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

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.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)