McCain and Obama at Saddleback Church

Who thought the presidential campaign would steal the oldest beauty pageant trick in the book? Obama and McCain are set to make their first joint appearance tonight at mega-pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Southern California — but they won't be on stage at the same time. Remember the isolation booths that beauty queen finalists would hop into so that they wouldn't hear the final question before it was their turn to answer? The Q&A tonight will be just like that, give or take a tiara.

Warren is going to ask what he calls tough "heartland" questions to both, and in a move I actually really like for comparison's sake, both candidates will get the exact same batch. The one-hour slots will focus on questions that Warren says don't allow for a lot of wiggle room, "but I do want to know how they handle a crisis, because a lot of the things in the presidency often deal with things you don't know are going to happen, that we don't know will happen in the next four years . . . There are a lot of different things you can deal with in the life of a leader that will tell us more about the candidate than some of the typical questions."

To see how the evangelical vote plays in and when and where to watch, read more.

The move to have the first forum at a mega-church could be seen as unusual, but Warren says his flock contains all shades of political views and it's a perfect venue. As to whether McCain has an advantage with the evangelical voters, Warren says, "they're not a monolithic bloc, as the press frequently tries to make them out to be. I think that for many evangelicals, they're not convinced that either of these men is an evangelical. They may be believers in Christ, they may be Christian, but they want to know, for instance, their world view. And they want to hear it out."

You can watch the event tonight on CNN at 8 p.m. EST or you can watch it online. Are you in?

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