Barack Obama is definitely afraid of the Town Hall Meeting format. His campaign has rejected John McCain's challenge to meet in 10 Town Hall Meetings between now and the National Conventions at the end of August. Obama's counter-proposal was for five "joint appearances," which would include only one Town Hall Meeting, the three already-scheduled Presidential Debates, and one in-depth Debate on Foreign Policy - all between now and November.

In other words - Obama is a coward. He knows he is not the same person when he cannot hide behind his teleprompter and a speech someone wrote for him (or lines he lifted from someone else's speech). Obama smugly feels he has the upper-hand right now, so why give McCain a chance to take him to the woodshed in the Town-Hall Format. McCain should continue to challenge Obama to meet him at Town-Hall Meetings all the way to Election Day. Obama thinks he has the election in the bag - but his cowardice just may come back to haunt him. McCain needs to make sure it does.

Presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain have failed to agree on joint town hall appearances.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a statement Friday that he offered to meet McCain in five joint appearances between now and the Nov. 4 election. But only one of those was a town hall meeting.

McCain wanted them to appear together in 10 town hall meetings that would be unscripted with questions from voters in the audience.

Obama preferred one town hall, plus three traditional debates and an in-depth debate on foreign policy.