It seems John McCain is anxious over Barack Obama's ability to connect with voters and make news. Check out these events from the last few days:

Here is Barack Obama, in church on Father's Day, calling on fathers, especially African American fathers, to be there for their children.

( it already has close to 40,000 views on Youtube.)

Here is Barack Obama calling for help on behalf of the victims of the midwest funding. He also flew in, helped out , and used his campaign organization to get people to help:

And on his front page you see this:

And what is John McCain up to? On his front page it has a long list of Finance Events. He is also hosting town hall Meetings with the campaign helping to select audience members, which isn't what they were claiming it was going to be. Even Fox News called them on it.

So, is it in Barack Obama's best interest to be at every meeting that John McCain wants to hold? Most likely not. But it might be in our nation's best interest to watch them debate each other many times.

I think both campaigns should compromise. Barack Obama's campaign has already agreed to a total of 5 events between here and the election in November. Maybe he should add in one or two more events. Having a weekly event over this summer is a little too much and it is an attempt to get Barack Obama out of the type of campaigning he has been very effective at thus far.

Now that I have said all of that let's take this to the local level.

Of course Rep. Elton Gallegly is the heavy favorite to win. But wouldn't it be great if he participated in at least 1 event with his opponent that was focused just on their race this summer? A town hall forum where the audience could ask questions of them and a recording would be broadcast on cable?

What about Hannah Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland? What excuse do they have for not meeting at least once a month to answer questions from the audience or a panel? Do you think it would be good for democracy to watch them debate their different visions across our district?

To make the events fair I don't care who they ask to moderate them. The Acorn? The Star? League Of Women Voters? A Rotary Club? What about other elected officials? Maybe even no moderator at all but instead a Lincoln Douglas type event where each candidate gets a few minutes to talk and they switch back and forth for an hour?

If enough people show their interest I will invite both campaigns to debate and report back which campaign refuses to debate.

I like the no host format so neither campaign can argue they don't think the moderator in unfair.

I haven't seen Hannah Beth Jackson in a debate or speak before a large audience but I have seen Tony Strickland do it a few times and he seems well practiced at it. I know his critics doubt him but his public speaking skills are pretty good. He can read an audience better than many local politicians.

What do you think? Should they do monthly debates across the district?