McCain Campaign Press Release - Obama: 'One of my favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town hall meetings.' Just not with McCain.

By Jim Geraghty

National Review's Campaign Spot

June 25, 2008 8:00 AM

Campaignspot.NationalReview.com

Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope, p. 101-102:

"One of my favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town hall meetings. I held thirty-nine of them my first year in the Senate, all across Illinois, in tiny rural towns like Anna and prosperous suburbs like Naperville, in back churches in the South Side and a college in Rock Island... For the next hour or so, I answer to the people who sent me to Washington... My time with them is like a dip in a cool stream. I feel cleansed afterward, glad for the work I have chosen."

Hmm. Somehow, Senator Obama no longer wants to feel cleansed by those dips in cool streams.

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."

If Obama can do thirty-nine town hall meetings in a year, why can't he do more than one between now and Election Day?