Barack “The One We Have Been Waiting For” Obama has decided to take a pass on any town-hall style debates with John McCain. Quite frankly, it’s a no-brainer for Sen. Obama.

First, let’s dispense with Barack Obama’s most obvious rationale for doing so: when you’re ahead in the polls, (even barely, as of this writing) you give your opponent as few chances as possible to catch up. For many of his supporters, and no doubt his campaign managers as well, this is all that matters.

But this isn’t a typical presidential campaign between an incumbent and a challenger. Both men are challengers, and as such the American public ought to be as informed as possible about each of them before November.

Therein, however, lies Sen. Obama’s Achilles Heel. He doesn’t want the electorate to know Obama, the man. He believes they should cast their votes based on Obama, the image. Image allows for all sorts of political positions, even those that are diametrically opposed to each other, as his recent “vacillations” on energy policy indicate. And an in-the-tank mainstream media can always “rehabilitate” image.

Obama, the man however, is quite vulnerable. How vulnerable? Ask yourself this: would Barack Obama even be the Democratic standard-bearer for president if Hillary Clinton hadn’t completely blown the question about driver’s licenses for illegals asked by the late Tim Russert? In that moment, Hillary Clinton’s “inevitability” was completely undone. Such is the ability of one gaffe to completely alter carefully construed perceptions.

And that was a media-controlled environment. Town-hall style debates? No TelePrompter. No media moderator like Chris “Tingle Up My Leg” Matthews. Just ordinary Americans asking questions. Questions that might completely flummox. Questions that might elicit the “anointed one’s” now-famous stammer. Questions that could ultimately reveal the huge chasm between Obama’s image and his substance.

This is not to say John McCain would shine. His temper, stubbornness, and less-than-stellar command of the facts would also be on display for everyone to see. But McCain, for all his warts, is up to the challenge. That Obama is not is telling. He apparently believes the less people know about Obama, the man, the better.

Can the Senator continue to run–and hide–at the same time? He seems to think so. What about you?

atahlert@comcast.net

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