ON McCAIN AND TOWN HALLS

Kevin at Rumproast:

Isn't the prevailing notion that McCain's great during town halls a bit of a myth, eagerly propagated by Our Stupid Media, as well? Sure the McCain of several years ago may have shined during them, but his town halls that I've seen during this election season aren't all that. He has looked stiff, awkward, humorless and unconcerned.

I question the conventional wisdom for a different reason: in the McCain town halls we're all talking about, he's had no opponent. Sure, he may have taken a challenging question or two, but he was the only big dog in the room. It's going to be different with Obama there -- McCain may still have the advantage, but it's not going to be the same kind of event he did in the first part of the campaign.

It makes a difference to have a real opponent -- as I said before the first debate in the comments to this post, we couldn't that assume Obama would be all nuance versus McCain based on his Democratic primary debates, for the obvious reason that McCain, unlike Obama's Democratic opponents, actually has serious policy differences with him. And that turned out to be true -- Obama was much less nuanced and much sharper. So don't assume this is just a McCain town hall and an Obama town hall -- it's a contest. That matters.