The Washington Post's David Broder suggests a pair of recent strategy decisions could prove troublesome for Barack Obama. The first was Obama's turning down McCain's invitation to join him in a series of town hall meetings where they would appear together and answer questions from real voters -- without a formal agenda, press panel or professional interviewers.  The second was his rejection of public financing for the general election campaign.

NBC's First Read weighs in on the topic, saying that with Obama so unknown still, is it good for him to be ducking town hall meetings and deciding to fund his campaign privately? The more he does things that give the appearance of just another politician, doesn't that undercut the delicate nature of his fresh face image? It's the talking point of the weekend by McCain surrogates, and it could be one that's effective, says NBC's online newsletter.

Broder writes that Obama's manager initially called the town hall idea "appealing," but nine days later, David Plouffe said that in addition to the three traditional debates under official sponsorship later in the fall, there could be only two others -- one on economics on July 4 and another on foreign policy in August. The McCain side said that few Americans would sacrifice their Independence Day holiday to watch a debate and reiterated its offer to meet Obama anywhere he wanted on any of the next 10 Thursdays.  But Team Obama later declared the discussions closed.

Obama supporters, as Broder points out, note that town halls are McCain's favorite campaign settings, so it's no surprise he prefers them to formal speeches, where Obama excels. They point out that public financing helps McCain, who has lagged all year in his private fundraising, while it would inhibit Obama, who has tapped into a rich vein of small contributors using the Internet.

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