NEW YORK — Microphone in hand and surrounded on all sides by friendly inquisitors, Republican Sen. John McCain called on a man in the back row of New York’s Federal Hall on Thursday night and waited for another opportunity to demonstrate his mastery of the off-the-cuff answer.
“We’ve got to put our country first and not our party first, and too many people have that reversed,” McCain told the man, who asked about how he would break Washington gridlock. “And by the way, this is not a cheap shot. It’s a matter of record. . . . You put your finger on what has to be done. Yes, there’s going to be a change in Washington, but will it be the right kind of change or the wrong kind of change?”
This is McCain’s arena of choice — the town hall — where years of mixing serious answers with flip comments and the occasional sarcastic insult have become his trademark as much as the smartly crafted speech in front of thousands defines his rival, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Now, the McCain campaign sees town halls as a necessity, hoping the old-style format will serve as a counterweight to the rhetorical chasm between his stilted and sometimes awkward speechmaking, and Obama’s often rousing delivery.
McCain, R-Ariz., has dared Obama to join him at 10 town-hall meetings during the next 10 weeks, answering questions from a few hundred undecided people at a time. The campaign hopes voters will see McCain as the more informed candidate, with a better command of the nitty-gritty issues that presidents face.
But the risks are huge for McCain. He is essentially betting the presidency on a series of side-by-side performances with his rival in a largely uncontrolled environment.
On his own, town-hall audiences are generally filled with Republicans, most of whom are supporters and often allow him to joke or finesse his way out of tough answers. The dynamic with Obama would be different, with a more skeptical audience and his chief rival on stage with him ready to challenge his answers.
The Obama camp appears in no hurry to give McCain an edge.
“I think that it’s not realistic to do all 10, given all the campaigning that I have to do since we just finished our primary election,” Obama said Tuesday.
