Sen. Barack Obama on Friday rejected a challenge from Sen. John McCain to hold 10 town-hall meetings before the political parties’ respective presidential nominating conventions at summer’s end, offering instead one question-and-answer session with voters, on July Fourth.
Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, ridiculed Mr. Obama’s counteroffer, which also called for meeting in three already scheduled prime-time televised debates this fall and adding one oratory style debate using the historic Lincoln-Douglas format.
“We all know what Americans do on the Fourth of July. So, of all times, obviously, that would be the least viewed,” Mr. McCain said in Pemberton, N.J.
The campaign of the presumptive Democratic nominee sought to portray Mr. McCain as the one who had bailed out of the proposed debates.
“Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said yesterday. “That package of five engagements would have been the most of any presidential campaign in the modern era - offering a broad range of formats - and representing a historic commitment to openness and transparency,” he said.
“It’s disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign decided to decline this proposal. Apparently they would rather contrive a political issue than foster a genuine discussion about the future of our country.”
The Lincoln-Douglas debates - seven faceoffs across Illinois in 1858 as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas sparred for a U.S. Senate seat - allowed a candidate to speak for an hour; the other candidate for 90 minutes; and the first followed with a 30-minute “rejoinder.” The audience asked no questions and candidates did not interrupt one another while speaking.
The battle strategies are clear: Mr. McCain, who held more than 100 town-hall meetings in New Hampshire alone, prefers the open forum, while Mr. Obama, considered a charismatic orator from the podium, opts for the Lincoln-Douglas style.
On June 4, Mr. McCain suggested the two presidential contenders meet once a week for 10 weeks, beginning this past Thursday in New York, and take “blind” questions from average voters for 60 to 90 minutes. “I propose these town-hall meetings be as free from the regimented trappings, rules and spectacle of formal debates as possible, and that we pledge to the American people we will not allow the idea to die on the negotiation table as our campaigns work out the details,” he said.
Mr. Obama initially sounded receptive to the proposal. “Obviously, we would have to think through the logistics on that, but … if I have the opportunity to debate substantive issues before the voters with John McCain, that’s something that I am going to welcome,” Mr. Obama said .
But Mr. Plouffe later that day offered a counterproposal, calling for a “format that is less structured and lengthier than the McCain campaign suggests, one that more closely resembles the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan said, “Obama’s proposal is nine town-hall meetings short of what Senator McCain proposed. Obama’s inaction over the last nine days - despite his offer to meet ’anywhere, anytime’ - is another case where his rhetoric doesn’t match his actions.”
Mr. McCain Friday invited Mr. Obama to a joint town-hall meeting in Minnesota next Thursday evening, and said he had accepted the invitation by the Ronald Reagan and Lyndon B. Johnson presidential libraries to hold joint town-hall meetings with the two candidates.
“We have a chance to change the way presidential elections are run and elevate the political dialogue,” the Republican said in a letter to the Obama campaign. “Americans deserve this kind of opportunity, and we hope that Senator Obama will join us at town-hall meetings throughout the summer months.”
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