Debating From the Domestic Front

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Senator Barack Obama’s rebuff of town-hall-style debates makes iron-clad sense to his political strategists. Why play to the supposed strengths of his opponent, Senator John McCain? But why is Mr. Obama is still hedging on Google’s invitation to a debate in New Orleans fed by text-messaging questioners and YouTube aficionados. That would certainly seem to play to Mr. Obama’s considerable strengths.

The Big Easy is a campaign poster for the Bush administration’s sorry domestic record. The inspiring locale — and the Internet denizens who helped make the Obama candidacy — should be irresistible for a debate before a live audience in the heart of the city.

Mr. McCain’s campaign has accepted the offer, obviously anxious to further disown the Bush record. But the Obama campaign is still in we’ll-get-back-to-you mode.

Mr. Obama complained when New Orleans was callously rejected by the formal bipartisan panel, dominated by party wheel horses, that decided sites for three postconvention debates. Here’s a chance for the two finalists to show that they know better and pencil in an evolutionary twist on a tired format.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/opinion/23wed3.html?th&emc=th