buttons”, i.e. symbols you can click on; a “yin-yang”-type symbol, a “bullhorn”-type symbol and a “question-mark”-type symbol.
When you click on the “yin-yang”-symbol button, reCaptcha will display two new challenge words. If you click on the “bull-horn”-symbol button, reCaptcha will give you an audio challenge (I don’t use this function, have never tried it, don’t know how it’s supposed to work or if it actually does). If you click on the “question-mark”-button, reCaptcha will display a pop-up that gives instructions, a very brief explanation of the reCaptcha program, and contains another button marked “Learn More” that you can click on to do exactly that.
I think that you have to double-click on the “buttons” to get them to accept your commands.
Ask, and ye shall be answered …
39 boberinyetagain // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:48 pm
oh good grief, happy to note that nothing has changed. I’d be dissapointed were it any other way!
Get Smart, a perfectly wonderful TV show…
40 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 3:59 pm
And, in that spirit, let me say that no, MajorDomo, I confess that I have no idea where the phrase “cone of silence” comes from, but I’d be happy to improve my knowledge base, if you do know & wish to explain it; if not, I’m confident someone (Fred Sinclair, or Darthmeister, or another Scrappler) will be up to the challenge of digging that info out. So, lemme ask : do you know ?
wv=”actors Trust” ; indeed they do! And, they also verify !
41 RedPepper // Aug 18, 2008 at 4:17 pm
boberin: I can’t see where George has been such a roaring sucess in that area - hardly even worth noting, if you ask me! Just in the approximately six-week battle of Iwo Jima alone, for instance, the Allied forces suffered 27,909 casualties , including 6,825 killed in action. Of the over 21,000 Japanese forces on the island at the start of the battle, 20,703 were either KIA or committed seppuku (ritual suicide).
And that’s just one relatively short engagement in one theatre of WWII.
I’m afraid Bush doesn’t even merit a bronze for his amateurish efforts, bob …
42 JamesonLewis3rd // Aug 18, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Word has it that BO is going to ride into that stadium in Denver on a donkey as groupies hop and skip and strew palm fronds on the ground.
…..and the crowd called out for more…..
43 camojack // Aug 18, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Oh. Would you believe…?
44 mindknumbed kid // Aug 18, 2008 at 5:04 pm
You Bush lovers neglect to count the 3.2 trillion innocent Iraqis that the trolls allege that Bush’s evil military and the irresponsible civilian thieving contractors have killed since we illegally removed Saddam from power in Iraq in order to steal his oil. What about that, huh?
45 mindknumbed kid // Aug 18, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Inferior minds want to know…
46 mindknumbed kid // Aug 18, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I’m almost willing to go on the record that come the end of the DimNatCon they will nominate HRC, not BHO. The Chicago Wonderer cannot even speak intelligently ,when forced to do so, from his soul. I will also almost dare to state as fact that BO has no soul to speak from. Sticking with this man is like choosing to stay on board the Titanic, it is evident that the end will be completely and utterly catastrophic.
47 MajorDomo // Aug 18, 2008 at 6:20 pm
As a one-time usere of the “cone of silence”, I’m happy to relate it. Once upon a time air navigation was accomplished by radio signals in a system called “Radio Range” navigation. It was a low-frequency signal that you as a pilot could “beam in on”. The beams radiated horizontally from a transmitting antenna. When you arrived directly over the antenna the signal would fade out completely. (That’s how you knew where you were). The circular area directly above the transmitting antenna was called the cone of silence. The radiated beams were alternately sent as Morse code “N” (dah-dit) and “A” (dit-dah). Where the N area and A area overlapped, the aircraft radio would comping the dah-dits and dit-dahs into a single unbroken tone. When you were flying in that overlapping area you were “on the beam”. That was how radio navigation was done in the “old days”. Needless to say there was a lot of room for error and many pilots lost their lives looking for the cone of silence.
48 MajorDomo // Aug 18, 2008 at 6:23 pm
“comping” = “combine. As in combining the A and N tones
49 MajorDomo // Aug 18, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Red: “So, lemme ask : do you know ? ”
For the record, I do not use terms of which I know not the meaning.
50 da Bunny // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Obama’s new campaign logo:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3471/obamacrylz8.jpg
51 Recent Links Tagged With "observer" - JabberTags // Dec 8, 2008 at 2:34 am
[...] on Sun 07-12-2008 Palm Takes on iPhone with Treo Pro Saved by vitorvtb2 on Wed 03-12-2008 NBC’s Mitchell Reveals How McCain Breached Cone Saved by kirasama15 on Mon 17-11-2008 The Devil Came on Horseback Saved by VincentsVixen on Tue [...]
You must log in to post a comment.