More McBush Wankery From "The Old Gray Lady"

So Adam Nagourney tells us here that that “straight-talking maverick” submitted the idea of participating in his beloved “town hall” forums with Barack Obama to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

And…

Mr. Obama initially seemed enthusiastic about the idea when it was floated by Mark McKinnon, an adviser to Mr. McCain, as it became clear in early May that Mr. Obama was going to win the Democratic nomination. “I think it’s a great idea,” Mr. Obama said at the time. And for just a moment last spring, it seemed that voters might actually in be for the different kind of political campaign that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have both promised but, arguably, have yet to deliver.

The idea slipped away, though, after what appeared to be a half-hearted response from the Obama campaign. Mr. McCain wanted to hold these town-hall meetings every Thursday until the Democratic convention at the end of August — about a dozen of them in all. The Obama campaign countered with an offer of five — but that included the three debates the two men were already scheduled to hold in the fall, meaning that Mr. Obama was really only agreeing to two of the sessions that Mr. McCain proposed. And the Obama camp wanted one of the two to be held on July 4, a day when Americans could be expected not to flock to their televisions.

I guess Nagourney is also on the staff of the Nielsen ratings company…

Mr. Obama’s aides insisted that he really did like the idea, but that his time was better spent directly talking to voters and preparing for his convention and the fall campaign. The town-hall meetings would eat up hours of preparation time, and the Democrats noted that Mr. McCain was able to claim his party’s nomination long before Mr. Obama could his, leaving Mr. McCain with plenty of time to do the preparation Mr. Obama is doing now.

That sounds like a reasonable position as far as I’m concerned.

Continuing…

Bill Burton, Mr. Obama’s press secretary, blamed the breakdown on the McCain campaign, for failing to embrace the counter-offer Mr. Obama made. “The McCain campaign didn’t respond to our last proposal, except to reject it through the media,” he said. “They were much happier to play the politics of these joint appearances. Given what we have in the weeks down the road, we’ll see what the schedule dictates.”

Mr. McCain’s aides scoffed at that, saying that what Mr. Obama — despite his initial enthusiasm — was offering was nothing like what Mr. McCain had suggested.

OK, so what we have here is basically some political gamesmanship going on. However, Nagourney follows up with this (more of the dreaded “conventional wisdom,” of course)...

Mr. Obama’s advisers suggest that one reason he has been avoiding town-hall matchups is because they play to Mr. McCain’s strengths.

Uh, didn’t Obama present a counteroffer that McBush ignored? Doesn’t sound to me like he “avoided” him.

This column is pretty much a rehash of every “McBush/town hall forum/likes the interaction/plays to his strengths” column we have ever seen so far and probably will see far into the future.

Well, for the reality perspective, here is Rachel Maddow once more interviewing Josh Green from The Atlantic.



Update 7/16/08: Ad Nags just can't stop wanking.