Washington Wire

John McCain and Sarah Palin perfected their question-answering act Thursday at a town-hall meeting in Waukesha, Wis. Nearly every inquiry was responded to first by the Republican presidential nominee, citing a long-held campaign policy. After McCain finished, Palin would chime in with an attack on Democratic rival Barack Obama or praise for McCain.

While voters always expect a little twisting to incorporate talking points, Palin took the cake Thursday with her creativity on some answers.

About halfway through the town hall, a woman in the audience asked about hate-crime legislation. (The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the definition of hate crimes to include gender and sexuality, is pending in Congress.) McCain answered the question, advocating “swift and sure justice” but said he couldn’t “divine the intentions of a perpetrator of a crime.”

He then ceded the floor to Palin, whose answer included praise for the Wisconsin National Guard.

“Oh yeah, and the first thought that pops into my head also when you’re talking about rights and you’re talking about freedoms, is we’re talking about Sen. John McCain and what he has done for our country and putting his country first his entire life to fight for freedoms,” she said to applause.

But wait, that’s not all. She continued: “And Wisconsin, here again, kudos to you, your great Wisconsin guard. About a third of your troops will be over in a war zone in a number of months, in ’09, you guys are going to be over there, helping to defend freedom and defend liberty and the Democratic values that we all cherish so much, again something that Sen. John McCain has dedicated his entire life to. Thank you to Wisconsin for sending your guard over there to protect all the rest of the nation, thank you.”

She obviously has no idea what the Matthew Shepard Act is, so she just talks about something else.