McCain gets to do the folksy humorist, which he is good at.

Barack needs some more coaching before he agrees. IMO.

Folks tune out in the summer.  I think the format sounds reasonable and eliminates TM douchebags who fundamentally ruined most of the debates for both Clinton and Obama.

After last night's speech by McCain, and he's repeated gaffes over the last several weeks, I think one or two town fora would be great.

It wouldn't be reasonable for any candidate to expect to get to dictate the exact terms for debates.  And hitting Obama on not accepting exactly what is offered has been tried already.  It sure didn't work in Wisconsin.  That kind of thing cuts both ways because they may hit you as being chicken but if you agree to whatever they want you actually prove that you are.  

I wouldn't worry so much about the format.  Obama is so beyond McCain at grasping the issues and understanding what needs to be done right now.  He's also just way the hell more charming, which counts in the town hall thingies.  I've been in the room and seen him take questions and he's far more effective than the conventional wisdom of the campaign has held.

McCain says things about how wrong Obama is on foriegn policy.  Try doing that on the same stage with him.  He's just going to ring McCAin's bell with it because, of course, the majority of Americans know full well that Obama was right and McCain was wrong on the biggest foriegn policy decision of our time.  

He's going to be able to talk circles around McCain on just about everything and do it with a smile.

Why not?  The more often we get to watch Obama shred McCain, the better.

Obama aide Bill Burton, a campaign source says, went downstairs in their Chicago offices just now to collect a hand-delivered copy of John McCain's invitation to Goldwater-Kennedy-style debates with Obama.

"You know, you could have just emailed this," a somewhat puzzled Burton told the middle-aged messenger.

The generation gap seems to be playing out at a lot of levels here, and come to think of it, it's striking that the McCain debate proposal includes nothing that couldn't have been done in the Goldwater days, and no nod to the existence of the Internet.

Politico

I'm mixed on this, but certainly against so many.  Here's why:

It's just free advertising for John McCain.

He'll have less money to spend, he's less dynamic, and he's already proven he can't bring in the big crowds.  In several, fundamental ways, Obama would be doing McCain's job for him by allowing such unprecedented equal time, by bringing in his huge crowds, and would neutralize some of his own advantages in those respects.

If Obama wants to do the debates, fine--but something far less than 10.

Still, it would be entertaining as hell...

Not till after the convention, and not in any format designed by the McCain campaign.

Remember, after Wisconsin, Clinton wanted a debate per week on Fox.  Obama understandably said "no dice."

I think that these would be great opportunities to highlight their differences, but 10 is too many, and having them weekly would, more importantly, take away about a seventh of Obama's travel and rally time.  

Meeting people in person is far more effective than seeing them on TV, in terms of creating a depth of support that Obama relies on.

It's hard for me to believe that McCain actually wants to stand on stage next to Obama so many times.  I know Obama had some on and off performances with Clinton in the debates, but John McCain is no Hillary Clinton.  She's infinitely more compelling intellectually, rhetorically, and aesthetically.  I gotta think that if Obama prepares properly (and I don't doubt he would) McCain's appeal would erode faster than a mudslide in this context.  So I wonder whether this is a grab for press attention, inserting McCain into a news cycle (as he tried to do last night) with the idea that something in the offer would compel a refusal.  Plouffe's response was pitch perfect here.

The problem with having a huge number of debates is that they get repetitive and tiresome, voters lose interest, and Obama, in this environment, would lose message control (this would be like watching an hour of commercials on tv).  Two or three, sure, but what McCain is trying to do here is get Obama to forfeit one of his big advantages (his ability to articulate a succinct message).  On the other hand, have my doubts McCain wouldn't finish this marathon looking like the tired old man he basically is, but still don't think Obama should agree.

It would give McCain a lot of free air time we don't need him to have. McCain is old, and being that campaigning is not conducive to him, we need to keep him there.

A few thoughts:

1. This is McCain's attempt to take Obama off the road, as much as possible.  The longer Obama spends in a state, the better he tends to do.  So, McCain wants to take him out of traditional campaigning to spend time at TEN SHARED EVENTS.

2. June 12th?  That's awfully soon, and I'd imagine that the next week will be a lot of GE planning, discussions with party leaders, and whatnot.  So, this strikes me as McCain demanding a meeting at a time when a.) Obama will be unprepared or b.) will have to refuse, thus allowing McCain to continue with the "why won't be debate?" stuff.

3. That aside, I still like the idea.  I don't know about TEN of them, and I certainly don't like starting in a week, but I think there is a benefit to doing these sorts of things and the democrat (small d) in me loves this sort of thing.