Barack Obama's latest negative poll trends have apparently caused Obama's campaign to invoke Obama's favored strategy for Iraq - RETREAT! Obama is now reneging on his prior acceptance of McCain's invitation for a series of town hall meetings.

Immediately upon Obama's securing of the Democratic nomination with Hillary Clinton's concession, Senator John McCain issued an invitation to him to meet for a series of town hall meetings. Senator Obama accepted the invitation. It is important to note that the format for these town hall meetings was simply to put Obama & McCain on the same stage, where the attending members of the American people could ask questions of the candidates, without the questions being screened. No Teleprompters.

On Saturday, in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the short period between the last political convention and the first proposed debate made it likely that the commission-sponsored debates would be the only ones in the fall.

"We've committed to the three debates on the table," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday in an interview. "It's likely they will be the three appearances by the candidates this fall." The first debate planned by the commission is set for Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss., three weeks after the Republican National Convention concludes Sept. 4.

Obama clearly does not do well in impromptu speaking situations without a helpful liberal media news groupie or a teleprompter.(Did you see Brokaw's interview of Obama on "Meet the Press"??) So combining Obama's recent problems with the polls, as the American people become familiar with his extreme liberal stances and ever-increasing flip-flops on positions, and McCain's better off-the-cuff speaking style (creditability and honesty just comes through) the conclusion is that Obama has everything to loose and nothing to gain by exposing himself to open questioning by the American people next to McCain.

Hope? Change? No more "politics as usual"?

It sure looks like Obama's handlers are hoping that the situation doesn't change in that they can continue to play political games by hiding the real Barack Obama from the American people, who they hope are going to be ignorant and vote for a celebrity. Americans often confuse celebrity with competency - Let's hope that changes!