You can hardly blame Barack Obama for trying to avoid John McCain's challenge of appearing together at 10 Townhall forums between now and election day. Without his precious teleprompter and script, the candidate would no doubt make an idiot of himself. But the tepid response of the Obama camp to McCain's idea is even worse:Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain squabbled over a format for their first one-on-one debate in the U.S. presidential race, as both pushed their economic plans amid fresh reports of surging inflation and sagging wages.Obama on Friday rejected McCain's proposal for 10 joint town-hall appearances, question-and-answer gatherings before small audiences that the Republican senator tends to favor. The Democrat has performed best at massive, emotional rallies drawing tens of thousands of people.Obama has offered to meet McCain in five joint appearances between now and the Nov. 4 election, but only one of those would be town hall-style and it would be on the...(Read Full Post)