BATON ROUGE, La. — John McCain asked Barack Obama to join him in 10 town-hall meetings with voters in the coming months, and their campaigns began negotiations to make it happen.
“We need to now sit down and work out a way that we can have these town-hall meetings and have a great debate,” McCain said, suggesting the first meeting be June 12 in New York.
Campaign managers for the two sides later spoke by phone and agreed in spirit to participate in joint town-hall appearances, McCain’s campaign said.
“I don’t think we need any big media-run production, no process question from reporters, no spin rooms,” McCain said. “Just two Americans running for office in the greatest nation on Earth, responding to the questions of the people whose trust we must earn.”
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said his team might recommend an exchange more in line with the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates. In those 1858 Senate debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, a candidate spoke for an hour, the other for an hour and a half, and the first candidate was allowed a half-hour rebuttal.
