McCain offers 10 town-hall debates, Obama only wants one — when no one’s watching

Talks between the two presidential campaigns on debates have stalled over a disagreement over the number and format of the events. John McCain suggested a weekly series of town-hall debates televised nationally between the conclusion of the conventions and the election. Barack Obama would only agree to one town-hall debate, and he wanted it scheduled when people were least likely to watch:

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain squabbled over a format for their first one-on-one debate in the U.S. presidential race, as both pushed their economic plans amid fresh reports of surging inflation and sagging wages.

Obama on Friday rejected McCain’s proposal for 10 joint town-hall appearances, question-and-answer gatherings before small audiences that the Republican senator tends to favor. The Democrat has performed best at massive, emotional rallies drawing tens of thousands of people.

Obama has offered to meet McCain in five joint appearances between now and the Nov. 4 election, but only one of those would be town hall-style and it would be on the July 4th Independence Day holiday, when few Americans would be watching. McCain called the offer “a very disappointing response.”

McCain had said the more intimate town-hall format would allow real interaction with voters and would be more revealing than formal televised debates. It also would give him free media attention alongside the better-funded Obama.

Let’s stipulate a few things here.  In every presidential campaign, a pas de deux over debates breaks out during the summer.  Both sides try gaining a PR edge by seeming to offer more interaction while protecting themselves and favoring their own strengths.  Eventually a series of commitments gets hammered out, with every detail of the debates negotiated down to the erasers on the pencils and the kind of water glasses provided to both candidates.  This is the beginning of the 2008 version.

Even with that said, the response from the Obama camp hardly seems courageous.  They only want their candidate to participate in a free-form debate on July 4th, when most people will be more interested in emptying their childrens’ college funds to pay for the gas for their vacation?  It seems that hope and change do not bring testicular fortitude.  Why not just do it at 2 am and have it televised on C-SPAN 3, or ESPN 2?

After Obama’s last debate performance, however, one can hardly blame David Axelrod for limiting Obama’s extemporaneous speech opportunities.  The April performance in Pennsylvania was so bad that the campaign simply refused to debate Hillary Clinton at all afterwards, skipping out on a debate offer in the friendly territory of North Carolina.  They will try to force McCain into the same game-show format as that Pennsylvania debate, not because it favors Obama but because he’s likely to do less damage to his cause than in a format in which an aggressive McCain can dominate him.

McCain will use this refusal to make the point that he’s ready to engage any time, any place — and that Obama isn’t.  That may say something about Obama’s readiness to handle tougher events than a town-hall debate.

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