EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Candidates show candor

Torie Immel will cast her first vote for president this fall.

She’s 18, grew up in Newport Beach and was a championship equestrian athlete while attending Mater Dei High School.

A lot of prognosticators are predicting a large youth turnout in this presidential election so you might assume Torie’s been paying very close attention to this historic election. But you’d be wrong. And not because Torie’s a typical apathetic teenager.

It’s because she’s been spending most of her time in Holland competing as a horseback rider.

When she tagged along with her mom, Tracy Manzi, and stepfather Mick Manzi to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest on Saturday night to see Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have what amounted to an almost talk-show-type interview with Pastor Rick Warren, she got her first chance to really dive into this race that has transfixed millions since the election started in January.

“I didn’t know much about either of them, but I think they both did well,” she said after Warren was done quizzing the presidential hopefuls. “They both did a really good job, and they were likable.”

To grizzled veteran news junkies like me, the evening at Saddleback yielded basically no surprises. At this point, I’ve heard every stump speech so many times I know a lot of their lines by heart. Warren did an admirable job cajoling and wheedling them when they lapsed into the canned-response habit, but they did not say anything I hadn’t expected.

But this night was really for people like Torie who wanted to get to the know the candidates.

It was also an evening for the Manzis, who have been paying attention, but wanted to hear more than the usual issues brought up in media-sponsored debates.

Mick, who plans on voting for McCain, said he didn’t change his mind, but he felt both candidates were impressive.

“Obama was incredibly thoughtful and articulate,” Mick said. “I’m more impressed with his motives than before I came here.”

But McCain “gave all the right answers,” except for his stab at humor when Warren asked McCain to define, “What is rich.” The Arizona senator joked that an annual salary of $5 million should be the standard, but it seemed to me McCain knew he had given his critics a YouTube moment, especially those critics unfamiliar with his irreverent sense of humor.

The consensus of many Saddleback members was that both candidates were impressive and came off more human than they often do on the stump.

Ric Olsen, an evangelical Christian who contributes to the Pilot’s weekly “In Theory” column, was similarly impressed with McCain and Obama and felt the forum brought shades of their personalities not often on display.

“Obama did a great job of being real and personable. He’s funny,” Olsen said. “And McCain did a great job of telling life stories, and made a lot of jokes as well, but in a different way. It’s really interesting how dissimilar they are.”

Many of the Saddleback members I interviewed after the forum were also struck by how direct McCain was and how nuanced Obama is when answering questions. For McCain, it’s usually more black-and-white, and for Obama there are the shades of gray.

While the candidates did not raise any controversy with their comments, there was plenty leading up to the forum and outside of it. Scores of protesters planted themselves near the main entrance to the church campus and the special interest groups made their points.

“People need to read the Constitution and realize that they’re trying to replace it with the Patriot Act,” said Tim Mason of Santa Ana who is an avid supporter of Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas who ran for the GOP presidential nomination. “The government wants to run our lives from the cradle to the grave. I’m not going to waste my vote on the lesser of two evils.”

The event also drew AARP advocates, abortion activists and even some 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

On Friday, Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr failed to get a Santa Ana federal judge to force Warren to give Barr a seat at the forum’s table. Barr’s campaign argued that the forum amounted to an illegal in-kind contribution to McCain and Obama because it gave them a valuable platform at no expense to them.

The Libertarians did not want to stop the forum; they just wanted to get an invitation.

“Essentially, the judge held that the code of federal regulations does not apply because, in his analysis, the event was not a debate as defined by the code,” said Robert Karwin, who represented Barr in court. “Of course, we disagree. Unfortunately, the code does not define ‘debate,’ and this was a case of first impression.”

I have to say, as debates go, this wasn’t much of a debate. It really was more like a talk show hosted by Warren. And a very entertaining one at that — even to an old newshound like me.

— Reporter Jack Salisbury contributed to this article

PAUL ANDERSON is the Daily Pilot’s city editor. He may be reached at paul.anderson @latimes.com or at (714) 966-4633.