McCain is trying to make Obama walk his walk
The McCain’s campaigns idea of asking Obama to do joint town-halls with McCain—first floated by Mark McKinnon to New York Magazine back in2006—is a win-win for them and a lose-lose for Obama. If Obama refuses, he dents his own image of not being a conventional party hack and ticks off the press, not only would these events be good for democracy they’d be great to cover. But if he agrees, he’s just signed up to play on the turf that is most favourable to McCain and least favourable to Obama. McCain thrives in town hall meetings—he seems to draw off the buzz of not knowing what will happen next, while Obama always seems slightly uncomfortable and has a tendency to ramble.
So far, Obama and his campaign are making warm noises about the idea but not committing. The problem for them is that the press and the McCain campaign aren’t going to let them kick this offer into the long grass.