Funny, isn't it, that it was McCain's seeming coherence relative to all
his other public appearances that was the clue to this dirty trick- his
staff knew the questions already and was able to prepare his answers for
him:

"However, the New York Times' Kit Seelye has boldly backed up Mitchell's
claim in today's story, "Despite Assurances, McCain Wasn't in a 'Cone of
Silence'." Per Seelye:

Senator John McCain was not in a "cone of silence" on Saturday night while
his rival, Senator Barack Obama, was being interviewed at the Saddleback
Church in California... The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who
followed Mr. Obama's hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually
the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain's performance was well
received, raising speculation among some viewers, especially supporters of
Mr. Obama, that he was not as isolated during the Obama interview as Mr.
Warren implied.

(snip)

Mr. Warren, the pastor of Saddleback, had assured the audience while he
was interviewing Mr. Obama that "we have safely placed Senator McCain in a
cone of silence" and that he could not hear the questions... Interviewed
Sunday on CNN, Mr. Warren seemed surprised to learn that Mr. McCain was
not in the building during the Obama interview.

This corroborates Mitchell's report, which was "McCain may not have been
in the cone of silence" (he wasn't, at least not for the duration) and
"may have some ability to overhear" the question (unclear, but if the
purpose of the 'cone of silence' is to guard against that, then presumably
being outside it might have afforded that opportunity.

But even without Seelye, Mitchell was corroborated...by Davis. He wrote,
"The fact is that during Senator Obama's segment at Saddleback last night,
Senator McCain was in a motorcade to the event and then held in a green
room with no broadcast feed." That means that he was not in the cone of
silence during the Obama questioning, confirming Mitchell's report."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/18/nyt-backs-up-nbc-mccain-w_n_...

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