August 2, 2008 Obama agrees to three debates with McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama apparently isn't taking up John McCain on his proposal for a series of joint town-hall appearances before the political conventions.

Instead, the Obama campaign says he's agreeing only to three standard face-offs proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The first debate would be September 26th. The other two are set for October 7th and October 15th. A vice presidential debate would be held October 2nd.

Obama's campaign manager says the short period between the last political convention and the first proposed debate makes it likely that those three will be the only debates.

In May, a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention town hall meetings, and Obama called it "a great idea."

The Obama camp later suggested modeling the debates on the historic Lincoln-Douglas style. In 1858, during Abraham Lincoln's Senate campaign against Stephen Douglas, the candidates met seven times across Illinois. One spoke for an hour, the other for an hour and a half, and the first was allowed a half-hour rebuttal.