is there anything else this guy is going to change his mind about?

Here is the awful truth: Joe Six-Pack and many forty-plus somethings are just looking for some reason, supplied from without, to reject Obama. Why? Because down deep these individuals cannot or will not support a non-lily white person for the highest office in the land. So the McSame camp is more than willing to supply them a few.

I was surprised that Obama turned down McCain on the town hall thing thinking he could really show him up. I now agree with the other posters that it would only increase voter fatigue and, if he'd started weeks ago while the media was still fully in McCain's pocket, all McCain would have to do is show up to "win". Now the media is turning against McCain (after all, who doesn't want to write the story of the election of the first AA president?) and there is at least a chance that he will have shenagigans called when appropriate.

So McCain continues to travel about and have his town hall meetings and what does it get him? A couple of sound bites on the evening news and an audience of carefully screened citizens who were going to vote for him anyways. If Obama had been there it would have been pre-empted TV for the entirety of the event...for free.

Oh, and clinton people and GOP trolls whose names I have come to recognize and ignore: Go ahead and open your wallet to retire HRH's debt and move on. This one is over for her. By the way, I could have sworn I heard her say she was going to vigorously work for a democratic win. Where has she been? Or was that promise to help another "mispeak".

McCain takes Romney as a running mate; Michigan votes red rather than blue (with some assistance from GOP operatives "suppressing the Detroit vote").

Obama absolutely shellacks McCain in the general election.

Michigan loses another chance to have a president that might care about their economic situation.

Michirrelevance continues.

It is hard to gauge how Obama might fare in a debate with McCain based on the primary debates. After the first few debates with other dems, the one-on-one debates with Clinton both covered a lot of the same ground that the previous had and made it difficult for either candidate to differentiate on positions. That doesn't make for good debate, that makes for arguing over the minutiae of policy differences and that is where it became more about issues of temperament and character.

Granted we seem to have come to the conclusion culturally that character and temperament trump all even though those are rather vague things to determine, especially in an area of performance like a debate. To some extent those things are important but we have made them overly so, as well as elevating pure self-interest in issues to overcome any sense of common good. But I digress….

Obama and McCain have significantly different positions on major issues. Both are reach across the aisle, compromising pols (so is Clinton btw, you need to be able to do that in the Senate which makes getting elected more difficult than from another exec position like governor) but they come from significantly different perspectives. There will be more red-meat to argue about. Whether we get to that, with idiot moderators who will likely be more interested in comparisons with debutants, is an open question.

In terms of the town halls I think Obama is wise not to cede too much ground to the McCain campaign. One danger is wear out- we have short attention spans and the multiple debates of the primary already had even political junkies whining (I’m sure they would have whined about too few debates too.) Another reason is simply because McCain wants this - maybe his campaign think McCain will come across better but maybe they also think he will look sympathetic if beaten up on policy (that is a real danger) maybe simply because they will have significantly less money in the general election. Whatever reason it is, they want it badly and that is enough reason - the Obama campaign needs to deny allowing them to determine terms and the narrative wherever they can. Standing up and refusing to debate on McCain’s terms will certainly give McCain something to complain about but it is important to remember that they will always find something to complain about and that it makes Obama look tough not caving to republican demands to prove himself on their terms.

I have an honest question: Why was it so important that MI and FL not get their complete delegations to the conventions?

And I have a follow up: Why is it less important today?

If it was important for moral reasons, for for reasons of consistency, or because of the importance of precedent and the DNC's ability to control the primary calendar, why are those reasons less important in August than they were earlier in the year?

I always believed in punishing state party leaders, but not the voters and citizens of those states. For example, strip their actual superdelegates of their tickets and given them to registered voters by lottery. But I was not in favor of diluting the importance of either state at the convention.

But the DNC disagree with me. The rules committee took a different course of action. Which, I suppose, was their right, even if they were wrong.

How do I know that they were wrong? Well, they've corrected themselves. Apparently, THEY thought that they were wrong.

So, why was it so important that MI and FL not get their complete delegations to the conventions? And why is it less important today?

It would have been nice to have the less structured 'town meeting style' discussions. It could be to Obama's benefit using this strategy, but his campaign is the only thing that gaines from it. The rest of us lose. We lose the opportunity to get a real feeling of where these candidates are coming from, unencumbered by rigid debate formats and talking points. I'm kind of surprised McCain even brought up the idea, considering he obviously has the 'less than inspirational' speaking style. Makes me wonder what Obama's afraid of. After all, McCaines supposed to be the doddering old fool, right?