McCain's speechifying is flatter than a piece of matzoah under the wheel of a tractor-trailer truck.

Did Dan Rather write this report?

Political jiu jitsu, Wax On-Wax off like a motherfucker.

I'm afraid that I'm just not buying into the conventional wisdom that McCain is going to do so much better in these townhall events.

Sure, the comparison won't be as painful as comparing the two give speeches, but McCain is going to look stiff and old next to Obama, and Obama isn't exactly a slouch when it comes to townhall events.

So I guess I've never understood why McCain keeps running after Obama, trying to get on the same stage with him.

Other than Obama can attract monster audiences...

I'm obviously not a McCain supporter, so what I'm about to say next won't be surprising, but McCain just comes across as being desperately needy in this whole episode.

This makes me smile every time I hear it:

...the American people deserve an open and accessible debate as they choose between real change and four more years of failed Bush policies...

"You've gotta kinda catapult the propaganda."

I hereby decree that every response to John McCain should include the above mentioned quote in it. EVERY RESPONSE (with "because" in front of it).

McCain: You're afraid to debate me

Obama: No I'm not, because the American people deserve an open and accessible debate as they choose between real change and four more years of failed Bush policies.

McCain: I am not old.

Obama: Yes you are, and that's the American people deserve an open and accessible debate as they choose between real change and four more years of failed Bush policies.

Good. I am pleased that the Obama team has put an end to this. Why let McCain plan your campaign appearances for you. It always sounded like a trap.

Tell McCain to tend to his own knitting, provided he can still shear enough woolly mammoths to provide enough yarn.

Obama camp handled this PERFECTLY!

Offer debates over and above the 3 normally held - just enough to make it the most debates ever held in a modern election cycle - and then stand fast. Set conditions so that you have offered more than any other frontrunner in history - so that you can claim itis McCain who is being unreasonable.

Couldn;t have handled it better myself!!! Now we know why Barack is the candidate - and so far ahead!

What a team!!!

Probaby won't be any except the three traditional. The media is pushing it. McCain is not going to get his way so he's having a tantrum and the Obama camp is on to something else.

McCain knows he cannot match Obama in funds so he is trying to use him for free advertising.

Dang Obama's team sure knows how to block a punch while throwing an upper cut directly on the chin.

LOVE IT

I can guarantee you guys that McCain will reconsider and there will be an agreement reached similar to the one proposed by BO.

Why? John McCain knows he needs those debates. He cant afford to run across the country on a primary season budget. He needs as much free time as he could get. If his fund raising shows no movement or decrease in the coming weeks, the pressure would be on him more to accept whatever requirements the Obama camp produces for debates.

After the catastrophe that was the primary debates, I kind of wish they would change up the format for the general election.

It isn't just the inane irrelevant questions and inept moderators that make the standard debates so useless, it is the candidates trying to answer every question with rehearsed blather and talking points, whether it answers the question or not.

If you want to see the campaigns platform highlights, go to their websites or watch the speeches. I'd rather get a better view of the person behind the marketing.

I think it would do a lot to help Obama shed his empty suit speechanator image, for better or worse. He seems to handle himself well in the townhall format.

"flatter than a piece of matzoh under the wheel of a tractor-trailer truck."

Interesting ethic choice there.

Let's see, could have been tortilla, pita, host, naan, etc.....

but you chose matzoh.

Interesting.

I'd like to see the candidates be allowed to ask direct questions to each other.

The interesting thing here, and perhaps Obama's campaign is well aware of this: the longer McCain blathers about Obama skirting the joint town hall debates, the higher the expectations he's building for himself.

Remember: Clinton, while a great debater, built such a wall of expectations, that even a lame Obama performance was deemed a success.

It's striking that McCain would let himself fall into this trap.

Why stop at 10? Hell, demand 100 debates, gramps! Go for broke!

McCain even sucks in his own propaganda routine.

I hate to give the retar..erm, Republicans ideas, but if I were setting Obama up for not appearing I would have at the very LEAST have had a podium for the absent opposition.

It's in Honolulu, in the state records.

Ask to see McCain's birth cert.

McCain reminds me of Mickey Rooney in all those Rooney/Garland films from the 1930s and 1940s:

"Let's put on a show!!!!!!!!"

"Please Barack??! Can I please go to the Town Hall with you guys this Friday?!!

I promise I won't do anything stupid, and I'll just sit in the back of the car, and I won't even talk to the girls!

Just let me come with you guys! Please Barack?! Awwww, come oooooooon!!!"

If McCain can't get it in five meetings, it is rather doubtful ten will help him understand any more...

I expect the Obama campaign to make more offers that McCain will refuse. McCain wants debates only on his terms, Obama needs to also stand his ground but he has to do one soon, or the people will say he's a coward and start to wonder what he is afraid of.

But no way should he accept McCain's demands as is. McCain is afraid of conventional debates because he has never been good at them and more so when he's confronted he could finally lose his temper, that temper that many talk about. Losing his temper on national TV would be his end.

Obama should give McCain some town halls, I don't see why Obama wouldn't do well. But Obama knows and needs the network debates to crush McCain and he won't accept any McCain offer until he can get some of those.

It seems that some of that 500,000 a week that Bonzo McChimpy is spending is on credit cards, given that he and Cindy reported 100,000 in card debt. How so very GOP. Borrow like there is no tommorow. That always works....

I think we only need one McCain town-hall meeting: I wanna see him looking at his watch...

Of course McCain wants more of Obama's time. He want's to keep him out of the states where no town halls are scheduled and neutralize his cash advantage. Whenever they appear together, McCain is getting free exposure and using Obama's time.

An important point posted above:

Also, if you watched the Republican debates (if you could stomach them), McCain bulldozers over his oppenents. He reminds me of Mr. Magoo. He just rambles on, talking over his oppenents, and they can't get a word in--Romney was truly beside himself when debating McCain. I expect to see that kind of thing (along with the audiences stacked with Republicans) at these townhall meetings.

Obama tends to be polite and doesn't talk over people. He listens, which could come across as weak. He needs a very clear strategy on how to handle this. Clinton did it in at least one debate. He is good on process and could challenge McCain directly for his obnoxious bulldozing tactics, maybe saying McCain is afraid to let Obama speak because he fears people would understand Obama makes more sense. That would freak McCain out, calling him afraid. then maybe we would get a glimpse of that nasty temper.

Speaking of McCain being old posted above, did you see the clip where they asked all the Republican nominees before McCain won what type of computer they used, Mac or PC? So there were like 5 candidates, and they all chose one or the other EXCEPT McCain, who said he is computer illiterate and he has to ask his wife to do anything on the computer. WOW. Talk about OLD with MOLD. Even my 81 year old Mom can email. Unbelievable, and this guy wants to run the country based on a global economy? Righttttttttttt.

Obama should now plan a world tour around july 4 so McCain's refusal backfires on him, and the offer is no longer on the table.

McCain admits he needs ten tries to get it up.

I believe that McCain desperately wants to control Obama's summer campaign schedule, as I explained in a post yesterday. When the "let's take a trip to Iraq" gambit failed, they came out with "let's debate all summer long" to replace it. The second "offer" seems more palatable because it seems more "beneficial" to the American public in terms of addressing more of the issues currently on voters' minds (Iraq having fallen behind the economy as the top concern), and it seems more "fair" because it should theoretically help Obama as much as McCain. The other advantage for the McCain camp is that it's much easier to get the press to push the "town hall"/"debates" proposal for them, since it's clear that the networks are going to benefit a lot more from covering those than they might have from covering (or more likely, not covering) some Iraq junket.

Whatever the "joint appearance" plan, however, the biggest desire fueling it is not, not, not to give voters a "better picture" of Obama versus McCain. It's to give fewer voters a personal interaction with Obama himself. The McCain campaign is desperate to keep Obama out of North Carolina, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, etc. That's what the "10" town halls are about. It's way less about the "town halls" and way more about the "10." They just want to tell Obama where to be for as much of the summer as possible, so they can make sure they're not falling further and further behind.

It's a given that Obama is a better speaker. All McCain has to do is hold even. If he "wins" - because he dominates in the "town hall" format - so much the better. But they probably don't expect this, and they probably don't care. They've given up on the idea that they can neutralize Obama's speaking advantage. Right now, they are just looking for ways that they can deal with the fact that Obama is a better campaigner.